US wholesale operator Clearwire has signed up Leap Wireless on a long-term wholesale agreement to use its LTE network. Leap’s Cricket will use Clearwire’s network to complement the LTE network it is currently deploying.

The agreement runs for five years with Clearwire's network being used to provide capacity off-load services for Cricket. The deal makes Cricket the second operator to sign up with Clearwire to use its LTE Advanced-ready network, after Sprint.

"We believe this agreement with Clearwire provides us with an attractive option to supplement our own LTE build-out strategy and gives us the flexibility to access additional 4G capacity where needed as data-centric devices continue to become more popular," said Leap Wireless president and CEO Doug Hutcheson.

"The beginning of our long-term wholesale partnership with Cricket is a key step forward in the development of Clearwire's wholesale LTE business model," added Clearwire president and CEO Erik Prusch.

Cricket is planning to deploy LTE to around two-thirds of its footprint over the next two to three years and reach 25 million users in 2012. Financial terms of the deal were not made public.