AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless are adding to their 4G markets, but Big Red is maintaining a solid Long Term Evolution (LTE) lead over all others in the U.S. right now.

Ma Bell said Thursday that it has launched LTE markets in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area in Florida and in Durham, N.C. The carrier says it has now got LTE live in 28 markets.

By contrast, Verizon says it now has 196 markets running. The company added Cookeville, Tenn. to its list on Thursday and expanded service in Little Rock, Ark.; Rapid City, S.D.; Clarksville, Tenn. and San Antonio, Texas.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), meanwhile, has said that it will have six major LTE cities up by the middle of this year.

To get a sense of where all this LTE is going, here's LR Mobile's map of 2012 LTE market additions and expansions, with the new towns and cities added. Verizon is in red, AT&T in blue and Sprint in yellow.


View Q1 2012: New LTE in the USA

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Follow LTE's progress in the U.S. in 2012:

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile