Verizon is turning up the heat on its LTE rollout, planning to expand the 4G service to over 147 markets by the end of 2011. The wireless carrier launched LTE in December of 2010 and has blanketed 39 markets with this high-speed mobile broadband service. Verizon added 59 new markets to its tally of LTE cities yesterday at CTIA, a list that builds on the 49 markets announced earlier this year at CES. Verizon’s 4G network promises to deliver download rates of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload rates of 2 to 5 Mbps.
The HTC Thunderbolt is the first smartphone to take advantage of the higher data speeds promised by LTE. The Thunderbolt debuted on March 17th and includes a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, 1 GHz single-core Snapdragon processor, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video recording, 1.3-megapixel camera, 802.11n WiFi and LTE connectivity. The Thunderbolt is available now for $249 with a two-year customer agreement and requires an unlimited data plan costing $29 per month.
Verizon’s full press release and its list on launch cities is available on page two.