 Review by skeechan 
member for 1.1 years, 583 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 219 days ago
 Huntington Beach,Orange,CA
 $100 per month about 2 days "Very fast, available, $100 for 4G UNLIMITED! fixed + mobile Internet" "Needed outdoor antenna to get decent speed" "Only alternative is dialup or T1, CLEAR is a good deal"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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My small office is on a street in an industrial park where VZ hasn't trenched for FiOS or installed an RT. It also predates cable so our street never got trenched by the cable operator back in the day. I've been using a Megapath T1 for nearly 3 years and it has been a nightmarish experience, lots of downtime, horrible customer service, horrible tech support, worst of the worst. Since they were bought out by COVAD service has tanked and they pile on the junk fees. The alternative was a local WISP which isn't reliable and charges way too much.
Since CLEAR ditched their contracts I figured as the end of my Megapath contract approached I'd give them a try before pulling the ripcord on the T1.
ORDERING: I placed my order online like everyone else. The site was easy to navigate and placing my order was easy. Just plunk down the credit card and they Fedex overnighted my modem.
INSTALL: Install was simple but being in a concrete tilt up warehouse building reception was abysmal anywhere except near the windows. This was noted in the CLEAR FAQ but is still inconvenient. I selected my modem, the Motorola CPEi725 because on the logic board are antenna test ports that with an overpriced dongle can be connected to an external antenna. None of CLEAR's desktop modems (AFAIK) have external antenna ports which is dumb given indoor reception is already pretty bad. Just by the window I was able to get 18db noise margin which is pretty good but the speeds weren't very consistent, typically 1.5-3Mb. Much better than my T1. After putting up my -18db directional flat panel antenna on the roof my noise margin jumped to -28 to -30 and speeds are now constantly in the 10-13Mb range. I'm very pleased so far. Latency to the speediest.net test server I used was about 50ms which surprised me (lower than I thought it would be). The drawback of the dongle other than the price is that you can't put the case back together unless you drill a hole in it. I'm not going to bother and have just been running the modem with the case off of it.
CONNECTION RELIABILITY: I scored this a 3 since the connection with the modem by itself was pretty bad...better than nothing certainly but the modem really needs to use an external antenna to get reliable speeds. And I'm only about .5-1 mile from the tower so I can only imagine how bad the service would be for a rural person with the modem just sitting on their desk.
SERVICES: For me, I have really no other choice. Obviously I would have opted for Roadrunner Business or FiOS if they deployed here but I'm plenty happy with CLEAR especially given the dirt cheap $50 price. They FAP but despite downloading 93 GB last month doing an OS X Lion reinstall along with all my app store apps plus iTunes match downloads, I never saw it. I was very pleasantly surprised. That is WAY above my normal usage so I suspect I will never get FAPped now that things are back to 'normal' with my desktop machine.
VALUE: At $50 for 12/1Mb vs $425+junk fees for my T1, CLEAR is a steal.
Overall I would recommend CLEAR if you have no real alternatives. I would never consider ditching regular wireline service like cable HSI for it, but it is definitely better than satellite or dialup.
Just do your research, look at the CLEAR site for the tower locations and figure you will need an outdoor antenna to get the best service. Don't assume you can just drop the box on your desk and get 10Mb from it because it won't happen.
Service:
CLEAR Unlimited $50/mo
CLEAR Unlimited Mobile $50/mo
Equipment:
CLEAR-Motorola CPEi 725 WiMAX Modem for fixed wireless 12Mb/1Mb
CLEAR Spot 4G (Apollo) for mobile Internet Typical 8Mb/1Mb
Extra equipment for fixed wireless setup
Murata 81-mxhs83qe3000 test probe (pigtail for connecting my external antenna cable to the modem test port picked up from Mouser Electronics)
18dBi 2.5-2.7GHz WiMax flat panel outdoor antenna
N-Female to SMA-Male adapter (adapter for main antenna cable to the pigtail)
100FT N-Male N-Male low-loss cable (for the roof antenna to the modem)
UPDATE 20FEB2012: Since AT&T has seen fit to throttle my Unlimited 3G iPhone data plan to 56kbps after just 1.5GB I picked up a CLEAR MiFi type puck. So far so good. Speeds are not as good as my fixed modem-antenna setup but still faster than AT&T 3G and truly unlimited (for now anyway). At the gym for example where I use it with Slingbox and an iPad, I get 7-8Mbps and I'm very pleased.
