VERIZON WIRELESS 4G LTE NOW AVAILABLE TO HALF OF US POPULATION; AT&T NOT SO MUCH

Verizon Wireless on Thursday announced that its lightning fast 4G LTE network now covers more than half of the U.S. population. We have repeatedly called Verizon’s LTE network the fastest cellular network we’ve ever used, and the fact that the carrier has been able to roll it out so quickly with only a few hiccups is nothing short of impressive. ”In eight short months we’ve introduced our 4G LTE network to more than half of the U.S. population, while continuing to offer the nation’s most reliable 3G network coast to coast,” said David Small, chief technical officer of Verizon Wireless, in a statement. “This matters to millions of Americans because they can take advantage of faster 4G LTE speeds both at home and when they travel throughout the country – today and in many more markets to come this year. Each new market and expansion is significant as it brings us closer to delivering on the promise to bring our 4G LTE network to more than 185 million Americans by the end of 2011.”

AT&T on the other hand has just started deploying its LTE in a limited number of markets.

AT&T'S LTE NETWORK 2 - 3 YEARS BEHIND VERIZON'S SAYS CEO

Speaking during a D9 press event in California on Thursday, AT&T Mobility’s CEO Ralph de la Vega said it will take AT&T between 2 and 3 years to bring its LTE network coverage up to a par with Verizon Wireless’ 4G offering. AT&T has already announced that it plans to deploy its 4G LTE network to five cities this summer, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

However, Verizon’s network is already available in 55 markets, it plans to deploy in 23 more this month, and the carrier has promised full 4G LTE coverage across its current 3G network by the end of 2013.

According to CNN, Ralph de la Vega said AT&T “can’t say when” its 4G network will match Verizon’s but said “in the next two to three years they will probably be indistinguishable.” The carrier also reaffirmed that if its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile is approved, customers should see a large improvement the in overall quality and reliability of AT&T’s service.

RUMOR: XBOX 360 UPDATE COMING MAY 19TH

An internal document leaked to Joystiq looks to confirm that the big Xbox 360 spring update will hit on May 19th. However, it'll come in six "separate groups" to "ensure a high quality deployment," so you might not get it until the end of the month, and everyone will have to wait until May 27th to get Avatar Kinect. What else is new? Well, there'll be the slightly larger disc format and support for PayPal, opening the door to a bold new world of personal finance information able to be hacked from your console.

iOS 4.2.1 RELEASED TODAY

Apple is today rolling out iOS 4.2 to iPads and qualifying iPhones (3G, 3GS and 4) and iPod touches (second, third and fourth generation) across the globe, delivering the long-awaited multitasking and app folder enhancements to a tablet that was already supposed to be magical and revolutionary. [Engadget]

VERIZON TO OFFICIALLY LAUNCH LTE IN DECEMBER

Verizon Wireless has been talking about their next generation wireless network, LTE, for quite a while now. At CTIA they announced LTE would not be available until 2011, however according to a new commercial, Big Red will be lighting up at least portions of the LTE network in December!  Now we just need to know what devices Verizon will have to take advantage of all that next gen goodness.

WiMAX 2 SHOULD BE FINALIZED IN NOVEMBER

The WiMax 2 wireless standard (802.16m) should be finalized in November.  The new standard was expected to reach speeds of 120Mbps downstream and 60Mbps upstream.  However, Samsung showed off a television, at CEATEC Japan 2010, running on WiMax 2 that reached download speeds of 330Mbps.  It is highly doubtful real deployments will see that speed though.  Deployment for commercial use is expected to start at the end of next year.  Clearwire, the U.S.'s largest WiMax provider, has stated they are in no hurry to test the new standard. [BBR]