Clearwire is scaling back the company's LTE ambitions in light of the industry landscape shift caused by the Sprint SoftBank deal. The company had originally stated that they'd have 5,000 cell cites upgraded to LTE by the middle of 2013, but they're now trimming that number back to 2,000. The announcement comes on the heels of Sprint's acquisition by Japanese carrier SoftBank, and rumors that Clearwire will ultimately be acquired by Sprint. Filings earlier this month also stated Clearwire was giving itself additional room to delay their LTE build.

"We want to make sure our LTE network is built in conjunction or alignment with Sprint introducing devices capable of using it," Clearwire CEO Erik Prusch stated on a conference call discussing the company's third quarter earnings. The company insists they're on pace to have 800 TD-LTE commissioned sites by the end of this year, and 2,000 sites deployed for the company's promised June 2013 LTE launch.