We can hear you now: Verizon LTE to go live next year

Verizon's Executive Vice President and CTO Dick Lynch yesterday said LTE is expected to launch in the US approximately one year from now.

The Third Generation Partnership Project's Long-Term Evolution, otherwise known simply as LTE, is the 4G iteration of GSM technology. Companies are beginning to show off their developing hardware platforms, but LTE has not yet been standardized and still generally considered to be in its infancy.

Top US wireless carrier Verizon announced its support for LTE nearly two years ago, and despite the numerous hurdles that must be passed before even the first deployment, a Verizon executive yesterday said we will begin to see LTE in service in 2009.

In the wake of LG's LTE unveiling yesterday, Executive Vice President and CTO of Verizon Communications, Dick Lynch discussed the standard at the at C-Scape global forum.

Lynch said, "We expect that LTE will actually be in service somewhere here in the US probably this time next year." This would be remarkably early even for a launch, as 2010 was the earliest prior estimate.

Lynch went on to discuss how the LTE rollout will incorporate femtocell access points, "A femtocell of LTE or an access point of Wi-Fi is a really critical component of the way customers want their broadband delivered." Femtocell devices behave like miniature cell towers, and are offered by Sprint for extending CDMA signals in the home. AT&T has reportedly been testing the technology as well, with executives from that company saying yesterday that it plans to roll out expanded femtocell tests in more US markets next year.