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jimpghpa
join:2006-12-18
Pittsburgh, PA

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Re: Attention CLEAR - You're about to lose a ton of customers

OMG I am so glad I found this thread was getting ready to sign up and would have thrown away $85 on one of their modems.
JJV
Premium Member
join:2001-04-25
Seattle, WA

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Click for full size
HD movie
It looks like a HD movie is about 3 gigs.
As you can see I was up late last night.

This is on comcast. I couldnt get clear to work for my voip and netflicks.
wahiggins3
join:2009-04-07

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I used to be a CLEAR dealer in Atlanta and I am now getting totally out of the business because of this mess. One of the main reasons I loved CLEAR and the technology was the fact that CLEAR supported an Open Internet with no caps. It was part of the sales pitch. It is still part of the sales pitch.

I have used CLEAR Home + Voice and Mobile for a year and a half. Since Atlanta was the second launch city we have had it almost the longest. I can tell you that I had almost no problem for that entire time except for the last 3 weeks. Ever since CLEAR implemented what they call NIMS. Not sure of the exact acronym but it is essentially a new network management system to equalize bandwidth across all users to keep the heavy users from taking it all.

My sources inside CLEAR tell me that the day they implemented NIMS the tickets and issues were out of control. They did eventually go back and adjust the settings to be less restrictive. But overall there still seems to be all kinds of residual issues.

Right now I seem to be able to get 4 – 6MB download but for the last 2 weeks my uploads never get better than 50k. I work from home and there I can’t even send an email with an attachment. So at this point I have decided to leave CLEAR totally and sign up for ATT U-Verse. In fact, ATT is coming out tomorrow to get me setup. I will not go back to COMCAST and I am not getting the TV service. I am just getting Internet and Voice.

I still have contacts at CLEAR so if you have questions I will try to get more info as needed.

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

SysOp

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Not having to pay for tv I don't want, was a major factor when I went to Clear. And the first 4 months it worked as advertised.

But they lost me as a customer when they poorly implemented NIMS, they didn't train their people in the call centers, made customers trouble shoot every time we called, day after day, then once told we were being managed, we were not given a usage limit other than "you must have used to much unlimited"

When they change the AUP to include what the actual usage is in gigs, then I would re-consider them as my ISP.
stevejfrank
join:2003-08-15
Garden Grove, CA

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I am debating signing up after reading this thread.

Were any of you guys on the Clear Professional Plans? I was looking to use them as a backup provider simply because they offer an SLA, but if they just throw this out of the window because of bandwidth "abuse"...I am out.

Steve

SysOp
join:2001-04-18
Atlanta, GA

1 edit

SysOp

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»Clear Pro with SLA

Accrdoing to this user, he was throttled with the Clear Pro account. He said "the SLA itself does not list the speed guaranteed" so no minimum level of service unlike a dedicated lease line.
SysOp

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said by AngelComa:

I have not used torrents in a week. Downloaded about 25gb of data, streamed movies.

Not throttled.
I call shenanigans. You have NOT posted your speed test. With Clear, you will be throttled after that 25gb of data usage.

INsano
@clearwire-wmx.net

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Have had Clear in Portland for almost 2 years. Stream netflix every week, also work-from-home heavy user. Download the odd torrent once in a while. Never been capped.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Stream Netflix and Hulu about every other day, sometimes more. Also download GB files several times a month. No sign of being throttled. Have in fact streamed two HD netflix devices at same time while downloading a large file. Both streamed HD just fine with no rebuffering.

Hektik
@windstream.net

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It is a shame for what is happening to the customers.

The tower gets hit so it affects the whole area, not just specific customers. Also there are always tower issues and they all need to be upgraded and fixed.

The terms of service are kinda shady but hey, if you agree to them then their word is bond. No exceptions. You can complain and complain all you want but in a legal sense, you are in the wrong which sucks.

knighthawktf
@clearwire-wmx.net

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Another Atlanta area customer here.
Like many here too have been hit with this cap thing pathetic 70kbs in my case is the cap has been since like monday, I called yesterday and after over an hour on the phone accomplished jack sh1t. Wish I'd checked here first as all I learned was what was here, actually that's not true as one of the posted stated there is more info here then most customer support people seem to know (or willing to say), though the two I spoke with confirmed alot of what is here after digging and digging and prying it out of them both.

OMG what is big deal in admitting the NMS system, when I call saying hey looks like your capping me... don't blow smoke up my a_s for 20minutes and make me drive you kicking and scream to fact I know better then you apparently what's going on by just looking at my modem and traffic logs and I don't work for clear, let alone tech support. Just say yeah, you are being capped sir you downloaded more then 10g last night. That way I can react to that instead of wasting everyone's time talking about my fk'ing modem for the umpteenth time for 25 minutes.

I noticed back in September a month I did like 200gig in the start of this but didn't look into it further cause back then it seemed like the cap was about 140kbs and it seemed to happen during more peek hours. Figured the towers were just overloaded and we were all paired down, not happy but about to go away for 3week so didn't worry about it at the time. I get back a couple days and now it's 70kbs.. f that.

I will be leaving clear after this month, they billed me on the 14th. Between the general speed issues I've had anyway, the tracert issue (resolved), ping issues, tower issues, the modem issues, and now this... haha you gotta be kidding me I'm a month to month, I'd be an idiot to stick around.

Caps are BS, though I probably would not leave over 225-300mo. That said, their implementation of NMS is a complete fail. I really can't believe how badly they've screwed that up and that they are so screwed up that they can't or have not adjusted the system over the last several weeks based on customer feedback - or better at least temp disabled it till they got their act together.

I'm headed back to Comcast , that is what frustrates me almost more. *sigh*

AngelComa
join:2009-11-23
Visalia, CA

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I envy those that can just get another service. Clear is the only service and they aren't even suppose to 'service me' . I'm 5.8 miles from the tower.

Might get an external antenna and see if it fixes ping.


Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

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1 Mbit would be OK even for Netflix. I can stream Netflix better on my 3G VZ stick than I can on Clear. When I have 768Kbit RR lite that streamed Netflix better than Clear, even though on speedtest I was getting 2Mbits down on Clear 4G.

I wonder rif the Sprint 4G is capped/throttled.
alfnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-18

alfnoid

MVM

said by Eagles1221:

I wonder rif the Sprint 4G is capped/throttled.
There have not been complaints of that...only clear.
In fact some people have both and are saying their clear is capped and sprint isn't.
You need a 2 year contract with sprint from what I have read though. If they had a month to month option I think most people (not in a clear contract) would have jumped over there already.

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221

Member

I have a 30 day trial of Sprint 3g/4g. I use a VZ Mifi for work and for the same cost wanted to swap to Sprint. Less coverage but if I am in a Clear city the 4G is nice. I may send it back though and just stick with VZ
Expand your moderator at work
sven_kirk3
join:2002-07-23
Lithia Springs, GA

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Re: Attention CLEAR - You're about to lose a ton of customers

I was in the same boat as for being out of the service area. No other service, other than Comcast. And I didn't like their internet only prices.

The pings suck with Clear, regardless of antenna strength, from what I've read on other users reviews on this site.

What plan are you on? I had the 1.5 Meg plan and my speeds varied from 0.5M to 2.5M.

AT&T just came into my neighborhood a few weeks ago and I signed up with them
AngelComa
join:2009-11-23
Visalia, CA

AngelComa

Member

I have their 3 megs down plan. I wish ATT came here, I would drop it and go with them in a heartbeat. Not a ATT loyalist, but I have used their 3meg down at a friends house and its very solid. We watched a few HD shows and it didn't buffer, even when he was playing online games in the other room.

JockoJ
@clearwire-wmx.net

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IMO Sprint 4G is throttled. In my office, I get 7-8m down, 1m up with my 4/5 bars on my Clear modem and about the same on my Clear USB modem. With my Epic on 4g, I get 3.4m and very inconsistent upload speeds, anywhere from 300k - 1m.
alfnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-18

alfnoid

MVM

said by JockoJ :

IMO Sprint 4G is throttled. In my office, I get 7-8m down, 1m up with my 4/5 bars on my Clear modem and about the same on my Clear USB modem. With my Epic on 4g, I get 3.4m and very inconsistent upload speeds, anywhere from 300k - 1m.
That could be the antenna on the epic or similar reception issue with different hardware.
You are not throttled if you are seeing 3+ mbps.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

said by alfnoid:

said by JockoJ :

IMO Sprint 4G is throttled. In my office, I get 7-8m down, 1m up with my 4/5 bars on my Clear modem and about the same on my Clear USB modem. With my Epic on 4g, I get 3.4m and very inconsistent upload speeds, anywhere from 300k - 1m.
That could be the antenna on the epic or similar reception issue with different hardware.
You are not throttled if you are seeing 3+ mbps.
Phone testing is very sporadic for me. The android test apps often don't work well and I use speakeasy.net/speedtest on my EVO. One test may show 1Mbps while another says 6Mbps in same spot/time.

