US WiMAX service provider Clearwire remains bullish on its plans for 2010, expecting subscriber numbers to triple this year, after it posted a 34 percent year-on-year increase in revenues for the fourth quarter from US$59.7 million in 2008 to US$79.9 million in 2009. It recorded a loss of US$98.7 million, or 55 cents a share, in the period. A year ago, when Clearwire closed its merger with Sprint Nextel’s WiMAX assets, the company posted a loss of US$118 million. The improvement in performance during the fourth quarter was aided by growth in subscriber numbers. In the period, Clearwire added 87,000 net retail subscribers, up from 5,000 from a year ago. It ended the year with a base of 688,000 customers. The number of wholesale customers, which were signed up through partners such as Sprint, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, went from zero to 46,000. The average monthly bill rose to US$39.86 from US$39.70. For the full year, Clearwire’s losses remained relatively stable, moving from a loss of US$314.1 million pro forma in 2008 (a loss of US$1.73 per share), to a loss of US$325.6 million in 2009 (a loss of US$1.74 per share).

Clearwire’s capital expenditures also surged during the fourth quarter from US$83 million in 2008 to US$767 million in 2009, reflecting the increased build out of its network. The carrier said it ended 2009 with access to US$3.8 billion in funds, compared with US$3.1 billion at the end of 2008. Clearwire managed to secure nearly US$3 billion in new funding during the fourth quarter of last year, with a substantial portion coming from its wholesale partners. Clearwire’s management said the carrier was still on track to cover up to 120 million potential customers by the end of 2010, including service launches in many of the nation’s top 100 markets including New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Houston; the San Francisco Bay Area; Denver; Minneapolis; and Kansas City. Clearwire is hoping that its choice of WiMAX technology for next-generation US networks will give it a head start over mobile operators AT&T and Verizon, which are due to launch LTE networks from later this year.