Verizon Wireless this week provided further details on timescale for deployment of its LTE network. In a conference call Wednesday, chief executive Lowell McAdam said the network will launch commercially in 20-30 markets in the second half of 2010, with nationwide buildout complete in late 2013 to early 2014. Meanwhile, PC Mag reports that a small group of Verizon testers will get access to LTE this year, with the operator turning on one “pre-commercial” network on the east coast and one on the west coast during 2009.

Verizon also said it expects average speeds on the network to be between 8Mb/s and 12Mb/s downstream, faster than Sprint’s WiMAX network but much lower than the ‘theoretical peak’ speeds previously touted for the network. Earlier this week Verizon Wireless said it will use Gemalto’s over-the-air platform and microprocessor smart card to manage customer information exchanges on the LTE network, and also selected Giesecke & Devrient to provide Java-based SIM cards for devices. Verizon could become the first commercial LTE operator in the world. US rivals AT&T and MetroPCS are planning to launch LTE networks, in 2011 and 2010, respectively.