On Thursday, Verizon Wireless will light up 34 more small cities and towns with LTE, bringing its 4G coverage to three-quarters of the U.S. population. The network will then be live in 371 markets, just 29 communities shy of its 2012 400-market goal. Verizon also said it would expand its existing coverage on Thursday in 38 other market, and though it didn’t reveal an exact number of POPs covered, the U.S. Census pegs the current population at 314 million, meaning Verizon has placed at least 235 million people under its 4G umbrella. The carrier’s year-end target is 260 million POPs covered. Read the full story at GigaOM.