Clearwire's WiMAX rollout rolls on: NC, WA, TX, IL and HI get lit
By Darren Murph 
posted December 1st 2009 10:36AM
posted December 1st 2009 10:36AM
Think LTE is the future? How's about the present? Clearwire is expanding its national footprint in a big, big way today by announcing WiMAX services in a slew of regions in a smattering of states. Starting today, 4G access can be found in both Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii, which effectively removes the last sane reason to not visit and / or relocate there. In fact, CLEAR is now available to 800,000 citizens of America's finest state, with service extending 1,759 square miles over Oahu, Maui, and Lanai. Moving on, residents of Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina can also buy in, right along with those folks in Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Austin, Texas who mistakenly think their BBQ is superior. Closing things out, we've got new access throughout the Puget Sound area (including Seattle and King County, Pierce County, Kitsap County, and Snohomish County), not to mention a green light to hop on the 4G superhighway in the Chicago region. If you're anxious to ditch 3G, you'll find plans starting at just $30 per month.
I have them now in NJ/PA, dump Verizon FIOS never been happier
I really wish Houston got some of this Clearwire love.
I don't get it. They say its 2mbps down and 256kbps up. How is that any faster than what EVDO RevA can pump out? And EVDO RevA works virtually anywhere, in any city in the US, and in many rural areas as well due to Verizon's enormous network. Heck, AT&T's network has a lot more coverage than this, and it can top 2mbps.
@(Unverified)
"(Unverified) Posted Dec 1st 2009 11:57AMNEUTRAL
I don't get it. They say its 2mbps down and 256kbps up. How is that any faster than what EVDO RevA can pump out? And EVDO RevA works virtually anywhere, in any city in the US, and in many rural areas as well due to Verizon's enormous network. Heck, AT&T's network has a lot more coverage than this, and it can top 2mbps."
I'm getting 5mbps down and almost 1mbps up. I have the USB modem with an attachment that throws out a wifi LAN for 150'. This baby makes Verizon and Mifi seem like dialup.
@(Unverified) I just looked, and they do have faster plans now. I still can't see much of a market for this, however, as it is like a slower version of cable for home, and an extremely limited coverage version of EVDO for mobile.
That being said, this could be big for rural broadband coverage, although LTE could be bigger, as it will be running at 700mhz.
Personally, I'm happy with wifi and EDGE/HSDPA.
@(Unverified) If you get 2 mbps in any major city with AT&T then everyone is dead. AT&T is slow. Plus WiMax accounts are unlimited usage unlike conventional 3G. The speed will increase as more infrastructure is put into place.
@(Unverified) I have tested over 2mbps on AT&T, probably in the Cleveland or Detroit area or something. Usually I use EDGE, which averages around 130kbps. HSDPA averages around 800-1200k for me. I have unlimited, as I am tethering a MediaNet plan. Even then, you don't need unlimited mobile broadband, that's what cable or DSL is for.
WiMAX seems like a glorified hot spot that sort of defeats the purpose of wireless broadband.
I'd like to see the original promise of this stuff realized- rural installations. They could use installed outdoor antennas to get good speed many, many miles away from the nearest DSLAM.
From what Ive heard from a friend of mine who was going to sell this service, the signal gets 2mbps all the time and that in my area we were getting 4mbps consistently.
I was initially interested in this, but for home and mobile service (i.e. for my laptop), the cost is pretty close to Comcast's home internet price, and is consistently much slower.
I'd accept slower IF it was less than half the price of Comcast Internet, for both home and away service.
Oh well.
If you think Texan's are mistaken about our BBQ your sorely mistaken.
LTE will win the war, but it will be a loooong time coming. I'll be finished with my WiMax contract long before it's time to move to LTE.
You can check Sprint's 4G Coverage map for more detail.
Just scroll down and click on the Data, Email and Multimedia tab.
Then on the left click on Sprint devices with 4G.
Lastly enter the desired location above under Map a Location.
http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp
WiMax really sucks though, just google clear wire sucks and see.
They have a pending lawsuit against them, and also google did not fund them this latest go round.
I believe this company is on its way to failure
@Hydra
Clearwire's bad press/network tech was from the Pre-wimax (MOTOwi4) days and was pretty much a completely different company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearwire
@Hydra
Clearwire's bad press/network tech was from the Pre-wimax (MOTOwi4) days and was pretty much a completely different company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearwire
I have it in the Atl.. get 4 out of 5 bars on the modem. Faster download than ATT DSL, but crap for upload. Never noticed much of a problem with uploading though.
Overall, it's worth it. Disconnected from any walls in my house, have a dongle to go remote, and have really solid speeds. I don't know the technical limitations, but I assume they will one day have to turn up the speeds, or face obsolescence.
It's pretty much written though.. wireless will be the dominant player over the next decade.
I find it hilarious that people are focusing on LTE and Wimax when there's still so many areas of the country without good 3G service. That goes for all networks too, I'm not just taking a cheap shot at AT&T here. I love Verizon, but it ain't perfect. If they're not gonna go with a temporary EV-DO Rev B roll out until LTE is a real possibility, then they should at least be trying to improve and expand their 3G network.
The same goes for Sprint and T-Mobile as well. Being the first 4G network with Wimax and having higher end HSPA are both respectively nice talking points, but you gotta get the country off fucking 1xRTT and GPRS (EDGE even) before we start taking this 4G shit seriously.
I too have this service in Atlanta, Pick 2 Unlimited Pack (mobile & home) for $50 for life and I think the service works quite well when in the coverage area. I have noticed that my USB card pulls in higher speeds than my home modem, but it depends on the WiMax antenna that it is connected to when out and about. I also agree that Clear will need to widen the grip on our upload speed as mine is capped at 1.0Mb. When I do speed test I see the upload jump up to about 1.5Mb but then quickly goes back down to exactly 1.0Mb and stays capped there so they have the ability to let it go higher but seem to not allow it. And the problem with increasing it in the future is whether or not they will automatically change it for previous customers or make us upgrade to the latest offered plan prices to get the increase in speed. Here are some links to pics of my service coverage:
http://bit.ly/5Y5V15
http://bit.ly/4VOjhK
http://bit.ly/6rKMej
Got my CLEAR modem yesterday and upgraded to unlimited service today. Not a bad deal at $60/mo (incl 2 modem leases). Getting 6Mb down and 1Mb up consistently in Honolulu. Wonder if the bandwidth speed will hold up as they add subscribers...