Verizon Wireless CTO Richard Lynch said that he will announce vendor selections for the operator's Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

Lynch dropped this little bombshell on Monday during a presentation at the Silicon Flatirons' Digital Broadband Migration event at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, according to an RCR Wireless report.

Lynch said Verizon was in the final stages of selecting vendors and that he will announce his choices next week.

"We're actively planning to deploy a network that will coexist with our existing 3G platform," he said. "I've told those vendors they need to be up and running this year."

Verizon has been testing LTE equipment in a joint trial with Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD). Unstrung has reported that, while it is a collaborative project, Vodafone is testing equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), and Nokia Networks , while Verizon is testing equipment from Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), and Nortel Networks Ltd. . (See Huawei Joins Vodafone LTE Trial.)

Unstrung cannot confirm whether this trial setup is any indication of Verizon's vendor choices.

This is an important deal for any of the big mobile equipment makers, because Verizon is one of the biggest operators leading the LTE charge. But the deal is critical for Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel. As Verizon's main incumbent CDMA suppliers, this is their deal to lose. (See Hail Mary: Chan Takes 4G Helm at AlcaLu and Nortel Keeps LTE Dream Alive.)

You can see footage of Lynch's announcement, straight from the horse's mouth, right here.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung