I think it's probably a safe bet that whatever other carrier gets the iPhone, that carrier will be tested big time and I would expect a lot of the pitfalls and complaints that AT&T had.
That being said... what good is 7.2Mb/s when I can't even keep a steady signal? I keep seeing these speed numbers going up and being touted, but my network experience hasn't changed. It could just say 3G and run on EDGE and I probably wouldn't notice.