 ricep5 Premium join:2000-08-07 Jacksonville, FL
·AT&T Southeast
·AT&T CallVantage
·VoicePulse
·Comcast Formerly ..
| Former Clearwire customer
First off, Clearwire is not WiMax, though they plan on using it. Intel is an investor in Clearwire.
Second, Clearwire licenses a part of spectrum that was allocated to school districts by the FCC. Clearwire typically as part of their contract, rents that spectrum from the schools and provides free internet to them in return.
Third, just as the VoIP dust up started, my Clearwire service started degrading calls. First with mild clipping, then lost words. When my contract was up I didn't renew.
The service has some of the same issues as cable. At around 3PM to 11PM the latency would go way up as the people in the service area would boot up and drain off capacity.
If your NextNet antenna wasn't very high, it was sensitive to physical obstructions or weather. They offer a Netgear based powerline solution to extend the service down to the first floor if necessary.
Clearwire is not interested in volume users. They want the occassional home user that has a low demand potential and therefore high margin.
They will partner with anyone for sales. They have become the Avon lady of the internet around here. Even the local sushi buffet is an authorized Clearwire reseller.
The benefit that I found was that I could take the antenna/modem combo with me to my girlfriends house. It will even work in your car if you stay in range of the towers. |