ATLANTA (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 U.S. wireless service, has seen interest from other cable television companies wanting to join its venture with four cable TV providers, its top executive said Monday.

In November Sprint (Research) revealed a $200 million venture with the four operators - Comcast Corp. (Research), Time Warner (Research) Cable, Cox Communications Inc. and Advance/Newhouse Communications - to combine cable TV and wireless services.

The venture is aimed at helping cable companies, which now provide telephone and Internet services as well as TV, compete better with regional telephone providers, which are starting to sell television services in some markets.

Other cable companies are also hoping to become part of the venture, Sprint's Chief Executive Gary Forsee said.

"There are others in the cable industry ready to sign on," Forsee said at the annual cable show sponsored by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

He did not name the others.

Forsee also repeated Sprint's plans to spend about $7 billion this year on its wireless services. The budget includes about $6.3 billion on network equipment and about $800 million of costs related to an airwaves swap Sprint is undertaking.

"We're going to spend $7 billion this year to improve and create a better mobility experience," Forsee said in a panel discussion at the conference.

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