AT&T at CES today announced that the company would be speeding up their LTE deployment, and will be launching their LTE network sometime in the second half of this year. According to a presentation at CES given to developers, AT&T says they'll be supporting roughly twenty new "4G" devices before the end of the year, which could technically mean HSPA+ or LTE, given 4G's new, almost-meaningless definition, courtesy of the ITU and mobile carrier marketing departments. Expect confusion on that front to be heavy among CES press reports.

An AT&T press release offers only slightly more information, noting that they expect the LTE build to be completed by the end of 2013. The company also proclaimed that they've completed their HSPA+ "to virtually 100 percent of its mobile broadband network," so if you're still stuck in an EDGE-only market things likely won't be changing anytime soon.

According to AT&T, "recent tax law incentives, along with other policy developments" (read: AT&T's victorious efforts to ensure no network neutrality protection for wireless networks) are what AT&T claims drove the company to speed up their LTE plans. We'd guess that Verizon's massive recent LTE launch covering 38 markets (a third of the country's population) and 60+ airports likely played a bigger role.

So far there's no word on pricing or caps for this new network, and while AT&T says more information on the new LTE network will appear via this website later today, AT&T likely hasn't yet determined their pricing strategy yet.