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 Review by el3ment000 
UPDATED: 42 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 137 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 West Linn,Clackamas,OR
 $50 per month
 "Customer service helped me in a timely fashion."
 "Not a reliable internet connection for home."
 "Personally, avoid Clear unless it's your only option"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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10/15/2009 - Canceling service.
I have found the best spot in the house. Had 4 bars, and the bandwidth seemed to be consistent for awhile. Sure enough, the first day it starts raining for fall I noticed a significant ping spike and degradation in signal. I was pinging everywhere, and it was apparent that the bottle neck is the stupid CPE and the ISP. I am tired of the countless hours I've spent trying to find the best signal spot to squeez the most bandwidth as I can. But then, when i needed to depend on my internet connection...Clear couldn't get the job done. Thanks Clear for your failed deployment. Your flavor of WiMax did not add up to all that hype.. I would much rather exchange customer service for some real internet any day.
9/8/2009 - Modifying it again for an even lower score... This connection is not reliable. Unfortunatly, this is my only option for internet (As in, i don't dare go back to EVDO or other bandwidth capped schemes)... If they don't fix things within a week.. I'm giving this company all 1's and will unfortunatly have to continue my love hate relationship with them.
9/5/2009 - I am modifying my review to reflect a smaller score. The reason I feel it should be smaller is because I have done countless hours to find the "5 Bar Nirvana.. I can get up to 4 bars right now, but the bandwidth seems to be inconsistent even with 4.. One morning i'll have 6-8mbps down... The other i'll have 1.5 to 2.. When i get slower speeds, the ping is still low, but every once in awhile i'll get packet loss or there will be a ping spike... This seems to go away when I have good bandwidth..So, when it's around 6-8 mbps the service is good..
Don't get me wrong, this company seems to be on the right track, but for users like me, I would hope that they have some kind of option for signaling boosts... I've been harrasing them about an external antenna or some kind device where I can customize the signal strength myself. Perhaps a directional antenna... As an ISP, Clear is not quite there yet, by my standards - but i see the potential.. I think it will get better as time goes on eg. expanding network, and/or having new CPE's on the customers premise that are customizable.
Original Review.....
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First off, i was a little confused on how this technology works. I thought it was going to be another EVDO service.. However, Portland is one of the few cities that has the WIMAX infrastructure. And the new Clear brand uses it..
So In April, I ordered their mobile service because their website prequal did not qualify my address for home service.. The order process was simple and quick. I received my modem, but I got a faint signal and It kept dropping.. I needed a home solution so i returned it until they extended service into my area.. They promptly refunded my money when they recieved the modem ..
A month later, I got a call from a nice representative asking how I liked the service and what was the particular reason I canceled service.. I told him that I liked the service (Cause it was screaming fast downtown.. 6mbps+) but it wasn't available at my house..
He then offered to come over to my house and troubleshoot with me using their home modem (That has a higher signal strenghth) to see if we can get a better signal..
I agreed. We made an appointment and he arrived 2 hours late, but he notified me that he was running late..
Sure enough.. We were able to get 5 bars of service at my house..I did a speedtest and it was just over 8Mbps.. Over 2Mbps the advertised speed.. I checked the latency and it seemed to be consistently between 50 - 85ms. The only downfall is that the modem has to be outside underneath the awning.. Because of that, I had to be crafty, and it took awhile to get it mounted.. But, that doesn't matter to me.. I'm consistently getting fast speeds with no interruptions so far.. It's like a wireless cable connection..
For that reason, i'm giving this company 5 stars all around.
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Review by rcrowley
UPDATED: 45 days ago
member for 324 days, 4 visits, last login: 45 days ago
Hillsboro,Washington,OR
$30 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
"Nice when it works"
"Decreasing speeds, erratic service"
"Doesn't live up to the hype, big dissapointment"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I signed up for the Mobile (4MBPS) Unlimited Service at the Clear kickoff event on Jan 6. I had been using Sprint EVDO, but with my Intel employee pricing, Clear WiMAX is 1/2 the price and 4-5x the speed. You can't hardly beat that combo.
After they got my account setup (overnight) I was up and running the next day with a simple driver installation and plugging in the USB RF modem dongle.
The dongle is a Motorola USBw25100 (i.e a USBw100 for 2.5 GHz). It doesn't use an internal battery like the Sierra Wireless 595U, and it is half the size, too. The Motorola unit gets rather warm, though.
I had some intermittent connection problems (connected, authenticated, but couldn't get an IP address) so they installed new firmware (in the dongle) and new software on my computer, and I haven't had the problem since (about a week).
It is excellent having much higher speed than EVDO (and dialup before that), but at the loss of coverage area (Clear vs EVDO). Clear coverage is pretty much limited to metro PDX, where Sprint EVDO has coverage across the USA (not wall-to-wall, of course, but in cellphone service areas.)
Their customer service (located in the USA) seems above average (but I've only called them twice). But they keep "bankers hours" which is inconvienent if you need help before 9 am, OTOH, they are open til 10 PM.
UPDATE: October, 2009: Speed keeps decreasing, signal strength varies from 2/10 to 9/10 at home. Download speeds rarely reach 2Mb, and upload 200K. This is way less than advertised (and I am paying for). Customer service is tied to lame scripts and cannot (or will not) provide any actual support.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Clearwire Wireless |
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 Review by pupowski
UPDATED: 47 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 2105 visits, last login: 22 days ago
Vancouver,Clark,WA
$22 per month
about 3 days
" customer service response time and low price"
"crappy reception"
"avoid,not worth having until technical issues resolved"
| Pre Sales Information:
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(ratings well below consensus)
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Signed on for 6000k, barely getting 600 with motorola surfboard modem, and spotty at that.USB modem reception is nil, even with four towers within 3/4 of a mile.Not worth having at any price here in Vancouver, Washington, a stone's throw from PDX Speeds have now dropped to 35/11, even with modem by outside wall. The service is useless.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Clearwire Wireless |
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Review by floydb_1982
UPDATED: 54 days ago
member for 5.2 years, 814 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Kent,King,WA
$48 per month
about 3 days
"It's super fast"
"N/A"
"Beat's DSL and Cable anytime"
| Pre Sales Information:
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I just can't get enough of Clearwire. The nearest Clearwire WiMAX tower that my modem connects to is only 0.68 miles away. The connection is super fast. I have never had a single drop in speed or a disruption in service at all. Every single day my speeds hang around 5Mbps/2Mbps with a 4.2ms ping even at night as well. Now Clearwire is getting even faster and better. There upgrading all of King County to 6Mbps/500Kbps 4G WiMAX. Thank god I made the switch from Comcast to Clearwire.
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Review by susanad813
Posted: 54 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 21 visits, last login: 54 days ago
Valley Mills,Bosque,TX
Contract price not specified.
"Great to have broadband out in the country."
"Drops off occasionally"
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It's great to finally have broadband access this far out in the country. However, over the last few days service has been dropping off several times a day. I see no pattern. It's up now while the weather is horrible, but was down part of yesterday while it was clear and sunny out. *shrug*
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Review by nocigar
UPDATED: 57 days ago
member for 79 days, 17 visits, last login: 42 days ago
Portland,San Patricio,TX
$60 per month (24 month contract)
"Ease of setup. Friendly Support ."
"Very inconsistent, very slow, higher latency,"
"If you want consistency or if you have another alternative, do not buy"
| Pre Sales Information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I've had the service now going on 4 weeks. Bear in mind, I have the fully unlimited service.
In a nutshell the speed has been all over the place since day one. I saw 6mbps once or twice and that was it. Beginning 9/4/09 it has been HORRENDUS. Speeds are now a constant sub-1mbps and at times worse than 384k DSL. It's truly a terrible experience because on top of the reliability/connectivity issues, I'm paying $55/month for an "unlimited" service which does not even approach the same galaxy as the lowest 1mbps tier that costs around $25 per month, and is more like the $12 DSL service offered by SBC/yahoo....
Tech support, while helpful and dilligent on the phone, seems to be very backed up outside the call center. I've had a speed-trans ticket open with clear for around 2+ weeks now and have done nothing but talk to level 2 tech support, which I had to call a couple of times because they never called me back (when the Clear rep told me they would), and rule out my PC. They keep saying "it's a tower issue, and it's been referred to the RF guys". I get the feeling that there is a serious problem with their service given the reviews I see here and also since they are SO swamped that it's taking them over a week to fix a problem at one tower. Absolutely nothing has been fixed and it's going on a week. This apparently is not an isolated incident. Even though the service was nowhere near an "unlimited" state when I got it, it seems to be 100% broke now. Amazing how a company can go live with so much hoopla and come up so short on quality.
I was told that my trial period is not going to begin until everything is fixed and that the first month of service will be comped, so I'll bear with them another weekend.
9/13/09 -
Early this morning around 1am I had lightning fast. Was getting close to 1.0Mb/s downloads @ about 7.5 mbps... Even checked the speed again at about 2:30pm and was going strong. However by about 4pm it had slowed to a crawl at under 1mbps again. This is piss poor.
10/1/09
Well last night was about the last strike. Apparently, the credit I was due for the first month that I pre-paid did not get applied and received a collection call. Service is canceled and I'm waiting for the UPS labels to send all the equipment back.
This is to say nothing of them throttling upload speeds to 500k when the advertised and billed speed is 1mb. Very shoddy, and very misleading.
One bright spot though, the cancellation process was not tough at all. I think they got the jist of my frustration and didn't stonewall that much. No issues with getting out of the 2 yr contract or getting credit back for the first month.
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 Review by SnowyOne
UPDATED: 61 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 3697 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Kailua,Honolulu,HI
$29 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Installation was as fast & easy as plugging in a modem"
"Very odd signup procedure"
"$10 bucks cheaper per month than hawaiitelcom's DSLR service"
| Pre Sales Information:
(ratings well below consensus)
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Total bullshit re the signup process.
Signed up for 'basic service" at $29 month
Been getting billed for 'enhanced service" for $39 month.
It was no accident, the sales rep BS'ed me & now the CSR's are BS'ing me.
Their service is not worth $39 month. I can get hawaiiantelcom dslr for $39 month.
The idea was they would be $10 cheaper. The $29 service is throttled down but that would be fine, RoadRunner handles my heavy traffic so I didn't need a fast service.
Clearwire will be deceptive so approach with care or go somewhere that doesn't lie so much in your face as they do.
Update: I've gotten over the price deception & the speeds/conectivity have improved.
Rural (home) areas do not get adequate signals, so it's not really a take wherever you want plugin modem because it doesn't work in all areas. Beware of that.
03-23-09 Service to my residence is dismal even though 2 yrs ago I was told it would be improving 'shortly'
The service at the office has become dependable, no issues whatsoever there.
Service at my residence ~2 miles away remains dismal to nonexistent.
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Review by davidgreig
UPDATED: 62 days ago
member for 9.3 years, 610 visits, last login: 32 days ago
Mableton,Cobb,GA
$55 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"quick connect, high DL speed"
"upload speed was changed from 512k to 1meg the day after i signed, can't get 512k up even though i live .2 miles from tower"
"good speed for my money, since i live under a tower. mobile is convenient and fairly reliable."
| Pre Sales Information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I spoke with a reseller about getting clear (pick 2 unlimited) and was told that the nearest tower was .19 miles from my house, assuring me a good signal. The next day, he delivered my WiMAX modem and USB modem. Testing them out in the kitchen, I was able to get 7-8 down, around 400-500 up according to speedtest.net.
I then permanently relocated the modem in an upstairs window on the side of the house facing the tower. Since then, I regularly get 7-10 down. I have occasionally gotten bursts as high as 18 up. Download speeds will burst to about 700k, but then they drop down to about 300-400 as if some kind of shaping is going on.
Sustained upload speeds have been around 300-400k (as measured by a download from a local site to my IP).
I have had no outages to speak of. My only complaint is that the day after I signed up, CLEAR switched to a plan that was a few dollars more expensive per month but allowed upload speed of 1meg. I asked my reseller and was told that CLEAR would be reprovisioning my line, and not to call support as they would likely try to switch me off of my "guaranteed rate for life" plan. This was 2 weeks ago, and my uploads speeds have only declined slightly.
Mobile access is good. I have been able to get access from the 27th floor in a Buckhead building, and intermittently on my drive home. Granted, my drive is through the back roads, wooded areas, with lots of hills. I have hopes that with time I will be able to maintain a clear signal continuously. Time will tell.
I switched to CLEAR from Atlantic Nexus only because of the potential for both higher speeds and mobile connectivity. Although Atlantic Nexus had superior support, I am happy I changed.
Update:
pings typically average between 50ms and 80ms, tending toward the low end more often.
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Review by Batdan
UPDATED: 66 days ago
member for 86 days, 14 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Roswell,Fulton,GA
$55 per month (24 month contract)
"Mobile. Maybe good in the future."
"Not very mobile. Little to no signal at home. Mobile connection drops. Slower than advertised speeds. Under dialup. Pricey."
"Was sold under false pretenses. Not very Mac ready. Buyer be wary."
| Pre Sales Information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Through all of their communication failures and attempts to get a signal and delays in shipping new equipment they so far have held to their word and will send me 3 shipping labels for the hardware and I won't have been charged a thing. We'll see. Nice and helpful support most of the way through this mess. Had unlimited access as well.
Had high hopes for Wimax. Hopefully it'll get better soon.
It needs a good antenna in hilly, tree filled areas.
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Review by ernliz
UPDATED: 91 days ago
member for 8 years, 732 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Abilene,Taylor,TX
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
 AT&T
"Inexpensive and simple to use"
"The new WIMAX system is very flawed!!!"
"If nothing else is available, get it, and weep."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
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Services:
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(ratings below consensus)
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Wireless ISPs in the Abilene, TX area are expensive and erratic. When Clearwire finally came to town, it was a dream come true. For $30/mo. I now get approx 800 kbps down, approx 225 up and it's steady. For $10/mo. more you can get 1.5 mbps down. Setup is extremely easy and the hardware footprint is only a few square inches. IP is dynamic, if you turn the modem off, which is OK. I live way out in the sticks and Clearwire told me I was out of luck; however, I tried anyways, and got top notch broadband. It's also very secure, operates on a licensed freq (2.5+ GHz...). The sales people in town are very customer-friendly and go out of their way to please. Bottom line: why would anyone use dial-up (or the expensive WISPs here) when there's Clearwire! No, I don't work for the company!
Minor update: I've only had the service for less than a month, so things may change. Other users who have had longer service are having no problems. I also haven't experienced the few problems other posters are having -- perhaps I'm just pleased I don't have to deal with the other local WISPs any more. More later, if anything changes.
SEP 2006......................
Major update: one year later, Clearwire is continuing to slide downhill here in Abilene, TX, in terms of performance. Lag times are horrible. When you click on a web link, wait 5 seconds before ANYTHING happens, then half the page will load, wait another 20 seconds, and the rest of the page "may" finish loading. And on and on...... The local people haven't a clue about their jobs nor about the technical aspects of Clearwire, but the Tech Support people at the 1-800 number are still quite good. Download speeds are not as advertised -- mostly due to the horrible stalling. And again, most annoying, there's NO ONE to talk to in the area who will listen or care! Oh well, it's better than dialup, and when nothing else is available, what else can many of us do!
Sep 2007.......
What a difference a year makes. Apparently Clearwire in Abilene, TX has made major improvements in reliability and overall service. I get very steady connections and haven't experienced a down day in many months. Perhaps the upgrade to VOIP has forced them to upgrade the HTTP Internet reliability somehow. In any case, all is well. And............ after reading many of the negative reviews by many, I just wonder if these people actually know how much they can do to improve their reliability and speeds. You ACTUALLY have to CALL tech support and tell them of your problem, work with them, work with the local folks, and "find" the best signal area in your home. It's not that hard to get it right!
