Clearwire Suffers Five Hour Outage In half a dozen of the company's launch markets... Clearwire's Mobile WiMax service went offline for about five hours last night according to Multichannel News. The outage impacted Clearwire customers (and Comcast and Time Warner Cable resold customers) in Seattle, Chicago, Texas, Oregon, Las Vegas and Boise, Idaho. "During network maintenance we encountered a software glitch that impacted service for Clear and MSO customers alike in certain markets," Clearwire said in a statement. "The issue has since been resolved and service has been restored. This was a network issue and customer equipment was not affected." As we recently noted, early users of the company's Mobile WiMax service have also been underwhelmed in terms of speed, latency, and signal strength. Other customers in new apartment complexes with energy efficient windows report that the windows' layer of silver molecules designed to help block UV radiation also inconveniently block Clearwire signal. This could be resolved via the use of external weatherproofed antennas or femtocells, but to our knowledge this hasn't been addressed by Clear yet. Better this stuff occurs now; Clearwire doesn't want these kinds of hiccups to happen in 2009 when Verizon begins launching LTE wireless broadband in 30 target markets. If Sprint and Clearwire are going to compete effectively with AT&T and Verizon's eventual LTE launches, building up a reputation for value and reliability at these early stages is going to be important. Clearwire's advantage now is that it's first to market with "4G" service, an opportunity that's going to be squandered if Clearwire develops a reputation as a quirky, outage prone service. With Intel, Time Warner Cable, Sprint and the new "Mega-NBC-Universal-Comcast" all betting on Clearwire's success -- money certainly shouldn't be an issue. 2010 is Clearwire's sink or swim year. Will it be a good idea that floundered in execution, or will it really be a substantive and pro-consumer competitor to AT&T and Verizon's LTE assault?
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 glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY | ha! Better improve their service with the big chunk of cash they received recently. LTE is coming at full speed at you wimax! | |
|  |  kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Re: ha! said by glinc:LTE is coming at full speed at you wimax! No, it really isn't. WiMax has millions of active customers. LTE is in the labs and in a few press releases.
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1 edit | Re: ha! Given the volume of money and resources AT&T and Verizon have, I wouldn't write off LTE as some kind of phantom. They should be able to successfully will LTE to power by 2012 without straining. | |
| | | | kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Re: ha! Fair enough. However, unlike the last round of network build-outs, this time the fate of the next generation technologies depends not on US or EU providers but the providers in India and China.
WiMax is not only up and running int the field, with millions of active customers, in those two countries but elsewhere in the world. LTE has to play catch-up...and that's if and when it makes it out of the gate.
I'm sure, in the end, we'll end up with a mix of both technologies....or a hybrid of the two. Much like the current map of global networks where in most countries you can find both CDMA and GSM. I don't horse in this race, really, I'm just annoyed at the fanboys that come out swinging against against WiMax because "LTE is coming" when not a single subscriber is using LTE.
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| | | | | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Re: ha! And hybrid handsets won't exist because almost everyone buys their handsets from the carrier with subsidy. If the carrier doesn't sell it, consumers don't buy it, and manufacturers are very hesitant to invest in same G hybrid handsets. Notice how 99% of CDMA/GSM phones dont have GSM 800. | |
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| | | kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Not for nothin' but I'm finding it hard to swallow that both T and VZ are planning on using the same technology for their next generation platforms. If they do, it means they'll have to co-exist peacefully with roaming agreements and such and may not be able to piss on each other like they doing at present with coverage-gate.
I think both AT&T and Verizon like having T-Mobile and Sprint has their respective bitches.
If AT&T and Verizon roam on each other and cut out smaller players - not only other nationals but regional and rural carriers with regards to both the roaming revenue and retail customers ...that won't go over well with those smaller providers and maybe even raise a regulator eyebrow or two.
I don't know. I'm missing something. There's a play to be made in the US Wireless sector...I just don't quite see yet what it might be.
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| | | | |  knightmbEverybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN
1 edit | Re: ha! said by kapil:I don't know. I'm missing something. There's a play to be made in the US Wireless sector...I just don't quite see yet what it might be. Small start-ups is where it's at. That's why I've been expanding to two states now with my services and technology. Not because it's any better/worse than anything else out there, but mainly on access and a "no non-sense" pricing model for unlimited flat usage. I don't worry about the mythical bandwidth hogs or how to come up with insane overage billing models. Focus time and energy on providing fast/stable service the masses will (and are) coming to follow.
My current plans are to have the entire states of TN and KY covered in service within a few years and at the rate that things are accelerating, that might be possible sooner than I thought.
As a side kicker, my company is partnered with Clearwire to sell service. Yes, they did that.  We haven't sold any of their service, but it sure gave us some real insight into how they run their wireless network and what markets they are in.