I've seen up to 10Mbps on my EVO but it's not typically the same as my home Clear cable modem, which has better antennas. Also, the phone could have a bottleneck with other things going on, especially in Android world.
kram1984j
join:2009-12-06

kram1984j

Member

said by xenophon:

I've seen up to 10Mbps on my EVO but it's not typically the same as my home Clear cable modem, which has better antennas. Also, the phone could have a bottleneck with other things going on, especially in Android world.
OTH, Sprint 3G appears throttled or just really really bogged down (at least where I use it.). Used to get >1mbps nearly everywhere for several years (touch pro / touch pro 2) all the way up until about a month after I got the evo. But if I'm on 3G on my evo it's usually only 50kbps down.
dellis9
join:2002-09-22
Des Plaines, IL

dellis9

Member

@kram1984j

That is because you are in an area where everyone is using their 3G (Don't forget it isn't just for data, but for voice too) In general 3G kinda sucks for data.
baadandy
join:2010-08-09
San Francisco, CA

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I have not been at my second home where I have replaced my wired internet connection with Clear for about a week and a half. Zero data has been consumed. I come back, run a speed test and am sitting at 1.5 megs max. When I first got my service about 2 months ago, I was averaging about 8 Megs down.

I will call Clear tomorrow and if they can't figure out their traffic management system then they will no longer be the ones earning my system. What an incompetent company. I was happy to drop Comcast - I was tired of paying through the roof for an internet connection at a second residence so I was excited when Clear came along, offering me a full signal and fast speeds for a reasonable price. I guess it was too good to be true.
kram1984j
join:2009-12-06

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said by dellis9:

@kram1984j

That is because you are in an area where everyone is using their 3G (Don't forget it isn't just for data, but for voice too) In general 3G kinda sucks for data.
That may be but it wasn't a slow drop it was fairly instant drop from 1mbps+ always (better towers/areas easily were above 2mbps and it was VERY uncommon to find below 1mbps anywhere as long as you had good reception, >3"bars" -- With good reception it was EASY to stream HQ Hulu over Sprint 3G) and then it changed to 50kbps almost always, starting right around June/July a few weeks after I got the evo. I wouldn't think there'd be "that many"(~10-20X all previous usage?) evos being tethered and there are TONS of WM sprint tetherers that use 5-10GB+ every month.

Also, not sure what you mean by saying 3G's also for voice.... whenever the phone makes a call it switches to 1x, as did my TP2 and my TP before that. EvDO = Evolution Data-Only. The phones will sit on 3G/EvDO to monitor for calls while in idle, but once you answer the phone it will go to 1X for the call. That's why CDMA phones can't use voice and data at the same time (they technically could, but it would require Two radios).

I believe I have seen mentioned on some blog(s) rumors of Sprint temporarily moving the evdo bandwidth allocation at some towers in "4G" cities over to the wimax as a stopgap until Clear can add more backhaul to the towers for the way overloaded wimax, but I don't know if there's any truth to those rumors. It would make sense to me probably because they're marketing the 4G and they'd have more rep to lose from 50kbps "4g" than from their 3G running slowly which would only really affect their minimal numbers of broadband laptop card customers and the tetherers, as well as maybe people who use the couple other data-hungry 3G phones they have like the TP2.

knighthawktf
@clearwire-wmx.net

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Sprint may or may not be managing there end, but if they are they are managing with a different system entirely.

cp
Premium Member
join:2004-05-14
Wheaton, IL

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I finally got hit with the throttle monster!



I did 8GB of uploading in one day. After I did that, my connection has never gone above 1.5 Mbps downloading.

Been like this for a week now.
jkeelsnc
join:2008-08-22
Greensboro, NC

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Actually, they should consider another possibility as well. My AT&T line kept giving me problems so i switched to TWC (which is not great either). I considered clear as a possibility. But then I decided not to go with clear due to the things I had been hearing about throttled connections to really low speeds, etc. So, clear consider that you lost the opportunity to do business with me because of your policies. People do find out and then walk the other way.
hardly
Premium Member
join:2004-02-10
USA

hardly

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+1

dkraft
@bankersx.com

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Oh, CRAP.

Now I realize that's what happened here too.

I uploaded some images from my Android and ever since the throttle kicks in and I cant stream a single hulu.

Bastards.