U.S. Cellular plans to conduct LTE trial in the first quarter of 2010.  Operator is looking ahead for wide-scale deployment of LTE in 2012 reports Fierce Wireless.

At a Media & Telecom Conference in New York City Steven Campbell, U.S. Cellular's executive vice president and CFO, said that the carrier will launch one LTE test market late next year.

U.S. Cellular had revealed earlier in August this year that it was working with multiple vendors on development trials for a 4G LTE network.

Based in Chicago, the carrier is the nation's sixth-largest wireless carrier and serves 6.2 million customers across the country.