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So it’s the end of the year, which means it’s time to weigh in on what the top 10 stories for the wireless industry were. Here’s my two cents:

1. Verizon Wireless’ (VC) LTE rollout. It simply ushers in a new era of connectivity by the nation’s largest operator, which has the marketing muscle to whet consumers’ appetites for mobile broadband.
2. The National Broadband Plan, which promises to unleash another 500 megahertz of spectrum.
3. The rise of  smart phones and tablets. As an aside to this is the growth of the Android platform and Motorola Inc.’s  (MOT) turnaround in device sales.
4. The  “50 billion connected things” prediction from Ericsson, which even if it is more of a marketing slogan than an actual  prediction, points to the potential of machine-to-machine connectivity.
5. Prepaid growth.
6. Sprint Nextel Corp.’s introduction of the HTC Corp.  EVO handset. Probably more important than the actual device is the accompanying advertising campaign, which showed consumers what 4G devices can do.
7. Net neutrality adoption, which took up a lot of time in D.C., but which likely won’t have too broad an impact on the mobile space.
8. LightSquared’s plans to bring LTE to rural America under a wholesale model that combines terrestrial- and satellite-based communications. Regardless of whether this is successful, it shows people are still willing to invest billions in wireless and was a big win for Nokia Siemens Networks.
9. Clearwire Corp.’s rollercoaster year, including good growth, high debt, layoffs and a potential to change its technology.
10. India’s 3G and BWA  spectrum auctions. Wireless companies have been waiting for years to see this spectrum sold and the accompanying plans for buildout. The surprise that Qualcomm Inc. bought enough spectrum to thwart hopes of a WiMAX buildout brought an unexpected dash of drama to the auction.
    So what did I forget? Apple Inc.’s antenna-gate was fun, but didn’t have any impact on the industry in the end. And AT&T Inc.’s network problems were well-documented in 2009. It seems like China should be somewhere on the list as well, but I think that country probably will get even more attention in 2011.