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SocialistPig
join:2001-08-06
North Las Vegas, NV

SocialistPig

Member

Clear vs Sprint (Side by Side)

Howdy all,

I have long used Sprint for my mobile data via hotspot on my Android phones. At the moment I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I recently decided to switch to Clearwire, getting the Clear Spot Voyager. I have to say I am little disappointed. So far I have only tried it on one tower, in one parking lot but I'm not too happy with the results.

My cell phone connected via the Clear Spot has capped out at 492 KB/sec, but averages closer to 340ish. My cell phone on 4G consistently hits 750kB/sec, but is usually closer to 850ish. The pings on Clearwires network are consistently lower since they have a local PoP here, while my Sprint traffic is routed to Kansas.

I was hoping to see higher, or more consistent speeds on the Clear device since it's a device specifically built for Clear's network. Later this week at work I will be driving around and I'm anxious to see if the Clear hotspot is better at handling some of the coverage gaps between towers that I know from using Sprint.

I'm rather surprised at the differences. From my understanding Clear and Sprint run on the exact same frequency, and the data is just routed differently at the tower/backhaul, correct? I'm assuming this means Clear's backhaul or PoP just doesn't have the same capacity as Sprint's?

I'll continue testing this week. I really hope that the Clear Spot Voyager is better at the bad signal areas / switching towers than my Galaxy S2 is.