Verizon looks towards five 4G phones by May 2011

The push for 4G technology is certainly on the fast-track, and sure enough, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam confirms that the largest wireless carrier in the United States is on track to launch, potentially, a handful of LTE-based devices within a year’s time. The company’s plans for Long Term Evolution, on the network side, has been consistent with their plans, so as long as the handsets can match the launch of the network, Verizon could easily be the leader in the 4G market sooner than later.

McAdam was speaking to investors recently, and he said that Verizon would have somewhere between 3 to 5 handsets launched by May 2011, all connected to the 4G network. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to confirm which companies out there would be the ones behind the LTE handsets, but he did say that “all the major manufacturers we’re talking to today are making the transition to LTE.” So, we can probably safely assume we know who the heavy hitters will be, but perhaps there could be some underdogs that rise to the occasion, too.

Additionally, McAdam mentioned that Motorola, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics were all on board for being the companies that would supply the wireless carrier with LTE-based tablet devices. More interesting, though, is that Verizon plans to have these up and ready to go by the end of the year. As it looks from our perspective, that means Verizon could have at least a couple of LTE-based handsets, tablets, and a 4G network expanding to anywhere between 25 and 30 markets by the end of 2010. With an estimated 100 million people covered, this could be a huge increase for the wireless carrier’s customer base.