UPDATE 9APRIL2012: Added photo of Murata test probe
UPDATE 31AUG2012: Since some trees grew in between my antenna and the tower, I added a larger 24db grid antenna to the second antenna port to restore my speeds. With 2 large antennas, my speeds are very stable and consistently above 10Mb down. External antennas are absolutely essential for decent reliable performance. I don't see how Clear could sell ANY modem like the Clear Model M without external antenna ports. That is simply dumb on Motorola's part. The internal antennas are virtually worthless. Without them, I'd be lucky to see 1Mb service if I was fortunate to connect to the tower at all.
Also in looking at my usage, I am very happy with the unlimited plan. For the past 3 months I've averaged 100-130GB/mo, mainly from streaming video while working.
I am still VERY please with Clear.
Attachments:
Comments:
 ernliz
join:2001-11-25
Albemarle, NC | Thanks An EXCELLENT review! Lots of fine info. | |
|  | | | Re: Thanks said by ernliz:An EXCELLENT review! Lots of fine info.
Agreed. Nice long review.
I'm debating whether to go with Clear or not at the moment. I'm so sick of Comcast and AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Their services are unreliable and they always mess up my bills. | |
| | | | | Re: Thanks said by AuraReturn:said by ernliz:An EXCELLENT review! Lots of fine info.
Agreed. Nice long review. I'm debating whether to go with Clear or not at the moment. I'm so sick of Comcast and AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Their services are unreliable and they always mess up my bills. Edit: I've decided to go with Clear. Why not...
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| | | Great post!
I would like to try the outdoor antenna if I can find someone to install that for me someday. | |
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1 edit | I did similar without the outdoor work. After reading this, I move the antenna to our highest spot at our second floor by the windows targeting the tower. I got 13 mbps most of time also. During busy hour, I still got 7 mbps in Los Angeles metro industrial area. we are about 1.5 miles away from tower where we can't see it.
Before, we only got from 3 to 6 mbps download when we put it at first floor by the windows. Since we catch similar to the outdoor antenna concept, our noise number reduce from -81 to -60 sometimes -56 range. At this point, out ping time to LA severs is like 76 ms compared to your 50s ms. I wished someone can go up to roof and set the outdoor antenna for me what can improve the ping as well as VoIP quality.
We use most of our phony business phone lines on Skype, Skype-In and Skype-Out with US numbers. For this setups, skype is fine; not fine with Good Voice though. We are experience iffy results with Good Voice due to internet line of quality on the SIP. I just can't work this out without landline based internet.
Again, great thought and review. | |
| | | I have clear and am very unhappy with it. We get kicked when ever we have 2 people using email or normal internet. If anyone wants to play a game they either can't get on or it's so laggy it wont work properly.
Also I have found out recently that Clear is run by the government and that they cap it so you can't really get the speed they promise. They are and have had lawsuits filed against them. Just search online for Clear Lawsuits and you'll see more than most people want to go through. | |
| | skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Clear Wireless
| Re: Clear LOL...couple of extra folds in that tinfoil hat. Perhaps that is the source of your modem's connectivity problems.
Clear isn't owned or run by the government. They are a publicly traded corporation owned mostly by venture capitalists and Intel.
»www.nasdaq.com/symbol/clwr/insti···holdings
Meanwhile just search for lawsuits for any ISP, Cox, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Cablevision, etc and you will find no shortage of them. There are no black helicopters flying over Clear. | |
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