Sprint Nextel's methodical rollout of new cell sites with LTE may not win the deployment race, but each market that gets the upgrade will see competitive speeds and more complete coverage than other carriers may offer, executives said Wednesday.

Clearwire will launch its LTE network early next year with service in high-demand "hot zones" in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, the company said on Thursday as it announced its first-quarter financial results.

Sprint Nextel has terminated its 15-year spectrum-hosting agreement with LightSquared, eliminating the would-be wholesale mobile operator's main carrier partnership even as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission seeks to shut down its network plans.

LightSquared suffered another blow to its hoped-for wholesale 4G mobile business on Wednesday as budget carrier Cricket announced it will use Clearwire to flesh out a planned LTE service.

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Clearwire exceeded 10 million subscribers in the fourth quarter but still needs to raise more money to build its planned LTE network, a task that could be funded in part by an upcoming US$300 million stock offering.

Clearwire will test its LTE network in two U.S. cities and China Mobile will build test networks in select Chinese cities early this year to foster development of a global ecosystem for the version of the technology they will be using.