The HTC Thunderbolt is one of 10 devices introduced at this afternoon&39's press conference. Pictured here is HTC's Peter Chou.

Editor's note: This live event has concluded, but as expected, Verizon took the stage to unveil a range of new 4G devices, including the LG Revolution, HTC Thunderbolt, and Samsung Smartphone. For a brief rundown of what was announced, check out our summary post here. You can also replay our live blog in the Cover It Live module below.

LAS VEGAS--Verizon Wireless will be hosting a press conference here Thursday afternoon at CES at which it's expected to introduce its first 4G smartphones.

The carrier, which is the largest wireless operator in the U.S. in terms of subscribers, launched its highly anticipated 4G wireless network in December. But for the past month, the company has only sold laptop cards for the super-fast network, which uses a next-generation networking technology known as Long Term Evolution, or LTE.

This will be Verizon's second big event of the day. This morning, CEO Ivan Seidenberg and other top executives took the stage for a keynote address to the CES crowd, where message was: it's all about the network, and specifically Verizon's new 4G LTE broadband infrastructure.

In addition to a slew of new 4G smartphones from makers, such as LG, Samsung, and HTC, the company is expected to say more about the Xoom tablet PC from Motorola. All the new 4G devices that are expected to be announced use Google's Android operating system.

CNET will be live blogging the press conference starting at 1 p.m. Thursday. Tune in if you want to get a jump on the news. You can sign up below for an e-mail reminder.

Verizon Wireless CES 2011 press conference

Editors' note: The original, pre-event version of this story was published January 5 at 1:00 p.m. PT.