We
knew Clearwire would be snaking its 4G services to
select markets in North Carolina, Hawaii and Texas before the year's end, but it's always reassuring to hear a corporation come right out and affirm that those leaked dates are still solid. What's interesting about the latest announcement is that both
Clearwire and
Sprint will be offering 4G in these same cities under their own brands, even though the signals and towers used will be the same. Starting next month, WiMAX will officially land in Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina (Charlotte is already lit up, despite these companies' claims) and Austin; Dallas/Fort Worth; San Antonio, Texas. In December, the companies will get things fired up in Honolulu and Maui, two areas where we're certain techs from Sprint / Clearwire are more than eager to go "test things out." So, now that this has all panned out, how's about another leak sheet for 2010 rollouts?
posted Oct 23rd 2009 4:27PM
Does anyone have this service? How well does it work?
I have it in Atlanta, it works great. I pay $22.50 for 6 months and then $45 a month for Pick 1 Unlimited. I chose the home package with the Motorola WiMax modem. Usually my speeds range between 5 - 10 Mb's down and 875 Kb's - 1 Mb up. I play online games via PS3 with no problems or no lag. I signed up for my service in Best Buy, the modem didn't cost anything on the spot after I signed up for a 2 year contract. But I do pay a leasing fee on it of $5 a month and a hardware protection fee of $3 a month.
When we first got it we tested it with everything we normally do on the internet to make sure it could handle our use and it works just fine. I just wish the coverage area would be larger than it is because I sometimes think about getting the mobile add-on but decide not to because it won't work when I travel outside of the limited Atlanta footprint.
$192 for a modem over 2 years? And you keep having to lease it? You should have just bought it imho.
i've been using it for about a month here in Boise, ID. I had cable internet for 10mbps and was pissed getting only 5mbps most of the time, and getting capped down to half-speed after downloading 4gb between noon-midnight. however, I think i'm going back to cable. i have the unlimited pick-1 plan, which is supposed to get "up to 6mbps", and i have seen it that high but usually it's between less than 1 to 3mbps, usually on the lower side of that, and that's just pathetic. the speeds vary drastically during different times of day. luckily, i didn't sign the 2 year contract for a lower monthly rate (i highly advise against a 2 year contract with an internet service provider) so that i could jump ship as soon as fiber optic comes to my street. i can get the same deal from cable internet for 5mbps, and i'm confident it will be close to that number more than i have been seeing with clear. and yes, this is "Clear" so it should be the higher speed true-4g, blahblah
... and Las Vegas?
More importantly, how did the guy in the picture get his hands on one of these >>> http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/19/rims-blackberry-watch-pictured-possibly-called-inpulse/
I think that's the 4G card.
thank you for that, kesey :|
San Antonio and Austin before Houston? I guess it makes sense. They only need one tower to cover both cities.
Nope, they just want people trying it out that will use it for more than MySpace and AKON ringtones :P
PRICING Details anyone?
Charlotte users?
I don't know if I should sign up for clearwire or just wait for Clear...
Clearwire is just the corporate name for Clear, which is the name used in ads now. It's all wimax rollouts, I don't think they're doing just cellular based anymore like they used to (see wikipedia page). There's only 1 wimax network.
Pricing seems to be ~45 a month for 6gb down with 2yr contract in other markets. They start with some special for half off 6/mo on 2yr contract also in other markets. YMMV.
Well, I have Clearwire in Charlotte for my backup internet, and they just upgraded me a Clear modem free! I didn't even have to ask. Although when I get it I have to send the other one back.
Tampa would be nice! (and rural communities 25 miles north please)
Sprint's been pretty good for me in Spring Hill, FWIW. They brought EVDO there really quickly.
Finally something comes to Hawaii First
Suck it losers
(typed from palm pre sitting on the beach at North Shore)
ok i didn't type it from the beach, but i could have if i wasn't stuck in this stupid office
I feel your pain, as a fellow resident of O'ahu.
This is a massive victory... for once.
You forgot to mention Chicago Dec 1st. I even sent in the documented tip guys.
It already works in Chicago. Just sign-up using an address for one of the "active" cities.
What are you doing for equipment Kesey? Also, what was the price and performance? Thanks!!!
Sprint will send the equipment to a different address than the billing address. I'll work on getting some performance stats. Haven't had much time to play around with it.
