Despite the economic downturn, the company is sticking to its goal of having its network cover 120 million people by the end of 2010, said Chief Executive Benjamin Wolff, in a statement.

The company may still speed up or slowdown the buildout depending on the economy, he said.

The network will also extend to the Las Vegas, Seattle, Honolulu and Charlotte areas this year, with New York, Boston, Washington, Houston and San Francisco following next year.

The network is based on the WiMax technology, which offers higher speeds than current cellular broadband networks, but that gap is shrinking as carriers are upgrading. Its already active in Baltimore and Portland, Ore. Clearwire also operates an older wireless network in some areas.

Clearwire was formed last year by the merger of a smaller company of the same name with Sprint Nextel Corp.s WiMax division.

Clearwire raised more than $3 billion from partners that include Google Inc., Intel Corp. and several cable companies to finance the buildout, but many of these companies have been forced to write down the value of their investments as Clearwires stock has tumbled.

The Kirkland, Wash., companys stock fell 28 cents, or 8.5 percent, to $3 in Thursday trading and lost 7 cents after-hours.

The company expects there to be nearly 100 devices with built-in WiMax capabilities by the end of the year, including laptops and handheld computers. Right now, there are none on the U.S. market, after Nokia Corp. withdrew its WiMax-equipped tablet computer.

Also Thursday, Clearwire posted a loss of $118 million for last years fourth quarter, on $20 million revenue.

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