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Review by danparker See Profile

  • Location: Washington, District Of Columbia, DC, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month (999 month contract)
  • Install: about 10 days
Cheap
Unreliable, will go down for days on end. Useless support.
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 10.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 10.6 years ago


whfsdude
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Washington, DC

whfsdude

Premium Member

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.
whfsdude

whfsdude

Premium Member

Re: Outage

A little rain and we're down again.

bh137
@tccd.edu

bh137

Anon

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.

Review by ocjosh See Profile

  • Location: Santa Fe Springs, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
Good price for 2 lines, no cap, no speed limit till you work it out your own
Require outdoor antenna to make it usable, new customer need to pay a lot more now
I am lucky
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My Other Reviews

·T-Mobile
·Verizon Wireless
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 11 years, 1022 visits, last login: 55 days ago
updated 10.6 years ago


Review by KBentley See Profile

  • Location: Fort Worth, Tarrant, TX, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
absolutely nothing
everything
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 10.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
updated 10.7 years ago







Review by vidmanpk See Profile

  • Location: San Antonio, Bexar, TX, USA
  • Cost: $41 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Worked great for 4 years
Abysmal last month
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 10.7 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 10.7 years ago


Review by GTForce See Profile

  • Location: Rockville, Montgomery, MD, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
Easy setup
Getting ~1 Mbps instead of the 6 Mbps I was promised and am paying for
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 10.7 years, 3 visits, last login: 10.7 years ago
lodged 10.7 years ago

vibsdj
join:1999-11-25
Marietta, GA

vibsdj

Member

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.

Review by benbart See Profile

  • Location: King Of Prussia, Montgomery, PA, USA
  • Cost: $25 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Speeds of 6-10 mbps - depends on your location
if not near a tower!
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 !!!
.

member for 10.8 years, 13 visits, last login: 9 years ago
updated 10.7 years ago


jsnbgs
@comcast.net

jsnbgs

Anon

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.
KBentley
join:2013-07-09
Fort Worth, TX

KBentley

Member

no it doesn't matter

I live next to a tower and max at 2mb/s

linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium Member
join:2002-12-03
United State

linicx

Premium Member

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!
ResidentWeev
join:2012-07-02
San Francisco, CA

ResidentWeev to KBentley

Member

to KBentley

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.






Review by grazing See Profile

  • Location: Rockville, Montgomery, MD, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost: $49 per month
Worked at 1st
Intermittent service, horrible overseas tech support
Skip it unless you have no choice
Pre Sales Information:
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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 16.4 years, 74 visits, last login: 10.8 years ago
updated 10.8 years ago

sparky007
join:2011-08-25
Phoenix, AZ

sparky007

Member

External Attenna

I would try an external attenna if you router has a port for one. Sounds like your loosing signal and the router is bouncing from tower to tower.

»www.amazon.com/MaxWiMAX- ··· 06O3MHHQ

»wimaxsatx.com/?p=1029

»www.wimaxspot360.com/

»www.rfwel.com/shop/2.5-2 ··· nna.html

»www.zdacomm.com/wireless ··· antenna/

»broo2.blogspot.com/2009/ ··· -up.html

»www.instructables.com/id ··· ola-CPE/

»www.danlampie.com/?p=708

Review by webvistas See Profile

  • Location: Atlanta, Fulton, GA, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
brainless setup! No contract. No limits.
widely varying speed, from less than basic DSL, to decent broadband speeds, at inconvenient times. Support is online chat only.
I like it, but they need to improve the network.

I've had DSL from Earthlink - could get only a max of 1.5Mbps from them.

I've had AT&T U-Verse, service was great but installation tore up my house and I have other issues with them. Will NOT get Comcast. Period.

As a stopgap I got a wireless connection from T-Mobile, but the 5GB cap was too restrictive.

So, I decided to try Clear. Ordered one day, received the next. Plugged the unit in and it just worked! Tweaked the modem position and got 4Mb/sec. Wonderful. For a month. Then, who knows what reason, the speed started to dip to 0.5Mb/sec. Stayed bad for two or three days, then rebounded to 2.5Mb. Then I started to take semi-regular Speedtest.net tests. Over three months, download speed varied from 0.5 to 4 Mbps, usually dipping during morning, midday, and evening. Upload speeds were fairly consistent at 1.0 Mbps.

Most of their support people were clueless. Finally talked to one who admitted that their network was often overloaded on my towers, and that the modem antenna was not as directional as they indicated in documentation. He did give me tips to get my speed range up to 1.2 - 6 Mbps, If i wait till the middle of the night I can occasionally get 9 Mbps!

I'll take 6 Mbps if they can just get it to me consistently! Clear needs to get me to 12 Mbps before I'm totally satisfied.

My smartphone 4G LTE gets 25-30 Mbps but again I have a 5GB cap, and I use 20-25 GB per month.

member for 22 years, 43 visits, last login: 5.1 years ago
lodged 10.9 years ago

vibsdj
join:1999-11-25
Marietta, GA

vibsdj

Member

Clear Tech Support

Having the same issues with download speed. It was great at first and then got slower and slower depending on the time of day.

After trying absolutely everything with and without their tech support, I got escalated to Level 2.

They immediately saw my problem. I live close to a tower that is too congested (to my west) which is in a heavily populated commercial area. The next tower near me is to the east which is in a residential area and the congestion is far below the tower to the west. Problem is, my modem picks the strongest signal and without an external directional antenna (which my Home WiMax/WiFi does not have), it stays locked on to the congested tower.

I need to modify my home modem for an external antenna connection and get a high gain directional 2.6-2.7 Ghz antenna and the wire (and a place to mount it on the roof).

Yikes!

Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Lawrenceville, Gwinnett, GA, USA
  • Cost: $31 per month
Very bad company
The worst company
Don't use this service. They do not care about customer service!
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I called CLEAR in March 2012 to report that my modem was not working. The
gentleman (from another country, obviously) told me there are no towers
working in the area of my office and that it would not work there. I asked
him to cancel my service and he said that he would.



That was in March of 2012. Because of serious illness, I did not check my
bill closely, and in September I realized they were still charging me for
service that has not been used since February of 2012. I called again and
was told that it would be cancelled and they would credit my account.



I called again today as I found another charge of $31+ on my account. I
asked to speak with someone in the USA. They did not transfer me to a rep
in the USA as requested.



Even when I was using the service in another city it did not work most of
the time. This is the worst service and the worst customer service that I
have ever experienced.



My advise is never subscribe to a service that mainly uses people from other
countries to provide that service. There is little integrity in the states
these days, and absolutely none in most of the countries that are doing
these jobs today. YOU WILL BE RIPPED OFF!



I WOULD NEVER SUBSCRIBE TO CLEAR AGAIN!




(review was emailed from domain bellsouth.net)
lodged 10.9 years ago


Review by PamelaTS See Profile

  • Location: Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA
  • Cost: $52 per month
It's not AT&T
High ping rates, only gets 2-3 Mps
Counting days till I can term w/o an ETF... RUN AWAY!
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This is the second attempt at using Clear third modem the original modem was crap, the series M modem was flaky at best, very unstable. The series G modem seems stable (its on) speed is not so great though. Had to move modem to a window to get a usable connection.

Oh they REQUIRE auto billing you don't see an invoice till after the bill ya. Watch out for fees and taxes they do not disclose when they quote you a price

~~~.

I moved the first of 2012 the new address gets better than 2-3 bars now. I knew the 4th and fifth lamp worked seen it flashing when starting up or acting up. I get a solid 5 bars now depending on day of week and hour of day speed can still be poor (0.41 down 0.92 up on 1/5/2012). the best yet > 15+ down 0.92 up 1/4/2012. Oh probably very important I can literally see the tower from my balcony

~~~

Steady decline in service, Jan 2013 it got extremely poor, dial-up poor ~ over saturated towers. They lowered my bill to $25, Somewhere along the way they slipped in a change of plan lowering the promised 10 Mbps down to 6Mbps this was never mentioned. Unless and yes there are neighborhoods in large urban cities like Dallas where cable doesn't exist, unless there is no other option RUN AWAY from this it's shady sales techniques and lousy un-reliable service!

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member for 19.9 years, 3042 visits, last login: 49 days ago
updated 10.9 years ago