If I had to guess about the Clearwire outage, it would be how they restrict their service based the units they use. They have a massive database that green lights when modems are allowed to provide service. If that database is offline, then well all the equipment may function perfectly but it won't let anyone use it because it's the same as a closed account with no access as far as the modems are concerned.
First rule of thumb, learn from others mistakes. When our database that controls a similar structure goes down, the modems will stay online until told otherwise. That way it will only affect new users that sign up instead of existing users until the problem is fixed.  | |
| | | | | | jfd15
join:2008-01-07
West Sacramento, CA | Re: ha! said by knightmb: I don't worry about the mythical bandwidth hogs or how to come up with insane overage billing models. Focus time and energy on providing fast/stable service the masses will (and are) coming to follow. My current plans are to have the entire states of TN and KY covered in service within a few years and at the rate that things are accelerating, that might be possible sooner than I thought. i wish you well on your business ventures as its mainly the smaller co's nipping at the heels of the bigger ones that keep prices reasonable...that said, there was just article posted on here where i think it was AT+T claiming that 3% of their cell customers used 40% of their bandwidth...if true, the "bandwidth hogs" are not a myth... | |
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| | | |  Jerm
join:2000-04-10
Richland, WA
kudos:2 | I think both AT&T and Verizon like having T-Mobile and Sprint has their respective bitches.
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Super LOL!!! | |
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| | | | said by kapil:said by glinc:LTE is coming at full speed at you wimax! No, it really isn't. WiMax has millions of active customers. LTE is in the labs and in a few press releases. LTE will come in 30 major markets by next year from providers that don't have major national outages like unCLEAR | |
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 w0go.O
join:2001-08-30
Springfield, OR | I don't own Clearwire stock But I know LTE isn't competition to Clear's 120MHz and more spectrum allocation. LTE capacity is dwarft in comparison, and WiMAX service I receive, despite occassional outages, has been great. LTE == teh pwnt.
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www.aimless.us - irc.aimless.us channel #fix | |
| kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Sprint? It says Clear and MSO customers were affected. Does that mean that Sprint-branded WiMax service wasn't impacted? If so, does that mean that Sprint is somehow running a parallel network?
If so, that would make sense. I mean, otherwise Sprint's whole next generation strategy is hinged upon essentially becoming a MVNO of a company it owns 51% and not really being a true network operator itself.
Of course, with Sprint handing off network operations to Ericsson, that whole network operator label, even for the current 3G platform, is a nebulous designation. But I digress.
It would make a lot more sense if Sprint shares some Clearwire network elements, maybe co-locate on the same towers etc or use the same radios, but still operates a separate IP network for WiMax service. Anyone know?
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| | MRCUR
join:2007-03-09
Columbia, PA | Re: Sprint? Sprint's WiMax offering merged with Clear's, right? I'm assuming they're referring to "Clear" customers as those who had Sprint service. | |
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| | New DT buying SN Rumors? How this can come to play.....
I have a feeling that if T-Mobile International makes a play for SN, they will not only own a controlling stake in Clearwire's WiMax venture, but could sway investors to migrate over to LTE which is possible with WiMax.
That would give the combined entity the most spectrum in the US along with a huge headstart in the LTE buildout. This may be there only opportunity to completely leapfrog the old stogy telcos.
Clear has much more spectrum to play with than VZ or T and likely will not have to deal with placing draconian caps at least at first.
VZ and T NEED real competition. I'm surprised there exist so many phone company cheerleaders on here. Probably all the lazy unionized workers talking out of their asses? Who knows? | |
| | | A bit odd... quote:
This could be resolved via the use of external weatherproofed antennas or femtocells, but to our knowledge this hasn't been addressed by Clear yet.
I keep seeing this, and it bothers me a bit. What's the point of using a femtocell with WiMax? External antenna I can see for sure, but using your already-existing Internet connection to get your laptop or cell phone on the Internet? When they get voice going on it it's one thing, but otherwise this doesn't make any sense.
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Ali
Geos Communications Representative | |
| | | Clear issue not resolved? Still seeing intermittent outages in Portland, Ore., 3 days later. | |
| | | new technology and growing pains From a lot of these responses, it looks like they were the ones who were saying years ago, that computer use would never be popular for personal use. The same ones who said that portable telephones were a waste of time. All new technologies experience problems, and when they are found and resolved, the product improves. Yes, LTE is in development, but the WiMax service is already in real-world use. You will NEVER get a development scenario that will duplicate that kind of use. Ten years ago, you did not get cellular service, once you left the larger markets. As the technology became more dependable and covered wider areas, they became useful to more people. I see the same situation for the wireless internet services. Just like the cell providers, When LTE debuts, they will have to co-exist with WiMax, and the customers will be the final judge. | |
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