Verizon Wireless said that it is planning to expand its LTE network into an additional 140 markets by the end of 2011, following its initial launch of services in December 2010. The company’s rollout plans match those announced recently by AT&T, with the top-two US operators both set to have essentially completed deployments by the end of 2013, with the pace growing rapidly this year. Tony Melone (pictured), EVP and CTO of Verizon, said that “we will aggressively continue launching 4G LTE markets over the next 36 months. We’ll cover two-thirds of the US population in the next 18 months, and by the end of 2013 we’ll offer our 4G LTE network from coast to coast – everywhere that we offer 3G today.”

Supporting the buildout of the network, Verizon announced a portfolio of ten consumer-oriented LTE devices, which it said will be available “by mid-2011, with some available as early as March 2010.” In addition to the previously-announced Droid Bionic smartphone and Xoom tablet from Motorola, it will offer LTE smartphones from HTC (ThunderBolt), LG (Revolution) and Samsung (so-far unnamed); an LTE variant of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet; two notebook computers from HP; and mobile hotspot products from Novatel and Samsung. Also trumpeted were an upgraded version of the Skype app which will add video capabilities to the IP telephony software. The app will be “deeply integrated into a wide range of 4G smartphones to be available by mid-2011.” Verizon and Skype announced a partnership in 2010 which saw the Skype app embedded in a number of the operator’s 3G devices.