Clearwire: Worth having?
This post is being brought to you by Clearwire Broadband Internet service. No, this is not a sponsored post; but that first sentence was quite accurate. Not too long ago, I drove m
yself down to an official Clearwire dealer, gave them my Visa card number, and left the store the proud lessee of a Clearwire modem, and one month’s worth of access to the internet.
This cost me every bit of $20.33, but they also stuck a $45 hold on my card. I’m was not happy at all about the hold, because I was in no way informed that there would be one. I used my debit card to make this transaction, and it caused me to have a negative balance on my account. Not cool. I’m not going to blame Clearwire though, as I believe this to be the fault of the dealer I chose; they simply did not provide me with complete and accurate information. Take that as a lesson, always deal with the business itself when possible, never the middle man.
Being a ‘value’ minded consumer, as you should expect me to be (that’s my niche), I went with the ‘value’ plan. $24.99 per month for the service itself, $4.99 for the modem lease, and a few cents worth of taxes that will vary by your location. This bought me a theoretical download speed of 768 kbps, upload speed of 256kbps, and 3 email addresses. I may or may not be receiving a $50 Visa Gift Card; it was never mentioned at the dealer’s store, but it is on my receipt. That will be a nice surprise in 6-8 weeks, maybe (hopefully!).
I tested the speed earlier, and it was actually a bit quicker than advertised. I checked again in the past few days; and that speed has been maintained. Can’t promise the same for everyone though. Anyways, the speed should be more than quick enough for my basic needs; blogging, web browsing, and downloading media. I’m used to a much faster cable connection, but I’m really not noticing a tremendous drop in speed. Those huge data ‘pipes’ are only useful if something can throw it to you at that speed. If you’re a single computer household, there are very few things (none?) that can serve you data at that rate. But on the other hand, if you’re running a four or five computer network as I know a lot of you are, that extra speed may be essential to keep from bogging everyone down. Clearwire does offer a higher speed; 1.5 mbps download, so that may be of some interest to you if you’re a power user.
It’s kind of hard to give a solid thumbs up or thumbs down at this point (I’ve only used it a month or so), but so far I’m pretty impressed. My connection is solid (the technology uses cell towers). 4 out of 5 lights on the modem about 70% of the time, 3 out of the 5 for the remainder. I’ve seen it dip lower, but only momentarily. It has yet to completely drop out on me. I’ll report back later, and let you know how it goes long term; they have me locked into a two year contact because I’m cheap and didn’t want to pay the activation fee. So I have a long time to report! By the way, customer service was very friendly, and quite helpful. Surf on!
–Jeremy Hobbs
internet access, broadband, wimax, wireless internet
November 12th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Clearwire: Worth having? | The Consumer’s Corner
Having used it now for a couple of months, I’m ready to give a review of the wireless internet service provider, Clearwire. Clearwire is an internet service that draws data from cell towers, thus making is movable, and able to go where you go. I’ve p…
March 1st, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I’m wondering if you’re still pleased with Clearwire. I’m looking for an alternative to my Comcast acct.
Jeff
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
It would depend on your needs Jeff.
If you’re a -heavy- media user, I’d stay with Comcast. Cable is the fastest and (usually) most reliable broadband solutions available to consumers.
If you’re just browsing, emailing, chatting, Clearwire will suit you fine. But ATT has DSL Lite, which is cheaper than Clearwire, and offers a similar speed, and (usually) more reliability. I don’t believe you’ll be locked in a contract, either.
Personally, I’ve only had it slow on me a few times; and never had it drop out. But I’m in a dead center -perfect- spot for the service; my ‘office’ looks out over a fairly bare southern clearing, and I’m in the middle of a ‘big’ city. I’ve read accounts of others having terrible reliability issues.
A problem I did experience was setting up a wireless network. The service isn’t on the radar of most companies that produce wireless equipment, so it took a great deal of work to get it up and going. I would’ve been unable to do it by myself, and I’m fairly experienced.
My future plans are to switch back to Comcast; either when my 2 year contract runs out, or I come up with enough disposable income to buy it out. I miss the speed more than I thought I would, and after my promotional deal is up, the price difference wouldn’t be that great.
Probably provided you with more questions than answers, but feel free to come back at me. My email address is in the ‘About/Contact’ section if you’d like to talk privately.