Wuh oh – looks like it’s time to start sweating for Xohm Clear. According to Verizon VP/CTO Dick Lynch, the first rollout of Verizon’s 4G offering should go down sometime in 2009:

“We expect that LTE will actually be in service somewhere here in the U.S. probably this time next year.”

While the “this time next year” bit technically only pins things a month earlier than the expected roll-out time of 2010, a month is a real long time in the mobile world. Each month, thousands upon thousands of contracts reach their end, making the competitor’s offerings a whole lot more intriguing for the now unshackled mobile consumers. With Clearwire already rolling out the 4G goods in a limited number of cities, getting LTE up and running a month earlier might just save them some customers.

[Via Phonescoop]