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Comments on news posted 2012-12-07 17:36:02: There's no shortage of new wireless MVNOs emerging this year promising to do something a little different on the pricing front. Republic Wireless plans to lower prices by offloading most of the daily traffic to Wi-Fi. ..

silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Good idea, except....

It runs on ClearWire. If it ran on Verizon's or even At&t's 4G network, I would consider it. ClearWire doesn't even offer service in my state.
NeoandGeo
join:2003-05-10
Harrison, TN

NeoandGeo

Member

They don't offer service anywhere near me. Can't wait until something like this comes to the area, it would be what I chose. I no longer need a phone service. All I need is an IP address that has pricing like this.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72

Member

great idea

However wimax is dead for consumers and clearwire isn't expanding until they launch LTE. Dont know if this is LTE capable, but if it isn't throw it in the garbage.

No wimax in my town and there never will be (Buffalo).

Strictly for urban city dwellers and in most cases the core only.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

Fatal flaw

Market saturation:

Onee anyone who cares buys the unit there will be no one to buy the bandwidth ad-hock for $14/GB.

They should have sold the units for $500 with 30GB.

What happens if you buy this and no one buys bandwidth from you? You end up with a prepaid plan of $14/GB... sucks.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Good Deal

Although WiMax coverage is spotty, I just checked AT&T's site and they want you to pay $49 for a hotspot (regular price something like $200 but you get $150 discount for a 2-year plan), then they hit you with $40/month for the data plan and $20/month for adding the hotspot as a device. That price gives you 1GB/month. Extra data is $15/GB.

$60 - $14 = $46 cheaper for 1GB/month. As the data usage grows, so do the savings:


GB Karma$ AT&T$
1 14 75
2 28 90
3 42 105
4 56 120
5 70 135
6 84 150
7 98 165
8 112 180
9 126 195
10 140 210
NYGiants0
join:2012-08-31
united state

NYGiants0

Member

Bad Karma

the only place this is avail is in cable and fiber filled cities, pretty worthless to use as second connection due to the cost

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

Memories of FON

Seems remarkably similar to Spanish upstart (and still going nowhere) FON. Free WiFi access to any one of their hotspots if you buy one, the only problem is you don't have a hope in hell of finding a hotspot.

anon anon
@charter.com

anon anon to rradina

Anon

to rradina

Re: Good Deal

NOT a good deal. You can get better deals with WildBlue, Hughesnet, Verizon HomeFusion, hell just regular Verizon cellular.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband to elefante72

Member

to elefante72

Re: great idea

wimax actually is being used my thousands of smaller ISPs. just because the large companies are not using does NOT make it dead to consumers.

If Sprint was smart and deployed this like they planned to start off with it would be national. Instead they sold it off and waited to rebuild something. Now they're farther behind everyone else and still basically have nothing to show for it. Even Chicago had coverage under Sprint's Wimax when it launched, they don't even have LTE there now.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

1 edit

Robert

Premium Member

Sounds great -- except..

Except you have to use Facebook to buy and use it. Sorry, I don't use FB. I was ready to order the device until they tried to force me to use a social networking site to use their services.

Moving on.

jpmist
@pavlovmedia.com

jpmist

Anon

Good for me

I have a Netzero free account and at 9 months am tired of nursing my 200mb thru the month. After 12 months the free data expires and the data plan they offer is much more than $14/gig plus unused data expires monthly.

The Karma router is about 25% smaller and is more pocketable. It will come in handy to feed my iPhone and Nexus 7 cheaper than what the telcos want to gouge me for.

The biggest advantage is that's it's a pay as you go, no contract plan where you buy data in relatively cheap chunks that don't expire monthly as the other's do.

joako
Premium Member
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null

joako to Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

to Thane_Bitter

Re: Memories of FON

At least I got a free dd-wrt capable router from FON.
civicturbo
join:2009-11-08
USA

civicturbo to Thane_Bitter

Member

to Thane_Bitter
FON put up a map over a year ago, I find many people on it in my city, I got one of the 2.0 n routers too
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to silbaco

Member

to silbaco

Re: Good idea, except....

...which is why the service runs on Clearwire. Clear WiMAX is less expensive, and more MVNO friendly, than anyone out there, mainly because they're trying to sell an older 4G network with limited metro-area coverage.
iansltx

iansltx to TBBroadband

Member

to TBBroadband

Re: great idea

Actually, CHI does have LTE. They haven't announced it yet, but the service is available in most areas now.

RR Conductor
Ridin' the rails
Premium Member
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
ARRIS SB6183
Netgear R7000

RR Conductor to silbaco

Premium Member

to silbaco

Re: Good idea, except....

Clear has a tower in Ukiah, about 10 miles south of me, but you can't get service with it, Clear has similar situations in Santa Rosa, Yuba City and Marysville, sites up and running, but nobody can use them. They are so called "Protection sites", meant only to keep their license active.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I'll stick with my VZW ShareEverything plan

I don't use my mobile hotspot that much but enough to justify the $20 fee on my Verizon ShareEverything plan.

I have six devices total (iPad mini, iPad 3, iPhone 5, VZW Jetpack, and 2 dumb phones), four of them (everything other than the two dumb phones) consume data. I have the 4GB plan.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina to anon anon

Member

to anon anon

Re: Good Deal

Satellite providers make mobile hot spots? I guess with a self-pointing mechanism, anything is possible but I wouldn't think a two foot dish is portable. Perhaps this is a great option for an RV.

Regardless, I don't understand your comment.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA to RR Conductor

Premium Member

to RR Conductor

Re: Good idea, except....

We have two of those sites too. Let's see how many ways they can spin a poor product into something useful. There's like 100 different CLEAR MVNOs now.

RR Conductor
Ridin' the rails
Premium Member
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA

RR Conductor

Premium Member

Yeah, I think Clear either needs to get serious about their network, or just fold and sell out.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Their plan is to sell out to Sprint I think.