Clearwire ships Spot 4G and Spot 4G+ WiMAX portable hotspots
By Darren Murph 
posted July 7th 2010 10:25PM
posted July 7th 2010 10:25PM
It's not like you couldn't snag an Overdrive from Sprint or an IntelliGo from Time Warner Cable, but if you're dead-set on nabbing your WiMAX gear directly from Clearwire, we've Clearwire Announces Nationwide Availability of 4G/Wi-Fi Personal Mobile Hot Spots
CLEAR Spots Now Available in CLEAR Retail Stores, from CLEAR Authorized Dealers and at CLEAR.com
KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR), a leading provider of wireless broadband services, today announced the in-store and online availability of the CLEAR Spot 4G and CLEAR Spot 4G+ mobile hot spots. The company also announced that it has begun filling pre-orders for both devices.
The CLEAR Spot 4G and CLEAR Spot 4G+ bring super fast speeds and 4G connectivity to Wi-Fi enabled laptops, netbooks, smartphones, portable gaming and other connected devices – without the worries or hassles of tiered or capped data usage plans.
CLEAR Spot 4G
The CLEAR Spot 4G is a personal mobile hotspot allowing users to easily and securely share unlimited super fast Internet access anywhere CLEAR has coverage simultaneously with up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices. The CLEAR Spot 4G costs $99.99 or can be leased for $4.99 a month. Monthly CLEAR service plans start at $40 per month.
CLEAR Spot 4G+
The CLEAR Spot 4G+ allows power users and road warriors to stay connected across the U.S. by automatically switching from 4G and connecting to Sprint's 3G nationwide network outside the 4G coverage area. The CLEAR Spot 4G+ enables users to securely share the connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices at the same time. The CLEAR Spot 4G+ costs $224.99 or can be leased for $5.99 a month. Monthly CLEAR service plans start at $55 per month.
Both devices can be ordered online at www.clear.com/spot or purchased nationwide at CLEAR retail stores and authorized dealers beginning today.
For more information about CLEAR, visit www.clear.com. Company information about Clearwire is available at www.clearwire.com. For press and broadcast: product images, video footage and company logos can be downloaded from the Clearwire Newsroom. To subscribe to Clearwire's RSS news feed, click here.
About Clearwire
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR), through its operating subsidiaries, is a leading provider of wireless broadband services. Clearwire's 4G network is currently available in areas of the U.S. where approximately 51 million people live and the company plans to continue to expand its 4G coverage. Clearwire's open all-IP network, combined with significant spectrum holdings, provides an unprecedented combination of speed and mobility to deliver next generation broadband access. The company markets its 4G service through its own brand called CLEAR® as well as through its wholesale relationships with Sprint, Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Strategic investors include Intel Capital, Comcast, Sprint, Google, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. Clearwire is headquartered in Kirkland, Wash. Additional information is available at www.clearwire.com.
Clearwire and CLEAR are trademarks or registered trademarks of Clearwire Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company or product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Or you could get an evo and be able to text and talk for only a few more dollars.
@qitupx I agree. These extra devices to carry around are impractical when you can have it all in your phone.
@qitupx that's why i did : P
@The Geek damn it, edit button please!
@qitupx
Hey! Now you can have your iPhone and get coverage! I say win!
@qitupx Correct me if I'm wrong but don't all carrier's charge an extra 20$ to use your phone as a mobile hotspot?
@greatbam
Not if you root it :)
@isaacwaller Can the EVO tether to 5 devices?
@Protato yeah yeah I know you can hack most phones to allow tethering/wifi hotspots but usually the battery life sucks though. I have a verizon mifi and I think I can get at least 2 hours doing a good amount of surfing on my laptop whereas with my Iphone I think it would've been closer to an hour with just one thing connected to it I think it would've died even faster if I had had multiple things connected to it.
Apple invented the button! THEY CAN'T USE IT!
/s
@manifest3r
iPhone didn't invent anything. Theyjust perfected them. They especially perfected creating Zombies.
i am quite happy with my clear wimax home service ... 5-7mb per second down average with 512mb up ... up is slow but oh well.
@darthgault I just got my spot. I'm getting a whopping 0.46Mb/s
Going to go near RTP but in Wake Forest where I was supposed to have 'good' signal I have three bars & slow as hell net.
Latency is awful too. >500ms.
@Trekkie
Maybe you should contact Sprint about that. I have 1 bar and get 3mbps.
@darthgault
512mb up? Holy crap, where do I sign up!?
@Trekkie Do your experiences match up with the coverage map at www.clear.com/coverage - areas that are dark green should have a good signal.
i forgot to mention i am in kansas city, mo
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore
@manifest3r We're not, we're in Missouri.
Hmm tiime to kiss my comcast Internet goodbye?
@jim28 Definitely! here is a comparison chart of Clear vs. other services: http://www.clear.com/discover/compare-clear?intcmp=index_d_bds_cmp
G spot? And i thought that this was a family friendly website.
@Sea Urchin G-Spot rocks the g-spot.
Wonder what Sprint will do about this once that EVO 4G gets the Froyo mobile hotspot update.
You can make the EVO a mobile hotspot now using Unrevoked. It's temporary and works like a charm.
portable gamging. What about the PS3?
Awesome. Where does this little gadget get coverage?
@MNeko A map is located at www.clear.com/coverage. It shows future areas as well.
What I don't understand is why is it more expensive to get 3G /4G service with this device from Clear than from Sprint directly. Don't they pay attention to their partner's pricing when setting their own?
www.ClearInternet.info
4G spot.. I get confused with 1.
Great...now all they need to offer is a service that doesn't require me to call in for outage reports 8 times a month - in a good month. And a 24 hour line, so I don't have to sit around without a connection for hours before letting them know that the service is dead.
Yeah. . . Had clearwire for a while and it was awful.
HSPA+ is 3G, but supports higher speeds (56Mbps) than WiMAX (40Mbps), which is supposedly 4G.
Huh? How does that work?
I've been testing this unit for several days in Austin, and am very unimpressed. I've also been testing Clear's home modem, in the same room, and speeds are 1/3 or less than the home modem, despite (presumably) the same signal strength - moreover, despite being only several blocks from Clear's main Austin Tower and in direct line-of-sight for 4G, the home modem is only averaging about 3 MBPS while the ClearSpot is about 1.1 MBPS, with speeds sometimes as slow as .250 MBPS. All of this surfing has been on Clear's 4G Austin network, which is supposed to offer 3 - 6 MBPS speeds (which it does with the home modem). I had hoped that I would enjoy true 4G speeds with the ClearSpot, but I am really just getting comparable to my AT&T 3G speeds, on average. Between this poor performance and high price for monthly service ($61 plus taxes), I think I'm going to to - reluctantly - stick with AT&T data.