August 2009.....
How things change! I've recently "upgraded" to the new Clear WIMAX system here in the Abilene, TX, area and the news is bad. I've gone from 5 lights (signal strength) down to almost 2. My speed, which is supposed to be 2 mbps, and which I'm paying for, is around 450 kbps. I've set up my modem for perfect placement and tested my connection with at least 3 other computers. All show the same speed problem. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do! Clear technical support goes through their script, and that's that! Others are having the same problem, as noted in several Internet blogs. My neighbors are likewise affected. Is anyone at Clear aware of this, and doing anything? I guess not.
August 2009, again...
Please see previous update review from yesterday. This should have been placed in the "Unhappy Campers" side of the site review.
Anyway, today, the Clear speeds are even slower than yesterday: about 340 kbps, although my plan is for 2 mbps speed. Twice when I was surfing (with 2 lights on the modem) the modem decided to start cycling, then finally locked on to 2 lights again. I suspect strongly that this is a tower problem. More later....
Followup comments:  
Dupes
@gci.net
| Clearwire service in General I at one time worked for clearwire as a CSR. I looked into the service and even used it myself. At first the company itself was great and the service we offered our customer good. Then I started to notice some thing. Clearwire is sales based, make sales at all cost. It's reps commonly sell the service outside of the coverage areas. Though, you may get 4-5 lights, the towers do gauge the distance and kick you off. The are several people out there that should of never been sold this service. Then the policy changes clearwire does at it's whim. I personally sat through 4 move policies, 2 cancellation policies, and a policy which basically told our service folks that they were screwed. The whole time, the customer was basically screwed. Clearwire also started shaping it traffic more aggressively, so basically unless you check your email or do minimal web surfing you risk getting shaped. This even affects legal programs such as Napster and Itunes. Though if asked clearwire won't acknowledge any shaping. They'll quote the response of, Clearwire monitors it's traffic to insure best performance. All in all it's a money machine. The founders are great at making money. The service at first had possibilities, but after looking over older markets and seeing them past compacity, and still push sales, knowing that the service they were giving was far below any standards. Getting hold of anyone in the company with any knowledge is near impossible, the 888 line is a mix of out sourced notebook techs and a new call center by clearwire in Las Vegas. The service has many issues. Maybe with time, and a company redirection things will get better. | |
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Bad service
@clearwire-dns.net | Clearwire Poor Service I have had horrible service with clearwire | |
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Gamer27
@clearwire-dns.net
| Clearwire Sevice I am very glad I stayed away from qwest. Clearwire i like about them is they are very portable. I live 1000 ft from their towers and had no issue. I wish tho they had a better manual for their modem. Cant find any online. I also am impressed on how well Clearwire is for certain games. | |
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tgunn
@prognet.com
| Clearplugs I don't know how many posters here are single computer households, but I just installed Clearplugs to hook up my main computer downstairs and my son's computer upstairs to a single Clearwire modem, and it seems that it has increased my PCs performance. Pages are loading a whole lot faster, although service is still inconsistent - it varies between just fast enough to really smoking fast. I can't speak for my son's Mac, however. My question is (to whoever might be able to answer it) is whether using Clearplugs increases your antenna size through the wiring in your house. That's what it seems like it has done for me, anyway. | |
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Anon696969
@clearwire-wmx.net
| Clear was a clear choice I pay for Unlimited speed on clear Wimax in Las Vegas. My average download speed ranges between 4mbs and 5mbs just cancelled embarqs so-called 10mb connection. I do not see a difference in speed between my old dsl and wimax. Works Fine when hooked up with my wireless router and handles games just fine. Could not be happier with this 4g network | |
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Clear SEA
@clearwire-dns.net
|  New Clearwire customer going well
One thing that I think sucks about Clearwire though, is that you have to sign a contract. If the service is really good and the company has nothing to hide customers will stay with you. It is a bad policy to trap customers for whom the service no longer works or they have moved out of the service area. I don't doubt that this is a greedy company out only for sales/money. But so are all of the other providers... | |
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