The carrier said it ended 2009 with access to US$3.8 billion in funds, compared with US$3.1 billion at the end of 2008. Clearwire managed to secure nearly US$3 billion in new funding during the fourth quarter of last year, with a substantial portion coming from its wholesale partners. Clearwire's management said the carrier was still on track to cover up to 120 million potential customers by the end of 2010, including service launches in many of the nation's top 100 markets including New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Houston; the San Francisco Bay Area; Denver; Minneapolis; and Kansas City. Clearwire is hoping that its choice of WiMAX technology for next-generation US networks will give it a head start over mobile operators AT&T and Verizon, which are due to launch LTE networks from later this year.