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Review by whitebark 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 2.5 years, 13 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
 Seattle,King,WA
 $34 per month (12 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Installation is effortless"
 "Service is unreliable at times; they make it really hard to quit"
 "don't get Clearwire, unless you have no alternative"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I was a former dialup user and wanted to join the high-speed fun. Having heard vague good things about Clearwire, I wandered over to the university bookstore, a Clearwire vendor, and ordered the slower level service (800 kbs) which goes for $29.95 plus modem lease which is another $5 a month. After entering in some information into the computer kiosk and enduring a quick credit check, I was soon a proud owner (well renter) of a Clearwire modem. Rushed home to try it out and was amazed how quick and easy it was to set it up and go online. The next day I got an Apple Airport router and effortlessly set up a wireless network. Coming from dialup I was in high speed heaven!
The first month or so, the Clearwire performed well and at the advertised speed. But then, more and more, slowdowns, brownouts where speed slowed to a crawl, freezes, stalls,and outright service blackouts started occurring. I don't do VOIP or massive downloads--I'm just a plain vanilla web surfer--yet performance for that use has been getting insufferably bad at times.
The signal strength is somewhat weak at my residence, one to three bars. The strength fluctuates randomly and the connection speed does not seem to correlate with the number of bars. The modem often has to reconnect (flashing bars), causing more service delays.
Someone said that Clearwire is only good for grandmothers downloading knitting patterns, but if the service keeps getting worse, Clearwire is going to have a lot of angry grannies on their hands!
I can't compare this high speed service to other ISPs as I have not used any others. But I'm ready to give up on Clearwire, throw away the $180 early termination fee, and try Qwest DSL or something else.
update: I think the problem is that the local tower is overloaded. The connection during non-peak times seems to work much better. Right now (late Sat night) the signal strength and connection speed are good. Once the work week starts, I expect the miserable performance to return. This is Seattle, Clearwire's home base, a big market with many tech-savvy users. If they can't make it work here, where can they?
update 2: To be fair, I'm working through Clearwire's support system to give them a chance to fix the problem. Getting a hold of a live person was easy...we will see what they can do.
update 3: The internet connection has improved greatly after the tech found the one small sweet spot for radio reception. I'm not quite so pissed off. Still, because of their vicious contract terms, I would avoid Clearwire if possible. Also, as others have noted, they will throttle your bandwidth if you do anything other then websurf.
update 4, July 30: The clearwire connection has been working pretty well. I will still cancel when the year is up, because I don't want to get "reupped" for another year.
Update 5, Nov 7: For many months, I have been getting o.k. service from Clearwire. Few big blackouts or slowdowns have occurred like those last June. Speed seem to be meeting the 700 kbs that I paid for. Disconnects occur far too frequently..they are simple to fix by resetting the router or rebooting computer, but annoying.
Update 6, Jan 14
Am in the process of terminating my contract. This must be done carefully and by the book, otherwise they will sign you up for another year contract and there will be nothing you can do about it. Exactly one month before your contract ends you must call clearwire. They will not notify you to do this (even though they say they will). The folks at their retention department are unpleasant, borderline nasty. Don't lose your temper. They are supposed to e-mail you a shipping label that you can use to send your modem back. Typically, you have to call them several times before they will do this. They will give you bogus reason why the e-mail did not show up. If all else fails, you can bring the modem back in person to one of their main offices( not stores). Look at the "contacts" menu item for main office locations.
I've managed to get the shipping label, so I'm close to the end of this process. My modem is on the way to Vegas.
Followup comments:  
Matt F
@clearwire-dns.net
| Are You Having Issues again? Hi I read your updates and was intersted because i too live in the seattle area and i think my tower was overloaded as well, back in June i had horrible service, then around early mid july it was great (Just like you said) now weather is getting crappy and people are staying indoors more and hmm, 1 or 2 bars most of the time. They are overloading their own network. Something needs to be done about this. Please contact me at my email matt8875@msn.com and we can discuss this further
Thanks | |
| whitebark
join:2007-05-18
Seattle, WA
 ·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | clearwire update Hi Matt, My clearwire connection had worked o.k. for the past few months. The connection seemed "laggy" sometimes but when I did a speed test it was up to spec. There was a lingering problem with random disconnects, where I had to reset my wireless router or do various things to get the connection going again. Note, however, that I am not a power user of the internet, mostly web surfing with some large software downloads that Clearwire dealt with o.k.
Recently I moved to an apartment with a rock solid, lightning fast dedicated internet connections via ethernet cable. This is far superior than Clearwire ever was. My clearwire modem sits unused, and I plan to terminate service soon. | |
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Review by kon16ov
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 2.2 years, 37 visits, last login: 102 days ago
Dayton,Montgomery,OH
$42 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Insanely easy to set up."
"Connection speeds aren't as advertised most of the time, spotty connections, throttled bandwidth"
"A decent alternative to RoadRunner, but DSL is probably a better choice."
| Pre Sales Information:
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So, I swore that I would never give RoadRunner another dime, as long as I lived. Since they were the dominant ISP, that left me with DSL or ClearWire. Since the house didn't have phone service (welcome to the Cell-centric society), ClearWire was the least expensive choice, overall.
So, for $25, I took home the Expedience Wireless Access Modem (Model RSU-2510-SV) and a contract for 2 years at $25/mo for the first three months and a total of $42/mo, thereafter. The promised package was the ClearPremium, which along with a 10MB web storage and 5-email addresses, also promised 1.5M down and 256K up. The order process was painless -- it took less time to complete the order and walk out the door with the equipment than it did to drive to store where we completed the order -- under 7 minutes. Installation was, as I said, insanely simple, if not wholly satisfactory. I finally found a place in the house where I could get 2-3 bars, consistently, which is, coincidentally enough, about 1 foot from the computer.
Upon installation, though, the connections were flakier than a Crisco crust BUT I found that to be directly linked to the router -- a Netgear MR814v2. It did not play well with that router. When I swapped out the router with a Netgear MR814v1 with a firmware upgrade (the router had last been used in 2004), everything has been much happier.
We signed up in late August, so this is, as of this writing, the middle of month 3 with ClearWire. The overall impression has been decent enough, almost good. I've seen a LOT of reviews that are almost completely negative. I haven't experienced most of what these reviews focus on. I also may be more tolerant. The only outage I've experienced was when a tower "went up in flames" and there was no service for right around 24 hours. A call to tech support and I got the answer I needed quickly.
The positives? It's broadband and, while not the cheapest, when factoring in equipment leasing and contract costs, it's not much more expensive than comperable DSL packages in our area. It is easy to install. It's also pretty easy to troubleshoot. It's either the modem or the router 99% of the time, for me. The outage was the only exception. While the "reception" of the wireless router has been spotty at times, sometimes not connecting for a couple of minutes at a time, early on, since about the first of the month, I've dipped below three bars once that I know of.
The negatives? Well, the day after the 7-day trial ended, service slipped considerably and didn't seem to recover for about a week and a half. Speeds are not usually anywhere near advertised speeds, even in the paltry upload department. So, updating web sites, en-masse, can take a LONG time. Uploading 10x13" 300dpi TIFF files is almost painful. Also, there is obvious bandwidth throttling going on as newsgroups come and go, speed-wise, dropping off to 0 for periods of time, and torrent clients just don't do anything after about the first 30 seconds, if they connect at all. The only other kibitz is that my son plays games online and I can hear swearing every so often, telling me that his connection dropped. Considering that when he "jumps" to the neighbor's network after this and it STILL drops, I think it may be more indicative of router/nic issues.
Overall, it's not bad. It beats dialup, obviously. It's a viable alternative to TWC's RoadRunner and DSL, in my opinion. Something to consider is where you're located, I suppose, as most of the negative reviews I've seen have been out in Washington or down in Florida. I haven't had nearly the troubles I've read other having had, so while it hasn't been a completely rosy path, it's not been the pits of dark abyss, either.
[update]
Over the past month, there has been a definite improvement of service and reliability. I would say that the amount of time the router stays at 4 bars is up to around 75%, whereas a month ago, I had never seen it reach 4... It still hates P2P software, but even my FTP upload speeds are consistently higher (and closer to advertised speed) than they have ever been. I still have very little negative to say about ClearWire...
Followup comments: kon16ov
join:2007-08-25
Dayton, OH
·Clearwire Wireless
| Ball of flames...
The Final Straw |
I am now running AT&T Yahoo DSL at 3MB for less than ClearWire costs. What did I jump ship so suddenly? Well, after going through three routers that I *KNOW* worked and still not being able to maintain a connection to the modem, I just plugged it into the NIC on the computer. That worked well for a couple of days, but started dropping. Yeah, you heard me -- a hard line dropping. So, after 2 weeks of no one in tech support knowing how it was possible to be connected to the modem, directly, and still have "little to no connectivity," we just gave AT&T a call, and 2 days later we're flying at 3MB with no issues, no bandwidth throttling, no distressed connectivity during thunderstorms.
The next creative step will involve severing the ties with ClearWire without getting soaked for $200, as having not delivered the goods, it's not MY fault their equipment doesn't function as advertised. We'll see.
My advice is this: ClearWire is a LOT like DirecTV was in the beginning -- give it some time to mature before buying into it whole hog.
--
-----------------
The key to keeping secrets
is the keeping of the key. | |
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Review by tewdogs
Posted: 1.9 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
Tacoma,Pierce,WA
Contract price not specified.
"No wires"
"Limitting of p2p protocols all over the place"
"100K/s ceiling for any connection lasting longer than a minute"
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Easy to install.
None of the extras one would expect from a full service ISP. NNTP in particular. Any connection, regardless of protocol, gets throttled to high 90s K/s. FTP, HTTP, NNTP, DCC, TFTP, SCP... any socket stays open long it throttles ALL bandwidth to around 100K. Not per socket, TOTAL. Don't EVER buy this crap. I buy 1.5M I EXPECT 1.5M. Horrible company. Avoid at all cost.
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Review by dr_draw
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
Nampa,Canyon,ID
$43 per month (24 month contract)
"None"
"deceptive, bad service, bad product, Avoid at all costs!"
"This company will tell you whatever it takes to get you to sign their 2 year contract whether it's true or not"
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This company is terrible, I just got off the phone with someone at Clearwire named Kisha, the most rude and condescending person I’ve spoken to in a long time.
I was just informed they had turned down my dispute of charges including the early termination fee.
It didn’t matter to Kisha that I was told by the salesperson that I wouldn’t notice any difference in my internet service if I switched from high speed cable to Clearwire. I’m a photojournalist and I need to upload high resolution photos several times a day. My uploads were averaging around 6k to 12k …. I get 112k using my cell phone as a modem!. A file that would normally take me less than an hour with cable would take days with clearwire. Yeah right no difference. I would be out of business!
Not only does this company have a bad service but their business practices are receiving and dishonest too. The reason they make you sign those long contracts is because it is the only way they can keep customers. But don't just take my word for it. See what others have to say ... I wish I would have.
For those of you who are familiar with Chris Pirillo and Lockergnome check out what he has to say about Clearwire:
»www.lockergnome.com/windows/2007···y-taste/
Now for the best part. When I signed up over the phone the sales person spelled my name wrong. When I picked up my modem the next day I pointed the mistake out to them and was told they would fix it. Now you can only get Clearwire if you give them your credit card information so they can bill you automatically. This service was for my business so I gave them my business credit card for the billing.
This same credit card is used for all of my other reoccurring business expenses as well as my Paypal merchant account.
Shortly after signing up with Clearwire I get notified by my bank that being issued a new credit card because they believed my account had been compromised. I later found out Clearwire had charged my account using the incorrect name. My online sales were down for 2 days while I changed the billing changes to my merchant account not to mention the time and headache to change all of my other billing info with everyone ..... EXCEPT Clearwire!
Don't just stay away from Clearwire ... RUN away!
Followup comments:
Reply
@clearwire-dns.net
| When is comes to service providers there is good & bad Sounds like an isolated incident, there are angry customers when it comes to any service provider wether it's an ISP, Bank, Gym, Cell Phone, Etc...
Thats too bad you had such a bad experience because truly one ignorant staff member does not make up the entire team. | |
| | DoRight
join:2007-07-20
Mechanicsburg, PA
1 edit | Re: When is comes to service providers there is good & bad Look at the reviews my friend.. When you have 50/50 reviews from consumers that is not good... | |
| WarmCoke
join:2007-01-31
Boise, ID
·Clearwire Wireless
| Clear sailing for this Idahoan While I am sorry for your experiences - it is NOT atypical for customers of Clearwire in Idaho as my experience with them here in Boise would go to show. If you were having speed issues - they can be worked through without instantly trying to get out of a contract.......... | |
| melikemyers
join:2008-01-25
Edmonds, WA
| Clearwire is really a bad internet service provider We have been using Clearwire since February 2007 and we do not receive sufficient signal strength to use my VONAGE Voice Over the Internet Phone. The same internet phone worked well with Comcast modem and Comcast service. It even worked well with wireless router at my home. Then I gave it to my daughter to use with her Clearwire internet service.
I bought Clearwire for my daughter last year and she has been using it. She has been complaining about the bad service Clearwire provides her since last year. However, as a customer, I gave time to Clearwire, a new startup company, so it would be support from its customers to get stronger. We were expecting that Clearwire would improve its internet service in a few months so my daughter can use that Clearwire with no problem.
She can understand the words of the person other side during telephone communication ( it seems downloading data works somewhat).
However, the person at the other side of the line can not understand the words because the line breaks when uploading the voice data over the Clearwire internet service and Clearwire radio modem.
We want to cancel Clearwire service plan with no disconnection fees and no other monetary penalties due to Clearwire's technical defects and bad service.
It has been 11 months since we are experiencing problems with Clearwire internet service provider, and I still can not understand what she says over the internet phone when I call her. It seems we customers overestimated what Clearwire can do.
Melike Myers
melikemyers@yahoo.com | |
| bobfranklin
join:2008-02-25
Sun Valley, NV
·Clearwire Wireless
|  my own little review
first download (Firefox browser) @ 91 - 96 kbs. Not as fast as I'd expected, but way quicker than dialup. certainly worth the intro rate of $25.25! 11/07, still good no noticeable drop in speed. 12/07, slight to troubling drop in bandwidth - weather, perhaps? Firefox browser download now happens @ approx. 25kbs. 01/08, intro ends,obvious throttling.
02/08, bandwidth as follows: downlink (total) = 51 - 63 kbps.
uplink (total = 9 kbps. Say that with me. "nine". not even a double digit number. I was foolish enough to sign a two year contract, because of a desire to lose dialup, & because dsl hasn't yet reached my address. When that great day arrives, Cleawire is history! I will HAPPILY eat the early termination fee. The only potential advantage over dialup I can see at this point is the "always - on" feature. I cannot in good conscience recommend these charlatans. My bandwidth is my own, for any legal purpose, including p2p & gaming. hindering me in these pursuits negates THEIR purpose. | |
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 Review by str8jacket
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 929 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Seattle,King,WA
$49 per month
about 2 days
"All"
"Weak signal in the un-likliest places"
"Test, test, and test again in that 1st 30 days"
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Looked for local 'broadband' internet access after moving to Seattle. Was a long-time QWEST DSL customer, and living on dialup was PAINFUL.
Looked at all the available wireless solutions (cellular, Wi-Fi, WiMAX), and found Clearwire online.
Looked at info at web site. I'd pay more monthly to stay out of a service contract, sign me up.
Got modem mailed in 2 days. No extra cost, delivered on a Saturday. Setup to Wi-Fi router then to desktop took all of 15 mins. Modem trained with strong, solid 5 bars, and was online with both desktop and laptop via Wi-Fi, all in half-hour.
Location for start of service was in North Seattle, and always had solid 5 bars, and only 1 noticable service outage last lasted 1 1/2 hours early on a Sunday morning.
Now I'm living in West Seattle. best signal strength I can get is 3 bars, and performance is basically cut in half. During windy days you can see the signal flux down to 1 bar, back to 3, then a few moments later back to 1, etc.
Overall internet performance is half, but speed test show the same performance I would get with cellular wireless, so that is OK.
So overall, happy with the internet access. No complaints with company, but haven't had to deal with them. Do have a little grip with them that they don't offer a deeper discount for a bundle for home service , and with a pc card for my laptop. Basically they want to charge month-to-month customers for 2 service account. Poor, Poor, Poor.
Update -
Over past 2 weeks, signal displayed by modem has stayed constant at 3 bars, but speed test result always show 1.5mbps down\128kbps up every day I test. Changes in place by Clearwire. We'll see!!!!
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Review by greatgerm
Posted: 2 years ago
member for 2 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Boise,Ada,ID
$35 per month (24 month contract)
"It is quite a simple setup."
"Slow, unreliable."
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I never thought I would go back to cableone, but I'll be forced into it. This is the slowest and most unreliable service available. Run from it, quickly!
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 Review by yaplej
UPDATED: 2 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 3032 visits, last login: 1 days ago
White City,Jackson,OR
$42 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Easy to setup, and if you dont get good signal they refund everything."
"Too much for static IP's."
