US operator Verizon Wireless today announced plans to rollout the world’s largest LTE network to date, promising to launch the next-generation technology in 38 major metropolitan areas by the end of the year and cover a population of more than 110 million. These numbers are an increase on the operator’s previous commitment to 25-30 markets, and 100 million POPs, by year-end. In addition, the largest US operator will also launch LTE in over 60 airports nationwide.

“With our initial 4G LTE launch, we will immediately reach more than one-third of all Americans where they live, right from the start,” said Lowell McAdam, president and chief operating officer of Verizon. “And, we will quickly introduce 4G LTE throughout the Verizon [3G CDMA] coverage area.” McAdam said the carrier will expand the network to 200 million POPs by 2012 and more than 285 million by 2013. The network is being built by Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson.

In a statement, the operator noted that initial launch will cover “large sections of the Northeast Corridor, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. as well as Rochester, New York; Throughout Miami and south Florida, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and New Orleans as well as Charlotte, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee; Chicagoland, St. Louis, the Twin Cities, Pittsburgh and major cities in Ohio; and Major population centres in California as well as Seattle, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas.” A full list of all metropolitan areas and airports is available here.

Although Verizon is not the first operator to launch commercial LTE networks (that award goes to Europe’s TeliaSonera, followed by a number of Eastern European operators as well as US carrier MetroPCS), its plans are certainly the most extensive and will be closely watched by the global mobile industry.

Verizon is marketing the service at enterprise users, businesses and consumers, touting “significantly faster speeds and improved latency.” The operator expects average data rates to be 5-12 Mb/s on the downlink and 2-5 Mb/s on the uplink “in real-world, loaded network environments.” It is being deployed in Verizon’s large swathe of 700MHz spectrum. Specific launch dates and pricing details were not revealed. On the subject of pricing, Verizon is expected to move from an unlimited download model to tiered tariffing.

Verizon said it will have around half a dozen LTE smartphones and tablets available in the first half of next year, meaning that initial access is likely to be via USB sticks, dongles and datacards. Yesterday Verizon’s major rival AT&T unveiled its first ‘LTE-ready’ USBConnect laptop stick, in preparation for its 2011 deployment of LTE.