Verizon helps U.S. rule global LTE market with half of all connections

Verizon Wireless maintained its lead as the world's largest LTE operator during the second quarter of 2012, helping the United States top all other markets with 47 percent of global LTE connections, according to Wireless Intelligence.

South Korea took second place in global LTE connections with 27 percent while Japan had 13 percent. Global LTE connections topped 27 million at the end of the second quarter, up from around 10 million at the end of 2011, said Wireless Intelligence. For the second-quarter of 2012, Verizon reported 3.2 million new LTE device activations, giving it a total of 10.9 million LTE connections. South Korea's market leader SK Telecom and NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest operator, both announced last week that they had each surpassed 4 million LTE subscribers.