In terms of the total number of residential and commercial broadband subscribers, Time Warner Cable ranks as the third largest ISP in the United States,  And in terms of high-speed subscribers, Time Warner said it just recently hopped over the 10 million subscribers mark. That might sound like reason to celebrate if you have a vested interest in Time Warner, but is everything as rosy as it seems?

You won't find any sissies in Clearwire's camp preaching about keeping expectations low and hopes high, or however the saying goes. We're bigger fans of Vince Lombardi's words of wisdom, like the one that asks "If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?"

Perhaps Clearwire feels the same way, because when the company conducts its 4G LTE technology trials later this year, they're not merely hoping for favorable results, Clearwire "expects [the trials] to yield unmatched wireless speeds in the U.S."

"Clearwire’s unmatched spectrum and all-IP network make us the only service provider in the U.S. able to conduct tests of this nature and on this scale," said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s chief technology officer. "As we have consistently stated, we remain technology agnostic, but WiMAX provides us with unique advantages to meet the needs of our customers today. Ultimately, consumers don’t care about technical acronyms, but they do care about quality and affordable Internet services that work where and when they want, and that's what we're focused on delivering. Part of our technical due diligence at Clearwire is to be prepared to leverage a number of possible opportunities as we future-proof our network, and that’s the goal of these tests."

Clearwire is certainly talking the talk, saying it fully expects the technical trials to show its 4G network using LTE technologies dominating what's available from any other operator. But can the company walk the walk? We'll find out soon enough, as the tests are expected to take place in the fall and throughout early 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona.