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Sprint promises WiMAX in NYC on November 1, LA on December 1, and San Francisco a few weeks later
The fact that Sprint and Clearwire have teamed up to deliver WiMAX to New York, LA, and San Francisco isn't news. In fact, we've already seen the networks light up in operational readiness modes on the way to full consumer availability. But now we've got dates, the first specifics that we can recall for these cities. Now, according to both Clearwire and Sprint, New York's WiMAX service will go live on November 1st, LA's on December 1st, and San Francisco sometime around the end of December. We'll see if those early 5Mbps to 7Mbps download / 1.2Mbps upload speeds we've experienced can be maintained once the service meets the crush of the big city horde. Of course, this is nothing but good news for wireless consumers who'll also see Verizon light up its competing LTE network in these cities (38 in total) at about the same time.
Sprint execs leave Clearwire board out of an 'abundance of caution'
Well, it looks like Sprint and Clearwire aren't taking any chances when it comes to some of the new antitrust rules now in place. Clearwire has just announced that the three Sprint executives now on its board will be resigning out of an "abundance of caution" -- that includes Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, along with division presidents Keith O. Cowan and Steven L. Elfman. Not many more details than that at the moment, but Sprint does still hang onto the right to appoint members to the Clearwire board, and the four Sprint appointees currently on the board will remain in place. As The Wall Street Journal notes, however, the move would seem to clear the way for Clearwire to potentially make another deal, although no one involved is saying anything publicly at the moment beyond what's in the brief press release after the break.
Clearwire throttling at-home WiMAX users?
Ah, throttling. Can't ever seem to fully shake it, can we? Just weeks after hearing about a similar issue with the Epic 4G, scores of Clear at-home WiMAX users are now up in arms over apparent throttling on certain accounts. As the story goes, it seems as if the company is pulling back on upload and download speeds (from 10Mbps to around 0.25Mbps) for users who have consumed between 7GB and 10GB in a month, which is comically low even compared to Comcast's hated 250GB / month usage cap. Forum users are finding customer service lines to be no help whatsoever, and some digging has found that this may all be a part of a network traffic administration program that's ongoing within Clearwire. Have any of you seen similar issues? How much data are you sucking down per month? Does your usage clock still show up in your account profile? Let us know in comments below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Clear WiMAX router passes the FCC without a scratch
The world is not suffering from a dearth of WiMAX routers, but Clear has just a bit of room in their stable: while they offer 4G modems that plug into your computer over USB or Ethernet, along with battery-powered WiFi hotspots, they don't offer any home routers that do the WiFi thing, router thing, and WiMAX thing all-in-one. If this sounds like soft spot in their lineup to you, you'll be happy to know that an honest to goodness plug-it-into-a-wall 802.11n router with WiMAX, Clear branding, and possibly even a VoIP plug has just passed through the FCC. Will it change everything? Maybe.
Comcast says additional Clearwire investment is unlikely
Clearwire isn't in the black yet, having bled about $126 million in the second quarter of 2010 -- but should the need arise for additional investment before it can turn a profit, the company shouldn't plan to knock on Comcast's door. Though it doesn't have as much visibility in the 4G marketplace as Clear and Sprint do, Comcast does actually offer WiMAX service using Clearwire's network and owns about 9 percent of it, but the cable provider's CFO says that the prospects for upping that share aren't good and that its up to Clearwire to "figure this out" -- "this" being its financial pickle. Not exactly a vote of confidence, is it? Obviously, adding (or converting to) LTE is a possible game plan for Clearwire that's going to require some serious cash to pull off, so staying tight with Sprint seems like a stellar idea right about now.
Clear WiMAX is live in New York City (updated: semi-live)
Sprint and Clearwire's WiMAX service has been making occasional cameos throughout the five boroughs since at least June, but now it's official: the service has been launched, closing up one of the most conspicuous holes in coverage so far. This matches up nicely with the San Francisco go-live we reported on earlier today, so you'll now be able to take your red eye from the Big Apple to the City by the Bay without fear that your EVO's going to get slow when you go wheels-down. Plans run from $25 a month (for the iSpot) all the way up to $55 for a mixed-mode WiMAX and EV-DO data stick, which works out to somewhere between 0.00001 and 0.0003 percent of your housing costs in Manhattan. Glass is half full, y'know. [Thanks, Marcus] Update: We've just been contacted by Clear and told that New York's still in the "operational readiness" phase of the go-live, which means hardware's only being offered to customers in limited areas and not all hardware is available (notably, the iSpot isn't yet being offered). Same goes for Los Angeles. San Francisco, meanwhile, isn't yet there -- we're told there might be some limited pockets where service is showing up, but Clear hasn't commercially launched there, even on a limited scale. For what it's worth, all of these areas are still expected to go fully live in 2010, they're just not quite there yet.
