MetroPCS launched LTE services in Las Vegas in September this year and became first USA operator to offer commercial LTE services. Verizon is on track for LTE launch in December. Since my last blog on state of LTE allot has changed in LTE world. More operators have shown considerable interest in deploying LTE and have detailed out the plans. A summary of LTE commitments and status of USA operators are followings.

Aircell - Launch 2011

Aircell, a provider of broadband wireless services to commercial and private aircraft, plans to deploy LTE in 2011 to boost the capacity of its CDMA EV-DO network.

AT&T - Trials 2010/ Launch 2011

AT&T is currently trialing LTE in Baltimore and Dallas, with commercial deployment scheduled to begin in 2011 using 700 MHz and AWS spectrum. AT&T has selected Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as equipment suppliers for the planned deployment of its higher-speed LTE mobile broadband network.

BayRICS - Launch 2011

Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) vision was established by the 10 Bay Area Counties and three core cities, of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose in 2006 through the creation of a strategic plan with the goal of providing voice and data interoperability throughout the Bay Area region. Bay Area Wireless Enhanced Broadband (BayWEB) is the broadband component of BayRICS. BayWEB has acquired 700 MHz in which an LTE-based public safety system will be deployed. BayWEB, utilizing existing public safety radio system assets, will be built, owned, operated and maintained by Motorola. It is targeted to be operational in early 2011.

Cellcom - Planned LTE Deployment

US regional carrier Cellcom servs customers throughout the Wisconsin and Michigan areas and  deploying an LTE network. Cellcom is currently deploying the Bridgewater EPC for IMS femtocell services and for the launch of LTE broadband services.

Cellular South - Launch Q4 2011

Cellular South has acquired 700 MHz spectrum for Mississippi and Tennessee and most of Alabama and plans to deploy LTE in the future. Cellular South has picked Samsung to build a LTE network and plans to launch in the fourth quarter of 2011. Cellular South plans to launch LTE service by the end of 2011 using voice-over LTE (VoLTE) and continue to expand availability across its 700 MHz footprint in 2012.

CommNet Wireless - Trial Q2 2010 / Launch 2011

CommNet Wireless plans to build LTE network spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. CommNet  Wireless has contracted with ZTE to deploy a test LTE network. Its LTE network will provide fixed and mobile service to over 30,000 households (approximately 135,000 people) and 1,000 businesses in 15 of the largest communities in the Navajo Nation, including Window Rock, Shiprock, Kayenta, Chinle, and Tuba City. In addition, the project will provide high capacity connectivity on the combined middle-mile backbone to an additional 49 tribal communities.

CenturyTel - Launch 2010

CenturyTel plans to deploy LTE in 700 MHz from 2010. Last year CenturyTel had announced to deploy LTE to deliver high-speed access to its rural customers. Clearwire Clearwire is conducting technical trials to determine how it could potentially add LTE technology to coexist with WiMAX. 

Clearwire is currently trialling TDD and FDD in Phoenix, Arizona. Clearwire TDD trial has been reported in 20MHz of spectrum with peak downlink speeds of 50Mbps. While 90Mbps down and 30Mbps up has been reported in FDD using 40MHz of spectrum in paired 20MHz chunks.

Cox Communications - Trials 2010/ Launch 2010-2011

Cox has announced the LTE trials running on equipments from Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei in January using AWS and 700 MHz spectrum. COX Communications has deployed the CDMA LTE multi-mode trial using Huawei' s solution. Cox's LTE trials showed peak speeds of around 25 Mbps with 2x2 MIMO technology over a 2x5 MHz channel.

Leap Wireless - Planned LTE Deployment

Leap Wireless began testing LTE in June, earlier this year. Leap expects to begin broader LTE deployments in the next three to four years, starting with hot spot locations in high data-density market centers such as New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Lightsquared - Launch Q3, 2011

With an ambitious fast track deployment LightSquared is set to lanuch wholesale LTE services by middle of next year and expected to have 92 percent coverage of the United States by 2015. LightSquared network LightSquared will consist of 40,000 base stations.

MetroPCS - Comercial LTE Launched in September 2010

MetroPCS currently provides LTE services in five major metropolitan cities, including Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. MetroPCS intends to expand its 4G services into additional major metropolitan areas later this year and into early 2011, including Atlanta, Boston, Jacksonville, Miami, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, San Francisco and Tampa.

MetroPCS is launched LTE services in Las Vegas metropolitan area with Samsung Mobile LTE network products and has contracted Ericsson as the infrastructure vendor for its LTE network in Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. MetroPCS is currently offering the first LTE handset Samsung Craft in its served area.

Public Service Wireless - Trial 2010

Public Service Wireless has been trialing IPWireless LTE-based infrastructure solutions since March of 2010 and plans to deploy LTE in central and south-west Georgia.

Texas Energy Network - Planned LTE Deployment

Texas Energy Network has announced to deploy LTE to benefit Oil and Gas companies’ growing data requirements and held a demonstration in New Mexico in conjunction with Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year.

T-Mobile - Commitment to LTE

Unlike its competitors, T-Mobile USA does not own spectrum in the 700MHz band that is being used for the country's LTE rollouts and therefore has no LTE migration timeframe in place. 

Verizon Wireless - December 2010

Verizon has confirmed company’s LTE network launch in 38 major metropolitan areas in 700 MHz spectrum, covering more than 110 million Americans, by the end of the year.  Verizon Wireless has selected Alcatel-Lucent & Ericsson as providers of the LTE Radio Access Network (RAN). Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) will be provided by Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Starent Networks. 

Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens will be the primary suppliers for the IMS network. Verizon Wireless expects 4G LTE average data rates to be 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world, loaded network environments.