Clearwire, the new 4G wireless broadband company formed by Sprint Nextel, Clearwire and a handful of partners, expects to have 1.3m US subscribers by the end of next year, growing to 4.6m in 2010, and is forecasting revenue of over $17.5bn by 2017.

Clearwire’s bold ambitions for its proposed nationwide US network based on WiMax technology, were set out for the first time on Thursday by Benjamin Wolf, chief executive.