Clearwire's San Francisco WiMAX launch was a bureaucratic nightmare
It seems awfully odd that San Francisco -- you know, San Francisco, part of America's technology nexus -- had been left out in the 4G cold for so long while over 70 other networks have been brought live in Clearwire's WiMAX footprint. Well, turns out there's a good reason... or maybe not a "good" reason, but a reason nonetheless: the city's notoriously brutal cell antenna approval process had ensnared Clearwire's efforts, leaving both Clear and Sprint customers out in the cold. The company apparently successfully navigated eight months' worth of approvals in and around SF's Planning Commission before getting slapped with an appeal over concerns that an earthquake could dislodge the antennas and blast residents with excessive levels of radiation; of course, it seems like it'd be a simple matter for technicians to go out and fix anything knocked loose after a tremblor, but what do we know? Regardless, looks like this is all behind us -- but it certainly serves as a sobering warning to all future networks that dare launch in and around the bay. [Thanks, Serge]
Sprint lights up WiMAX in San Francisco
Well girls and boys, if you're in San Francisco, today's your lucky day! It looks like Sprint has finally switched on its WiMAX 4G network in the city by the bay, so whip out your Sprint Overdrive, EVO 4G, or Epic 4G and join the party. We've tested connection speeds using the Epic 4G in Potrero Hill and are seeing between 5 and 7 (!) Mbps down and 1.2 Mbps up with 6 full bars of signal indoors. Even after moving 4 blocks away, download speeds stayed between 2 and 4 Mbps, with the signal dropping to 4 bars, so it appears we've finally reached the realm of "ludicrous speed" on mobile devices. Hit us up in the comments and let us know what kind of performance you are seeing, and in what neighborhood you're located.
Clearwire's Rover service goes live, offers $5/day 4G service
Looks like the prepaid wireless data market is starting to heat up: Clearwire just launched its Rover service, which offers 4G wireless data for as little as $5 a day -- with two free days included when you first sign up. That's not bad if you just need a quick hit here or there, although you need to pony up $150 for that Rover Puck WiFi hotspot we saw at the FCC last month or $100 for a USB stick, and anything more than a day quickly becomes less of a deal at $20/week and $50/month. Oh, and it's 4G-only, so if you're not living or working in a WiMAX city you're out of luck. Still, those prices aren't terribly out of line with the competition, although we might be more inclined to choose Virgin's $40/mo prepaid MiFi and settle for 3G speeds while getting more coverage. Decisions, decisions -- what a wonderful problem to have. PR after the break.
Clear iSpot's device filtering falls to the hackers in near record time
We have absolutely no idea what this means for iSpot owners' service plans if they go through with this -- for all we know, they'll detect un-iPad-like amounts of usage and threaten to up your monthly fee -- but if you're the risky type and you've got an iSpot lying around, its pesky MAC filtering can be a thing of the past with just a tiny bit of effort. There's a blog out there that now has concise instructions posted for gaining root access on the hotspot and tweaking config files to obliterate the MAC filter and enable USB tethering (by default it'll only do WiFi), but if that's too much effort for you, another site -- cheekily named "iSpot instant jailbreak" -- just hooks you up with a binary that you can upload to the iSpot to take care of the filtering in one fell swoop. Again, proceed with caution, because it's anyone's guess how Clear is going to take all this. [Thanks, Travis] Update: We've pulled the iSpot instant jailbreak link after hearing reports that it might be doing more harm than good -- and there might even be some malicious intent involved because it apparently opens a backdoor that allows remote access to the admin console. Welcome to the seedy underbelly of device hacking, folks. Update 2: The creator of the iSpot instant jailbreak just reached out to us know that the remote admin issue was "an error on [his] part" and that the latest version of the config file has it removed; we've re-added the link to it, but as always with these sorts of things, use caution here and be ready for potential flakiness.
Clear iSpot review
Lately, the notion of getting Apple's ever-growing line of mobile devices connected to 3G and 4G networks is attracting a lot of attention from carriers that aren't AT&T -- take Sprint's Overdrive case for the iPad, for instance -- but not in a million years did we think Clear would go so far as to create a mobile hotspot designed exclusively for them. In some ways, that's taking respect for the Apple ecosystem to a whole new level. Of course, even the most die-hard Apple fanatics probably own a WiFi-capable device or three that doesn't hail from Cupertino, so the usefulness of Clear's iSpot is definitely limited -- by design, of course. In exchange for the gimping, you pay just $25 a month for unlimited, blazingly fast WiMAX data with no contract, which is insanely cheap by modern standards -- especially in an era when many carriers are moving to data caps. So just how useful is the iSpot? Does it work as advertised? And perhaps more importantly, can it be used to... ahem, do things it's not intended to do, if you catch our drift? Read on. %Gallery-99108%
Clearwire puts its money where its mouth is, announces LTE trials for later this year
In spite of its pretty healthy (and growing) WiMAX footprint, Clearwire's been saying for at least a year now that it's seriously technology-agnostic -- undoubtedly a bid to assuage investors' fears that WiMAX could end up losing the 4G race in light of LTE's global momentum. Well, it's finally more than mindless fluff for an earnings call, because the company's getting real with both FDD and TD-LTE trials in Phoenix starting this Fall running through early 2011 that will allegedly push downlink speeds as high as 20Mbps and "showcase unique advantages" of Clearwire's "vast" reserve of spectrum. They'll also be testing LTE's ability to coexist with WiMAX in the same band, presumably in a bid to show that it can migrate down the road without leaving its existing customers high and dry. These guys are still a long way off from committing to LTE for the long haul, but it's a sign that they definitely mean business -- and a sign that Sprint could end up falling in line with Verizon and AT&T after all. Follow the break for the press release.
Clearwire's 4G iSpot brings wireless broadband to Apple mobile devices (updated)
Check it out, Clearwire has decided to do up an Apple-centric version of its Spot 4G hotspot, so it's quite naturally fashioned it in the shape of a Magic Mouse and stuck an i prefix to the front of the device. Really, there's nothing new or Apple-exclusive that we can see here -- up to eight devices can hook up to this portable 4G emitter via WiFi and the only (see update) authentication required is a password. So yes, like a lot of products before it, the iSpot has done the ignoble thing of associating itself with iPhones, iPads and iPod touches just because those devices are considered the cool kids of the digital playground today. Then again, Clearwire might decide to be difficult and refuse to sell you one of those excellent-sounding $25 (pre-tax) a month 4G broadband packages that go with the iSpot if you don't have an i-something else in tow. If you're fancying this curvy little accessory for your mobile gear, it costs $99, but can be had for $29 on sale from Clear today, ahead of an August 10 launch at major retailers. Update: We followed up with Clearwire regarding authenticating with the iSpot. We're told that "the device is configured to filter based on MAC address which allows it to ID the Apple mobile devices," which explicitly means iPhones, iPads and iPod touches only.
Rover Puck WiMAX hotspot gets FCC'd, traction on ice subject of fierce debate
The pool of choices for WiMAX hotspots continues to expand, and thanks to the FCC, we now know of another up-and-comer. The Rover Puck -- trademarked by Clearwire and previously unheard of -- joins the ranks Sprint's Overdrive and its various rebrandings by providing pocketable 4G WiFi service. Unlike its predecessors, however, we finally have a new, more aerodynamic form factor. There isn't much to the glean from the user manual at this point, and the oft-referenced Rover website still isn't live -- a WHOIS lookup reveals it was last updated via GoDaddy on July 2008 with no other details disclosed. So, until we get some word from the official news pipelines, a plethora of external / internal photos and user manual screenshots are only a mouseclick away. %Gallery-98561% %Gallery-98562%
Clearwire ships Spot 4G and Spot 4G+ WiMAX portable hotspots
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 good splendiferous news to share. The 4G-only Spot 4G and 3G / 4G Spot 4G+ (which is just a rebadged Overdrive, shown here) were up for pre-order prior to today, but now both are available in-store and online nationwide. In case the prices have slipped your mind, the Spot 4G will run you $99.99 (or $4.99 per month on a lease) with service plans starting at $40/month, while the Spot 4G+ goes for $224.99 (or $5.99 per month on a lease) with service plans starting at $55/month. Surf on, surfers.
TWC rebadges Sprint Overdrive, offers it as IntelliGo mobile 3G / 4G hotspot
And then, there were three. Three ways to snag an Overdrive, that is. Months after Sprint issued the original 3G / 4G mobile hotspot, Clear came along and introduced a rebadged version of the same thing. Now, Time Warner Cable (who is also in cahoots with Sprint and Clear) is following suit by tossing its logo on the all-too-familiar device and christening it the IntelliGo. Functionally, it's the same as ever -- there's a built-in battery that'll provide 3G / 4G mobile internet to a smattering (read: five) of nearby devices via WiFi, a microSD slot and USB connectivity. The difference here, though, is that it'll run you $49.99 on a two-year contract, and the fee will "vary by region." Speaking of regions, it'll be available wherever Road Runner Mobile is offered, which means Texas, North Carolina, Hawaii and Kansas City for now.
