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Sprint's transition to LTE is already hitting Clearwire, which saw lower rates of customer additions than in previous quarters, even as Verizon's quarter revealed a rising level of LTE uptake.

Sprint will not launch its own LTE networks until the second half of this year (with four early switch-ons around midyear), and will continue to include with its Clearwire venture - itself transitioning from WiMAX to LTE - in its 4G plans. But despite the hiatus period involved in that double shift, the carrier has already said it will not add any new WiMAX devices to its Sprint 4G brand (although it has shown off a multimode LTE/WiMAX personal router). The effect on Sprint 4G, one of the few highlights of the cellco's postpaid business, will be seen when it announces its own quarterly results, but for now Clearwire, which relies heavily on the Sprint MVNO deal, offers some clues.

In its fourth quarter, Clearwire added a net total of 900,000 wholesale customers, down from 1.9m in Q3 and 1.5m in Q2, though it doubled its revenue from $181m in the year-ago quarter, to $362m, topping analyst expectations.

By contrast, Verizon Wireless, the firm which quickly killed the advantage of Sprint/Clearwire's 4G headstart with its aggressive LTE strategy, had a fourth quarter in which LTE and iPhones were the key mobile performers, even as co-parent Verizon Communications swung to a loss because of pension liabilities.

The mobile arm, a joint venture with Vodafone, sold over 2.4m LTE devices during the quarter. It said it would have 24 LTE products available by the end of this quarter, up from 18 at the start of 2012, and it now covers 195 markets, compared to AT&T's 26.

Its other big seller was the iPhone 4S, of which it sold 4.3m, though the Apple handset is, of course, still confined to 3G, probably slowing the migration of Verizon's customers to its new, more efficient network. There are other downsides to the huge popularity of the iPhone, notably the high cost of its subsidies, which Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said had squeezed margins. He had warned earlier in the month that strong iPhone sales in Q4 would result in a 500 to 600 basis point decline in wireless margins. And Verizon Wireless had to spend money on "3G capacity requirements driven by the Apple iPhone," Shammo added.

Despite the iPhone, total smartphone sales of 7.7m units fell short of many analysts' estimates, even though they accounted for 70% of all postpaid devices sold and now make up 44% of Verizon Wireless' postpaid base, up from 28% a year ago. Walt Piecyk, an analyst with BTIG, told Bloomberg this reflected a shift from Android to Apple at Verizon, and commented: "This is a little surprising during a holiday period, especially given all the marketing around 4G phones." He had forecast smartphone sales of 9.2m.

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