Verizon has formaly announced to launch LTE in 38 major metropolitan areas, covering more than 110 million Americans, by the end of the year. This announcement beats its own prediction of 25 to 30 market in 2010.

Although Verizon is a year late in LTE party but has beaten everyone on having largest LTE coverage. In addition to cities, the company is launching 4G LTE in more than 60 commercial airports coast to coast.

Verizon CEO said yesterday, "with our initial 4G LTE launch, we will immediately reach more than one-third of all Americans where they live, right from the start." See below the announcement video

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.

See below the list of metropolitan area to have LTE in initial deployment

• Akron, Ohio 
• Athens, Georgia 
• Atlanta, Georgia 
• Baltimore, Maryland 
• Boston, Massachusetts 
• Charlotte, North Carolina 
• Chicago, Illinois 
• Cincinnati, Ohio 
• Cleveland, Ohio 
• Columbus, Ohio 
• Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Dallas, Texas 
• Denver, Colorado 
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida 
• Houston, Texas 
• Jacksonville, Florida 
• Las Vegas, Nevada 
• Los Angeles, California 
• Miami, Florida 
• Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota 
• Nashville, Tennessee 
• New Orleans, Louisiana 
• New York, New York 
• Oakland, California 
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 
• Orlando, Florida 
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
• Phoenix, Arizona 
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
• Rochester, New York 
• San Antonio, Texas 
• San Diego, California 
• San Francisco, California 
• San Jose, California 
• Seattle/Tacoma, Washington 
• St. Louis, Missouri 
• Tampa, Florida 
• Washington, D.C. 
• West Lafayette, Indiana 
• West Palm Beach, Florida