In a recent announcement which underscores the fact that Verizon Wireless is apparently set to surpass its year-end 4G target, the bigwig US carrier has revealed that its 400th 4G LTE market will be launched two months ahead of schedule --- on October 18!

According to the announcement, the 400th market in which Verizon will roll out its high-speed 4G LTE service next week will be Marquette, Mich. In addition to Marquette, the carrier's 4G LTE services will be available to as many as 21 new markets on the same day, October 18.

With the forthcoming rollout schedule implying that Verizon would have rolled out its 4G LTE network in a total of 417 markets on October 18, it is clear that the carrier will beat its year-end goal of expanding 4G LTE to 400 markets.

However, despite the rapid strides which Verizon has taken in the direction of rolling out 4G LTE to over 400 markets by 2012-end, the carrier will still stick with its target of completing the full upgrade only by the year-end; thereby making its 4G LTE coverage comparable to its existing 3G network coverage.

Noting that the data used by the 4G LTE service users is nearly two-fold more than that used by their average 3G counterparts, Nicola Palmer - Verizon's VP of network and its chief technical officer - said 4G is "really transforming how we communicate, live, and work."