By the end of the year, LTE will be available in some cities in Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia, the company said.

U.S. Cellular says users should expect downstream speeds between 3Mbps (bits per second) and 6Mbps, lower than the figures listed for LTE by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. U.S. Cellular has less spectrum to work with than those carriers do, so its network is likely to deliver slower speeds.

The carrier is completing its LTE rollout in partnership with King Street Wireless, which owns spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band, prized for its long-distance propagation and ability to penetrate walls.

Verizon Wireless launched its first LTE markets in late 2010, and AT&T kicked off its service last September. MetroPCS, much smaller than those carriers, actually beat Verizon to market with LTE when it turned on a network in Las Vegas in September 2010. Sprint Nextel offers 4G WiMax service now through partner Clearwire but plans to launch an LTE network later this year.

The IDG News Service