@Kesey
Yes you can technically get it in the unlaunched cities, but until they publicly launch they could turn your cell site off for maintenance for a couple days and you couldn't do anything about it.
Making the network publicly live IS a big deal, especially in a city as large as Chicago.
Even though as a Californian I feel slighted by lack of releases this year, at least they are opening it up to the bigger metros (e.g. Dallas/Fort-Worth). I'm curious to see how the service will do in an expansive environment like that. Oh, and @AllThingsConsidered - I did the same thing, I was like "WTF is that huge watch he's wearing."
word, to both of your statements.
Isn't that guy Adam Sandler?
look-alike
It's Adam Sandlers Younger Father.
For the price and performance CLEAR is a great deal. Check out www.ClearInternetCity.com
They are also releasing WiMAX in Chicago during the month of November, which was curiously left out of the article.
That is big new considering Chicago is a major market, and will be the largest city with 4G.
Also interesting since broadband choices are limited to dsl and cable from one company if you are lucky. Even some buildings downtown can't get cable internet, only cable tv since the infrastructure is too old. I'm talking 1000$ a month rent for a studio in the best part of town and you hope your phone line can support dsl. Internet provided by the residential buildings is usually crappy at 100kb, unable to stream netflix even. Maybe this will finally inject some more pricing competition.
Cable maxes out at 6MB for residential at ~$55.00 per month w/o cable tv. With cable tv it's in the $40s range.
Has anyone heard of usage caps on Clear?
@Randomness
They have both capped and uncapped usage plans. On the Sprint side all 4G is uncapped usage.
I spy a Thinkpad!
Using Sprint WiMax now and was getting constant 3.0mb/s down with 6.2mb/s up. I think the service blows all 3G out of the water considering the latency is so low. My only complaint is the service is still a bit spotty in the hotels but who am i kidding because every ones service is bad in hotels.
True. Try Motels.
They are a little ahead of schedule. Seems that they went active in the mid size town of Wichita Falls Tx a couple of weeks ago. It surprised the hell out of me, but it is great to have another high speed internet other than road runner.
I live in Gboro, I have had my new modem, and have been surfing those 4G waves for a little over a month now, and I must say it works pretty well. My only complaint is an occasional hiccup when playing the PS3 online.
Jay,
I live about 20 miles south of Greensboro. Any idea whether it would currently cover this far south?
Are map coverages available?
Thanks
I'm from Chicago and can confirm that Clear will be opening in Mid-November. Towers are currently up and running but authorized retailers will be opening up shortly. [guess how I know :) ]
If you need any more info on Chi shoot me an e-mail timkoo at gmail dot com
Someone explain to me why they hooked up Daytona but not a larger city Tampa. I've been waiting & waiting for them to hit this market but it looks like it won't be anytime soon. To bad that they want to connect Honolulu & leave some of the bigger & better markets in the USA out.
Just don't expect good service unless you are fairly close to a tower. It degrades very rapidly as self-install indoor modems are sub-par at best. I don't see a good niche for this service, as if you are within a close enough distance to a tower you probably have cable and/or dsl available, either one of which is probably going to give you more consistent speeds - further away and the service just plain sucks. The speeds people are seeing now are mis-leading as the network is new and not loaded down with customers.
I love how they're deploying this shit everywhere except Silicon Valley.
@Hurricane Silicon Valley "testbed" network is already live... great if you are near Google, Cisco or Stanford. And I think SF and the greater Bay area is on the 2010 rollout schedule. I know the "old" Clearwire is out near Tracy and Stockton, so they already have some infrastructure in place...
I've decided that most of the providers are scared to launch in SV until they are positive it will handle all of us technophile early adopters. That said, I want I want I want. They have service around Stanford and Google you say?
@Valicore. I would claim to be anything that ends with edophile.
Too bad we didnt Nuke Hong Kong instead.
Hawaii???
I live in Hawaii and I know only 1 person who has clearwire and they use it for their business (read... a write-off).
Not many here care about 4G just because of the cost.
@ty1911
Huh? It's cheaper than regular ISP, why should not your care?
Yeah, it's been in Hawaii for a really long time now, I don't understand what they're saying about "rolling" it out, unless of course its for more coverage, but definitely not introducing anything new.
Clear is already offering 4G in Waco, TX since before October, and I caught a peek at a 4G mobile broadband card at my local Sprint store at the beginning of October..