With a series of launches today and yesterday, AT&T's LTE now covers 150 million people in over 100 markets — something that was originally projected for the end of 2012. LTE was rolled out today in Portland, Pensacola, and several other markets; yesterday, it was turned on in Minneapolis-Saint Paul as well. Seattle, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and others were launched in September, shortly before the iPhone 5's release. Today, AT&T said it was in 103 markets, compared to 53 in August and a mere 26 at the beginning of 2012, when it covered 76 million Americans.

Since the network first launched last August, AT&T has made clear its intention to catch Verizon, which recently said it would cover 260 million people by the end of the year. AT&T doesn't plan to reach that point until late 2013, and its rollout won't be completed until the end of 2014, a year after Verizon is finished. Overall, though, both these two companies and second-tier carriers like Sprint have made it clear that LTE for almost everyone is definitely on its way.