US number one operator Verizon Wireless is planning to roll out Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services nationwide in 2013, reports Light Reading Mobile. The operator has been trialling the IP Multimedia Subsystem-based technology in two markets for several months but industry sources say a wider launch is planned for next year.

Northland Capital Markets VP Catherine Trebnick said the company has plans to roll out the technology early in 2013. Another unnamed source supported this view.

Verizon Wireless previously said it would start to roll out commercial VoLTE in 2012. A Verizon Wireless spokeswoman told Light Reading Mobile that the company is continuing to work on VoLTE and “will share any launch or availability plans in due course.”

Meanwhile Verizon Wireless plans for its LTE network to cover its existing 3G footprint by 2013. This would make the introduction of VoLTE services more straightforward as it would avoid the company having to support handovers of VoLTE services from the LTE network to 3G networks when people move out of areas covered by LTE.

The operator has announced that its data-only LTE network now covers 200 million people in 195 markets in the US following the addition of five new markets and expansion in three others.

The five new markets are Glens Falls and Utica in New York, Lawton in Oklahoma, and Brownsville and McAllen in Texas. The network has been expanded in Atlanta (Georgia), Houston (Texas) and Spokane in Washington.

In other news, Reuters reports that Verizon Wireless and its partners Comcast and Time Warner Cable have agreed to give US regulators details of agreements for the operator to buy wireless spectrum from the cable companies, but have objected to requests for the information from rival operators Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA and cable company DirecTV.

The operator said it would spend US$4 billion on acquiring the wireless spectrum as part of broader agreements that include the formation of a joint venture and for the cable operators to resell wireless services. According to Reuters, Verizon Wireless and its partners said in a meeting with the FCC last week that the commercial agreements do not need to be part of the FCC review as they have “no bearing on whether the spectrum sale is in the public interest.”