US operator Verizon Wireless has unveiled its first TV commercial for its forthcoming launch of LTE services, now promised sometime next month. “Lightning Fast, Lightning Strong. Verizon 4G LTE. Rule the air on the most advanced 4G network in the world,” is the message.

According to the operator’s LTE website, the network will be available in 38 markets and over 60 major airports, covering approximately 110 million people, by the end of the year. The operator adds it is “aggressively expanding to cover our entire existing nationwide 3G footprint with 4G LTE by the end of 2013.”

Verizon always promised to switch on its network around the November-December timeframe, so is only missing its earliest suggested deployment by a few weeks. The operator’s plans will make it far and away the largest LTE operator to date, eclipsing TeliaSonera’s first-mover efforts (launched last year) as well as NTT Docomo’s December 2010 plans.

Verizon is promising speeds “up to 10x faster than 3G” (average download speeds of 5-12 Mb/s), which will enable the downloading of movies in minutes, photos in seconds, a song in 4 seconds, and the uploading of a 10MB PowerPoint presentation in less than 25 seconds.

Specific launch dates and pricing details are still not known. On the subject of pricing, Verizon is expected to move from an unlimited download model to tiered tariffing, which may be based on either download volumes or speed. Initial devices are expected to be USB dongles, although reports suggest a LTE smartphone could be unveiled as early as February 2011.

Meanwhile Verizon’s use of the term ‘4G’ will likely cause further confusion in the market, given that rivals T-Mobile and Sprint already claim that their use of technologies HSPA+ and WiMAX, respectively, are supportive of 4G. However, the true definition of 4G is IMT-Advanced technology, which won’t be commercially available for at least two years.