3:35 PM -- While much of the wireless industry has been watching Verizon Wireless and NTT DoCoMo Inc. (NYSE: DCM) in anticipation of their big mobile broadband upgrades to Long Term Evolution (LTE) later this year, two LTE networks have cropped up in Uzbekistan.

MTS Uzbekistan, a subsidiary of Russia's Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) (NYSE: MBT), launched an LTE network in the capital city of Tashkent at the end of last month, using equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

And UCell -- which is an almost entirely (94 percent) owned subsidiary of Telia Company -- has deployed an LTE network with equipment from ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763). (See UCell Tests 4G With ZTE and TeliaSonera Ups Stake in UCell.)

It's the first country where consumers will have a choice of two competing LTE networks.

The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) reckons there will be 22 LTE networks up and running by the end of the year. So where will the mobile broadband networks crop up next? (See GSA Updates LTE Network Investments.)

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile