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Review by BellSouthBS  - Location: Fort Lauderdale,Broward,FL
- Cost: $49 per month
- Install: about 3 days
Good "Good Speed, Latency, No RF interference from other 4Gs, allows VPN, **supports NETFLIX SUPER HD & NETFLIX 3D**"
Bad "Required outdoor antenna for top speeds. CRITICAL ANTENNA PLACEMENT"
Overall "If you find an unobstructed path to the tower, this service is great"
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I never thought I would ever be writing a review that was favorable to CLEAR, because the towers were quite far away, and because of so many bad reviews.
I had just received a call from OMGFAST, saying that they were not doing any new installs, and they were taking me off their list. I still needed a backup internet provider, so I reluctantly called the number on one of the CLEAR advertisements I received. The girl at the other end was not that familiar with the tech end of the product, but since I am a consultant for microwave communications systems, and fully licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, this is my forte.
I received the equipment on Monday, a day early. It came in a green box that said Plug Me In. I did, and finally found a spot that gave me 1 bar of signal strength. I expected this, and my heart sank. Throughput varied from 2 to 3 megabits down. I called tech support, and asked to be transferred to tier 3, and wasted quite a bit of time having to explain to people why I needed exact tower locations. Finally I was transferred to tier 3. I got the latitude and longitude of a few towers near me, then used "Google Earth" to plot these paths from the towers to my home. I used "properties" to elevate each path about 20 feet in the air to see what NEARBY trees and houses might be in the way. On the second tower, I WON THE LOTTERY. I had virtually no obstructions between my house and the Flamingo Road tower, but the antenna pattern for my sector from that tower was not aimed directly in my direction, which was like trying to see the side of a road at midnight, with the car headlights pointed in a slightly different direction.
Google Earth showed I had a virtually unobstructed path to a tower that was 1.69 miles away. The next day I took an extension cord and the CLEAR modem up on the roof, and started looking for a "sweet spot." This turned out to be in the back of the house, with 3 bars, compared to the peak in the center of the house, which only gave me 2 bars. I looked on the internet, and found the modem IP to be 192.168.15.1 and put that IP address in my browser. I did not need the password, as the modem displayed both signal level (RSSI) and Signal to Noise (CINR a.k.a. the Ratio of the Carrier divided by the level of Interference *plus* the Noise caused by man-made and electrical noise plus what was generated in the receiver itself.),
Basically stated, the incoming signal should be 20 times greater than all the noise and interference that the receiver sees, or generates internally, and the CINR is the formula that provides a number (db) corresponding to how good the signal is. This number is given in a logarithm of base 10, so going from a CINR measurement of 10 db to 30 db is actually an improvement of 100 times! A 20 db or better signal to noise ratio is quite good for digital microwave reception.
Dish antennas concentrate the incoming power to a small area, and the feedpoint is located at that point. A 20 db gain antenna concentrates 100 times the power and sends it to the receiver (modem). That is why an outside antenna is helpful or sometimes necessary if you can't see the tower out of your back window.
The most helpful thing is height. Since radio signals at 2.5 GHz have characteristics similar to light, they lose around 10% or more of their strength passing through a small tree, and up to 50% passing through dense Maple, Bischofia, or pine trees. Concrete walls and reinforced glass (contains metal) also reduce signal strength, along with wooden roofs with certain types of shingles. If you can get a clear path to the tower, between or above the trees and surrounding houses, you will be rewarded with the highest possible speeds, assuming the tower has the capacity to handle the bandwidth. Unfortunately, I already noticed signs that the tower I am pointed at needs more bandwidth, and the one that is closer to me bogs down during rush hour and early evening.
I just happened to have a clear path, starting at the very edge of the back of my house, so I mounted a 20 db gain grid dish antenna (one that my company makes). The CLEAR modem requires an "RP-SMA MALE" (not female) connector to connect to an outside antenna. Without the antenna and with the modem on the roof, I had a signal level of -75 dbm, with an unacceptable CINR of 8. This typically happens when you are receiving two or more towers operating on the same frequency, or if you are receiving multiple signals from the same tower's transmitter, which bounce off reflective surfaces and buildings. This is called multipath, and a highly directional antenna will get rid of all these reflected signals, and only let the main signal through. With a large grid dish antenna connected to the modem on the roof, I manually rotated the dish antenna, and the signal peaked at -55 dbm, with a CINR of 30. I brought the modem inside the house, connected low-loss cable between the outside antenna and the modem, and the CLEAR signal level dropped about 3 db to an RSSI of -58 db. The CINR was still a respectable 28, so I started running some tests.
What I was most concerned about was packet jitter. CLEAR packet jitter ranged from 6.5 to 7.5 milliseconds, which is very good for VOIP (internet telephone). An NDT server reported C2S packet queuing, so no packets were received out of order, although this did seem to negatively affect both "REGISTER" and "INVITE" timing. Latency to the tower could not be read because of either a firewall, or the first hop was not pingable, but the next hop could be read, and that hop averaged 80 ms LATENCY. AT&T's 4G latency averaged about 120 ms. It should be noted that best "Round Trip" ping latency has been around 60 milliseconds, which is very good for a wireless network.
I ran my speed tests using a server in Indianapolis Indiana from my home in Fort Lauderdale Florida, which is a little over 1000 miles distant. Speeds ranged from a low of about 8 Mb on the downlink and 995 k up, to a high of about 15 mb down, with most tests falling around 10 mb down. There were a few hiccups, and only once in 4 days did the modem disconnect and reconnect automatically. Although the service is relatively expensive, costing considerably more than AT&T's DSL but slightly less than AT&T's 4G Wireless service (although it can't compete with a properly working LTE system), I have to give it high technical marks. From the standpoint of a total home internet service for me and my family, CLEAR is clearly the winner, if it can provide more capacity.
"Rain Fade/Scatter" and attenuation from the signal passing through wet foliage in a heavy rainstorm is virtually non existent at my location because of path clearance, and amounted to a signal strength loss of about 3 dbm (RSSI dropped to -61 dbm), and reduced the signal to noise ratio a mere 1 db, from 28 db to 27 db. There are many television stations that would envy a Studio-Transmitter Link (STL) this solid, and with such a good fade margin.
I recently found out that Sprint now owns 100% of CLEAR/Clearwire, thanks to Billion$ of dollars of cash from a Japanese lender. Sprint is shutting down their Nextel/iDen 800 MHz service, and replacing it with the super-fast 800 MHz LTE Service. In the meantime, it will be using CLEARWIRE frequencies in the 2.5 MHz band to beef up their 4G service. Hopefully they will reserve the 2.5 GHz Band for data only, instead of trying to multiplex it and use both voice and data over the same channel, a move that would make the 2.5 GHz service useless for VOIP and Video, not to mention lost packets and high data overhead.
CLEAR (Clearwire) is a member of the NETFLIX Content Delivery Network (CDN) and is the only way I can watch *NETFLIX SUPER HD* or *NETFLIX 3D* programming in my area. COMCAST, AT&T, and FIOS cannot deliver NETFLIX advanced Super HD or 3D services.
>>> UPDATE: Friday, the 13th day of September, 2013. Service is great with no disconnects. I use VOIP for my home phones, and call quality has been the best I've ever had. There really are no caps, and Netflix 3D (12 mb/s stream) is great, even while the kids are playing games on their computers.
>>> UPDATE: Saturday, Sept 14th, 2013. Had Comcast 50 mb/s installed on 30 day trial. COMCAST BLOCKS NETFLIX SUPER HD & NETFLIX 3D !! I will be cancelling Comcrap and keeping CLEAR for as long as I can. I cannot receive NETFLIX in SUPER HD or 3D with Comcrap.
This is the best speed I was able to get with CLEAR Wireless at my location using an outside gain antenna:
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member for 11.5 years, 177 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 20 days ago
Comments:
| Review by chris92 - Location: Rock Island,Rock Island,IL
- Cost: $20 per month
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Decent Speeds"
Bad "Latency, Poor Speeds when you have less than perfect signal"
Overall "Solid Speeds, Very useful for when you are traveling"
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I originally ordered Clear to use it as a backup/additional internet for my stay at College (Augustana College). Since the internet wasn't great, and I had an interest in WiMax, and decided to buy the PXU1900 modem off of eBay. As soon as I got it, I was surprised at the signal I had. Now, I am in an area where Clear does not sell service - there is only one tower that covers the area (This is in Davenport IA). This Clear tower is a "Protection Site" that only serves the purpose of maintaining the spectrum license. Off of this tower, I was getting about 9.5MBit Down, and 1.5MBit up. I decided to sign up for the Unlimited Plan at $45 a month.
Setup was a little difficult. Since I didn't live in an area that was "serviceable" by Clear, I had to make up an address in Chicago as my "Service Address". My Home address and Billing address were my local address. Once I was able to get the account, all I had to do was give them the MAC address of my modem that I bought off of eBay, and I was in business.
The signal that I got at Augustana College was about 75%. This is pretty good, considering it's a good 5 miles away from the tower. On average, I was getting about 6Mbit down, and 0.4Mbit up. Pings were about 120ms, and the traffic was routed through Denver, CO. Latency at times would spike up, but only when someone else is using the connection. Gaming was doable, but only if that was the only thing you were doing. When the signal drops to below 25%, speeds are non-existent. Especially upload speeds, for example, I was getting about 3Mbit down, but only 0.10Mbit up, so web browsing was pretty awful at times. Overall the service was not too bad considering the area.
After about a year of usage, I moved to a different part of the campus, where I didn't get a signal at all. So I decided I wanted to cancel the service. Tech support is outsourced, and extremely foreign. When I called, I was prompted to keep the service, but at a lower rate - only $20 a month for the same unlimited service. I went with that option, since I wasn't going to be using it as much.
Since then, I have been using it here and there, when traveling to Chicago, and other places where Clearwire service is available. It has been pretty solid, and a good choice for those who are able to get service.
member for 5 years, 158 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 24 days ago
Comments:
| Review by danparker - Location: Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
- Cost: $35 per month (999 month contract)
- Install: about 10 days
Good "Cheap"
Bad "Unreliable, will go down for days on end. Useless support. "
Overall "Clear is a cut-rate wireless provider, and the area they economize most is in maintenance/reliability"
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I live in a major metropolitan area, downtown DC, within two blocks of the nearest Clear tower. When it works, the service is fine. Brief capacity-driven slowdowns occur, but not often enough to complain about. What really sticks the knife in a customer's back is when there is an outage, and this happens with disturbing frequency.
These events, which occur every few months, cut access for between 24 hours and up to a week. As of this writing my local Clear network has been down for 72 hours. A scheduled maintenance outage began Friday morning promptly at 9:00 and has extended to Sunday evening.
Customer service, outsourced to India, will only repeat scripted troubleshooting advice, and will not always be aware of localized network issue. Their rote response to an outage report is to acknowledge it and say it should be fixed "by 10pm." Local tower maintenance, also outsourced, appears not to work on weekends. What is more likely, however, is that Clear has made the calculation that it is cheaper to not pay for weekend maintenance than to pay the handful of persistent customers who demand a refund for down time, even the one or two who will terminate their service.
Based on this formula, I fully expect my service to return promptly at 9:00 am Monday when the techs go back on duty.
If what you do requires a reliable connection, avoid Clear at all costs. Ask yourself the question, "Can I afford to lose my on-line access for days on end and with no advance notice?"
member for 55 days, 0 visits, last login: 55 days ago
lodged 55 days ago
Comments:
  whfsdudePremium
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC | Outage Happen to be on Capitol Hill near 7th and Constitution Ave NE. Tower I am on went down during this same time period and just returned today. | |
| | whfsdudePremium
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC | Re: Outage A little rain and we're down again. | |
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| | Clear works great - cutomer service sucks For three days I have given my new debit card information to customer service. And for three days they keep telling me I haven't paid my bill. Today they cancelled my service. I like the concept of Clear but would never recommend to anyone to use their service becasue of the customer service. Clear needs to realize that without customers there is no need for you. If I am a typical example of how well one gets treated by customer service then Clear will keep losing customers. | |
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| Review by ocjosh - Location: Santa Fe Springs,Los Angeles,CA
- Cost: $60 per month (24 month contract)
- Install: about 2 days
Good "Good price for 2 lines, no cap, no speed limit till you work it out your own"
Bad "Require outdoor antenna to make it usable, new customer need to pay a lot more now"
Overall "I am lucky"
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It's definitely not good for mobile use, because it can't continuous connect to different towers right away like 3G when you are on the go. Only if you are moving within that single tower covered area, you may move as fast as you want. The coverage is great outdoors only. Indoors are more pathetic on most of cases, only by the opened windows. The WiMax signal can't go through low e windows well, not to mention insulated walls (from full bars to nothing easily).
Both home modem and hotspot mobile modem, I have to use external outdoor antenna which are hard to install and expensive, to make it stable and good speed. I use the service in high condense populated Los Angeles area. Speed varies like any ISPs, but decent 4.5 Mbps to 16 Mbps from peak to normal hours. I watch Netflix through smart TV, IPTV box for live international channels, and a lot of online radio streaming. It's wonderful service till I have outdoor antennas installed, which the rooftop installer cost is about $50 after calling around and the antennas for $31 for my mobile hotspot (now it went up to $100s range) and $89 for my home modem external outdoor antenna.
I should have signed up the 3 lines for $80 back in October 2011, it's so precious now for the plan and affordable price. But again, outdoor coverage is a lot better than their indoor poor speeds.
update: 8/8/2013
Both home and mobile hotspot at 2 locations in Los Angeles county, the speeds still at least 6 mbps but peak is like 9 mbps for past 2-3 months now. I think Clear might have more customer or something.
I am seeing 3D and Super HD on NetFlix for 3 weeks now, they are great. But Youtube is buffering often with higher resolution options during weekends somehow.
member for 200 days, 128 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 58 days ago
Comments:
| Review by skeechan - Location: Huntington Beach,Orange,CA
- Cost: $100 per month
- Install: about 2 days
Good "Very fast, available, $100 for 4G UNLIMITED! fixed + mobile Internet"
Bad "Needed outdoor antenna to get decent speed"
Overall "Only alternative is dialup or T1, CLEAR is a good deal"
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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. Because of having to purchase and install an external antenna, I ranked the install poorly.
CONNECTION RELIABILITY: Connection reliability has been stellar so far. No down time at all, but again, the reliable connection and throughput required the purchase and installation of the external antenna. The modem my itself is virtually worthless.
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
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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.
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UPDATE - 21MAY2013 Things are still rocking with Clear. My usage is down a bit, typically 50-60GB per month from my fixed service and 10-15GB/mo from my puck and still not a peep from Clear, no throttling, nothing. Unlimited is still unlimited.
I'm still getting between 10-13Mb down and my capped 1Mb up. I had my first downtime on Saturday, about 4 hours. It is the only problem I have had with the service since getting it. Still a happy camper praying they don't go BK.
UPDATE 7AUG2013 - Well after a few happy years with Clear, VZ rolled in with FiOS so I am saying goodbye. As for canceling, not really a hassle other than going through a billion retention attempts. But after hanging up I got my email confirmations that services would be cancelled at the end of my billing cycle. I was really happy with Clear and would recommend them if you can run an external antenna.
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member for 1.6 years, 884 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
updated 59 days ago
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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Ask me about my sites:
bay area jobs Dogs for adoption coupons NBA: »nbaintelligence.com | |
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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. | |
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| Review by KBentley - Location: Fort Worth,Tarrant,TX
- Cost: $50 per month
Good "absolutely nothing"
Bad "everything"
Overall "Worst than dial-up"
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Clear is so unreliable today is July 9th and since the beginning of July my internet has worked about 10% of the time. So if you want so internet you can't watch videos above 360p and constant outages get clear. Not to mention the property next to me is a Clear tower. I literally can see the Clear tower from my window
member for 88 days, 1 visits, last login: 30 days ago
updated 88 days ago
Comments:
| Review by vidmanpk - Location: San Antonio,Bexar,TX
- Cost: $41 per month
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Worked great for 4 years"
Bad "Abysmal last month"
Overall "After 4 years I have switched internet providers"
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I signed up with Clear Wireless Internet 4 years ago as an alternative to Time-Warner and was extremely happy. My house was within a half mile of their tower and I got excellent speeds in the range of 8 to 12 Mbps with my modem always showing 5 bars. I was able to watch HD movies without interruption.
When I moved last year closer to downtown San Antonio I continued to receive excellent service although I occasionally was seeing freezing with some videos. Speeds were still in 8 to 10 Mbps range with 5 bars.
Last month I moved again, 1 mile away from my previous location. I can see the same Clear tower that is halfway between my last house and my current house from my front window. Now I'm getting 4 bars and speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps per second with 4 and sometimes 5 bars. Video is constantly stopping. Web pages load as if on dial-up. When I called customer service I was told slow speeds were due to congestion. I find that hard to believe since I should be receiving my signal from the same tower that I was on just a month ago.
I finally gave up and signed up with Grande on a 30Mbps special that is only 4 dollars more than I was paying for Clear. Now here's where it gets interesting. I missed my install with Grande which was supposed to happen at the same time my Clear service ended. Grande can't come out for another day so I bought a 1 day pass with Clear to tide me over. Well, lo and behold, my speed is back with Clear. They had to release my modem from my old account in order for me to purchase the 1 day pass. My question now is, were they throttling my old account? I called support at least 5 times over the past month and could not get my speed increased. Now with this one day pass I'm getting the speeds I had before. What's going on Clear?
Needless to say, I will think long and hard before going back with Clear. Here's hoping that Grande delivers what they promise.
member for 99 days, 0 visits, last login: 99 days ago
lodged 99 days ago
Comments:
| Review by GTForce - Location: Rockville,Montgomery,MD
- Cost: $50 per month
Good "Easy setup"
Bad "Getting ~1 Mbps instead of the 6 Mbps I was promised and am paying for"
Overall "Stay away!"
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I am very close to one of their towers, achieving up to CINR:28, but my speed often is around 1 Mbps instead of the 6 Mbps I was promised when I talked to them on the phone before ordering. The rep. told me that they check the address to make sure they are not overloading the towers to ensure the speed they are promising. He also told me that I would be more likely to get higher speeds than 6 Mbps, since the modem is not capped.
All lies so far. I called their tech support and talked to a support rep. and then a supervisor (overseas), and nothing changed!
STAY AWAY FROM CLEAR WIRELESS INTERNET until they can buy more bandwidth for their towers to support the number of connections they sell at the speeds they are promising.
member for 101 days, 3 visits, last login: 98 days ago
lodged 101 days ago
Comments:
vibsdj
join:1999-11-25
Marietta, GA | Clear is Unclear Same situation here in Marietta, GA. Towers are too congested and won't be upgraded for months. They oversold their bandwidth and I rarely get over 1.5 Mbps download now as opposed to 4 Mbps a year ago. Tech support up to Level 3 no help at all. | |
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| Review by benbart - Location: King Of Prussia,Montgomery,PA
- Cost: $25 per month
- Install: about 3 days
Good "Speeds of 6-10 mbps - depends on your location"
Bad "if not near a tower!"
Overall "depends where the closest tower is.."
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Clear is great if you are very close to a tower, other wise the service / speed sucks.
IN GOOD LOCATION SPEED IS 6 TO 12 mbps !
It does work a lot better OUTSIDE than INSIDE at most locations.
Tech support is horrible!!!!
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION !!!
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member for 124 days, 11 visits, last login: 67 days ago
updated 111 days ago
Comments:
| | HORRIBLE horrible HORRIBLE They convinced us to sign up for their service saying that we would be able to cancel very easily if it did not work for us.
IT DID NOT WORK AT ALL.
I have now had to call them 5 times and wasted 2 and a half hours trying to cancel it. They required a faxed letter to cancel and gave me a non-existent fax number to send it. They then told me to email the letter and somehow "did not receive it".
PLEASE AVOID YOURSELF THE TIME AND FRUSTRATION, and do not use this service. | |
| | | no it doesn't matter I live next to a tower and max at 2mb/s | |
| | | | |  linicxCaveat EmptorPremium
join:2002-12-03
United State
 ·CenturyLink
| Re: msg deleted Excuse me while I pick myself up off he floor. As written, it's one of the funniest comments I've read in a long time. 
Yes, you should move your apartment and at the same time move you provider to Mars. You're caught in the MS shuffle that began in the 90s when the PC/IE was blamed when the ISPs servers were at fault. You can disconnect and reboot all day long and it will not improve oversold congestion, poor ping, bottleneck connection points, server issues, a bad location (I had wISP) or a lousy installation/crappy equipment. You have to rise above the fray.
You will keep hearing the same lame excuses If you cannot reach upper level tech support and have a tech out to realign or replace equipment. When I had that problem I asked to speak to someone in the U.S. - but it was not with this company.
Your only other choice may be .cable, or telco, or your nearest library. Unlike Superman the wireless line-of-sight cannot shoot through the heavy summer foliage of mature trees, or shoot through buildings. bridges, etc., to reach the tower in question. It is very possible your signal is bouncing off the tower that is much farther.
I went throught that pain for 9 months before I quit. That was about two days before they sent a virus to every customer, and to their third party server in Atlanta. They were off line for 10 days. By then I had a new computer, AT&T, and a steady signal. It was off line for 30 minutes once in two years before I moved.
Good luck!
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Mac: No windows, No Gates, Apple inside | |
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| Reviews:
 ·Clearwire Wireless
| TRUTH Re: no it doesn't matter I live 250ft from the tower. Right now I'm getting .9M/sec download. I never see it go above 3M. For this I pay $50, and get a complete runaround from people who don't understand English when I call support. They claim to have an "umbrella effect", supposedly I am "too close" to the tower. Then the next tech tells me that I am connected not to the tower 250 feet away, but to one a half mile away. Then the next one tells me I am on the "wrong side" of the tower, like they only broadcast in one direction and I should move my apartment so I can get decent reception from them. Then the next one tells me that there are too many users in my area and my tower is congested, even though it's 3:30 AM.
Of course their website and salespeople claim that my address is in a "best coverage" area, and that I should have reception throughout my home.
In fact it took me two tries to submit this comment, because my connection was too slow. | |
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| Review by grazing - Location: Rockville,Montgomery,MD
 Business customer- Cost: $49 per month
Good "Worked at 1st"
Bad "Intermittent service, horrible overseas tech support"
Overall "Skip it unless you have no choice"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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I thought Clear would be a good solution for us, and it was for about six months. The the router kept losing and regaining the signal resulting in either no bars or four bars. We called customer support, got no real assistance. There is Clear store in Montgomery Mall near us, I went to buy a new router... the were only allowed to sell us a router if new opened a new account. The company has no customer service backbone at all.
I bought a new router from Amazon and still had the same problem. Either their transmission of of our tower is a mess or we some form of interference was introduced long after our initial install. In general, a lot of time wasted overall.
member for 5.9 years, 74 visits, last login: 142 days ago
updated 142 days ago
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