Sprint ships dual-model 3G / 4G 250U USB WWAN modem, invites Mac to the party
Remember that cute-as-a-button 3G / 4G dual-mode WWAN stick that Clearwire outed a few days back? That little guy just made its way over to the Sprint side of things, giving folks yet another option when it comes time to pull the trigger on a device to get you onto the WiMAX superhighway. The Sierra Wireless-built 250U is available now through Business Direct and Business Solutions Partners followed by full channel availability by mid-July, with this bugger being the first in Sprint's arsenal to offer native dual-mode support in OS X as well as twin antenna ports. Naturally, Windows machines are also compatible, and the minuscule design sure makes it more attractive than those prone-to-snapping alternatives. It's available for precisely nothing so long as you sign a two-year data plan.
Clearwire intros new WiMAX mobile hotspots, Mac-friendly 3G / 4G USB WWAN modem
Lookin' for yet another avenue to hop on the 4G superhighway? Fret not, as Clearwire has just doled out a trio of new products intended to help you do just that. Prior to today, you had only a smattering of options to actually tap into Clear's WiMAX network, but the Clear Spot 4G (WiMAX only), Clear Spot 4G+ (dual-mode with 3G / 4G support) and Clear 4G+ Mobile USB stick have all arrived to give choosy moms more choices. The prior two are simply mobile broadband hotspots (think MiFi, but for 4G), with the 4G+ offering support for Sprint's 3G network if you happen to leave one of those few WiMAX zones already lit. The USB stick is particularly interesting, as it's the first dual-mode device hawked by Clear that's fully compatible with Apple OS X. The Clear Spot 4G will be made by InfoMark and available to purchase for $99.99 next month; those who hate committing can also lease one for $4.99 per month. The Sierra Wireless-built Spot 4G+ (a rebadged Overdrive; shown left) demands a hefty premium for that 3G support, with an MSRP of $224.99 (or least for $5.99 per month) and a similar July ship date. The 4G+ Mobile USB stick (shown right) will support OS X 10.5.x and 10.6.x (along with Windows, of course), and can be snapped up today for $114.99 or leased monthly for $5.99. Head on past the break if you're thirsty for more. %Gallery-95571%
Sprint's WiMAX service teases EVO 4G-toting New Yorkers (update: LA and SF, too)
We'd figured that Sprint and partner Clearwire were going to have a devil of a time rolling out WiMAX this year in New York City; urban canyons are always tricky, of course, but their oddball 2500MHz spectrum allocation isn't the best at penetrating buildings and other structures, either. On that note, we'd been tipped earlier this week that a reader was seeing some weak WiMAX reception for the first time on his EVO 4G near Coney Island (see a shot after the break), and now, we've been able to independently confirm it on one of our own units -- in saturated Midtown, no less -- though we weren't able to do much with it beyond get a notification that a "4G network is available." Clearly this isn't ready for primetime use, but it's a good sign that these guys have officially started lighting up a few cells here and there. 1080p streaming, anyone? [Thanks, r0ckstar_23] Update: We're getting tipped that folks are seeing some occasional 4G action in LA and San Francisco, so keep a close eye on those EVOs!
Clearwire WiMAX to cover 120 million prospective HTC EVO 4G owners by end of year
With the HTC EVO dual-mode 3G/4G handset launching this summer (and nearly ready for pre-order) with built-in hotspot capability, we've got a pretty good idea what all you US Americans are wondering: is WiMAX available in my city? Well, buried inside the Clearwire financials is mention of the 19 additional cities scheduled for WiMAXing this summer, joining the 32 markets (pictured above) and 41 million people already served by its 4G network offering 3Mbps to 6Mbps average downloads with an occasional 10Mbps peak: Clearwire also today announced plans to launch 4G mobile broadband service in 19 additional cities this summer, including previously announced markets Kansas City, KS; St. Louis, MO; Salt Lake City, UT, and the core area of Washington, D.C. and newly announced markets Nashville, TN; Daytona, Orlando and Tampa, FL; Rochester and Syracuse, NY; Merced, Modesto, Stockton, and Visalia, CA; Wilmington, DE; Grand Rapids, MI; Eugene, OR; and Yakima and Tri-Cities, WA. Things will get really interesting later in 2010 when Clearwire and Sprint take their 4G mobile broadband network to New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh for a 120 million person strong data footprint. LTE who?