"Good cheap alternative to Cable/DSL"
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Iv been using Clearwire for a little over 1 month now and got the first 3 months for 19.99 + 4.99 modem rental. Not bad for 1.5/256. So far the service has been great. I havnt had the modem lock, or reboot on me once.
Service has been pretty good still. I have noticed that speeds drop sometimes, but thats expected with a network structure similar to cable, and still very new technology. Speeds are not bad though. When downloading files I normally get between 100-300kbps. Playing online game is ok. I dont know if it would be the best for FPS games like Counter-Strike. I think that it has a little to much lag for those types of games. I play World of Warcraft on it, and its going fine.
Have long sence left ClearWire their performace was getting pretty bad after having them for around 9 months. Probably due to the number of customers they were getting. Its kind of a pain to cancel your account with ClearWire. ClearWire will automatically renew you for a new 1 year contract without your consent. You also only have small window of oportunity to cancel after your 12 month contract ends. I really didnt like that.
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Review by nieuwsma
Posted: 2 years ago
member for 2 years, 1 visits, last login: 2 years ago
Delhi,Merced,CA
$49 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"ummm.. NONE"
"Terrible for Gaming, downloading music, watching videos.. ITS HORRIBLE!!!"
"It sucks soo bad"
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Im using the fastest internet that they have and its terrible. I cant play games or do anything because they turn it down..
And the connection is always bad
it sucks
lol
Stay with dial up
I cant wait for my 2 year contract to be over with
DOnt buy if u plan to game or do anything worth while on the internet
Followup comments: Monkeydog
join:2007-12-28
Atwater, CA
| Alright Clearwire isn't insanely bad. It isn't as fast as AT&T or Comcast or any of the other, but it's still way faster than DSL, and is very good for casual use. Plus you can carry it around and take it with you anywhere it can get service, which is a very nice plus.
Just don't use it if you're wanting internet speeds for anything but casual web surfing. | |
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Review by muua
Posted: 2 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 2 visits, last login: 2 years ago
Dayton,Montgomery,OH
Contract price not specified.
"The service works on some days."
"If the connection really sucks, expect a cancelation penalty without exception."
"Stay clear of Clearwire."
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I have replaced my Clearwire service with a broadband provider who can provide an actual connection. Clearwire's connection to my location has been abysmal. I've had approximately 30 outages in less than two months. The last of these was when their tower #36 in Dayton went down on November 11 and wasn't fixed until November 14.
Clearwire won't let me cancel the service unless I authorize an "early termination fee," notwithstanding their performance. I have spent in excess of four hours on the telephone this week with their personnel over this issue. Apparently, Clearwire permits themselves unlimited time to resolve a problem, and then will not permit a customer to leave them prior to this "repair."
Apparently when one signs up for Clearwire service one is in for the long haul. Their customer service personnel outside technical support are dreadful, and they don't care a jot whether service is received or not. Perhaps Clearwire employees are penalized for helping people leave who can't get a reliable connection.
As I have not authorized an "early termination fee", I presume that my service is not canceled.
Marc Abel
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Review by brendabean
Posted: 2.1 years ago
member for 2.1 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
Pasco,Franklin,WA
Contract price not specified. (24 month contract)
"Great Idea"
"Unreliable signal, No tech support, dishonest about contracts and terms"
"Do Not Sign Up With These People, You Will Be Sorry!"
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We wanted something fast, and reliable as I use the internet everyday for photos, email and just browsing around! Install was easy and quick. We were hooked when the salesman offered us 3 the first 3 months for $19.99 no startup costs if we signed up with him and the option to cancel if we were unsatisfied at any time. No contract etc. was ever mentioned. He did all the online work signing us up and called me with a username and password. The service was horrible and when we called tech support numerous times we were told that we were out of the coverage are and connected to a tower 10 miles away, but our signal showed fine so we must have a computer problem (a virus or something). I was unable to do any photo uploads for developing or send any emails with attachments. I called to cancel and was denied any tech support as they continued to say my signal was fine. (Although they typed in my file "I denied tech support") I specifically asked for a Tech to come to my home to verify there was a signal issue and was told the service was for nothing more than "looking up a recipe once in a while." All in all we are dealing with the BBB, Attorney Generals office with some other unhappy customers and an attorney about the possibility of filing a Class Action Lawsuit. There are many people who were blindly connected to this company. I am now being told by Clearwire's Corporate Escalations Specialist that although I did not agree to the contract I am bound to it as using the service binds you to the contract. How can this be legal?
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