Clearwire Pops 23% On Sprint Agreement

Clearwire shares shot up 23% in early trading after Sprint said it would support the wireless internet provider’s LTE� network buildout.

Shares of Clearwire were up 39 cents to $2.02 just after the open.

Sprint Nextel (S) is the majority shareholder in Clearwire (CLWR) but it hadn’t been entirely clear how Clearwire’s LTE rollout melded with Sprint’s network plans. Sprint reported early Wednesday that it narrowed losses in the third quarter thanks in part to 1.3 million subscriber additions. Sprint started selling the iPhone in mid-October, which could draw consumers from Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).

Sprint’s loss was $301 million, or 10 cents per share, versus a loss of $911 million, or 30 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.2% to $8.33 billion. Analysts were looking for 22 cents on revenue of $8.38 billion.

Sprint shares were down nearly 6%, or 15 cents, to $2.55 in early trading.

Our old pal Eric Savitz at Forbes quotes SprintCEO Dan Hesse as saying the non-binding Clearwire “deal covers the selection and timing site nodes and involving working with manufacturers to design devices and certain chip sets for devices.”