Any experience here with Clear 4G mobile wireless?

I live in (the northern part of) Portland OR, USA and am wondering whether the expense is worth it, or whether I should just seek out unsecured wifi hotspots.

EDIT: Needless to say I have wired broadband (with wifi) at home already (DSL with Qwest). If the service speed and quality is up to snuff, I might consider switching, though. Is one allowed to still have an independent ISP with Clear, BTW?

 

Nobody, huh?

 

How much and how often would you need/use it?

 

You'd pay a lot more for a dismal speed increase, and it might provide poor coverage somewhere you really need it(you never know until you test it).

 

I have clear service in Las Vegas, NV. Their speed is a promised 3-6mb/s download and upload less then 1mb I think. How can I start about the bad things going on and less then good things.

Ok the bad, they said the download speeds are 3-6mb/s but I am not even getting half that with full strength signal using one of their wimax USB module thingys. The first month I had it, the service was great. I got downloads of 3mb on average, after the first month everything went down faster then a hooker in Vegas.

The wimax thing started to overheat so the download speeds got slower and slower. When I used it at home I would put it in the freezer to cool it down to use it (no joke). When I called their tech support cuz I could not log into my account for get a signal they finally admitted, after talking to them for 76 min. (I timed it) that the thing overheats after using it for a long time. They had me do everything from testing the speed to turn off my laptop's wifi card in the Bios to other things. I have to download alot of things for work so its normal that I use the internet alot. After all that time talking to them they finally had to send me a new usb wimax module thing, but she said "I cant guarantee that, that one wont overheat too".

After the second wimax thing came in the mail, I started using that one too. The same thing happens with the new one, it over heats. I did not return the first module back to Clear, what I do know is when one overheats I take that one out and put the other one in. They have not billed me for the first one and I don't think they will after 1+month of using both.

They other thing is that they throttle your internet to about 1mb when you download alot of things. sometimes I use utorrent to download "stuff" (not ) and I cant see the throttling going on first hand. I see my speed go from 300-400kp/s to 100kp/s, I touch the usb module and its cool. They have some major throttling issues going on.

The only reason I use clear and continue using this POS service is cuz, I have to use it for work, and there really isn't any other type of high speed internet I can use on my small laptop anywhere around town or in other cities where they have service. But maybe by years end more 4g service will come online so I can switch to them. In Vegas I can use Cox cable internet but its only for home use, I dream of only having 20mb speeds and 4mb uploads.

The only 2 good things I have to say is that at night my download speeds are between 10-15mb, so I download most of my utorrent stuff at night. And the other thing is that after I resolved all the issues with the wimax module problems I got a date with the tech support girl. After 2 months we are still dating, lol.

Oh yea I pay $40 per month for the internet on the go service, they might call it something else.

If you need anymore info let me know.

 

4g???? ...When did that happened???.I am barely coping with 3g

 

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it's not ready for prime time. It would still be interesting to hear from someone here in Portland. I really am not thrilled to hear about the throttling, although I don't download torrents much, and the technical issues sound bad.

 

yea the throttling sometimes is really bad, and i can see it first hand. when it happens i switch to the other usb wimax module and the speed is back to normal for about 30 min., when it happens again i switch again, etc. etc.

Portland and Vegas are one of the first cities Clear has had 4g wimax in the Western US. i think Portland was like #1 and Vegas was #3 to get service in the West. so yea its not ready for prime time yet, wait until the end of the year when they have more cell towers or more companies come online, like sprint or some other ones. clear is partly owned by sprint btw. they use alot of the sprint cell towers to put their own equipment.

and i only download torrent at night when the speed is the speed and the usb module wont heat up that much. but i still dowload lots of work stuff in the day time.

are you getting the usb wimax module or the at home service thing? i only use the usb wimax module for laptops, i dont have the at home only thing. i can use my all around town.

oh yea btw, i have also used it in portland too. hate to say it but i get the same thing in Portland and Chicago. but i live with it until something better comes along.

 

there is 2 types of 4g, wimax (which is what i have) and the other type of 4g which i forgot. the other type is like 3g but more efficient. some people say that wimax is not true 4g cuz it operates of a different frequency (i think its 2.5mhz or ghz?) and true 4g operates at 500 something mhz. wimax looks like it might just be a niche market vs the real 4g. more companies are coming out with products with the real 4g vs wimax.

 

I have Clear 4G in Seattle and has been good so far. I have the Clear Spot 4G mobile router. Not the plus model that does 3/4G (same as sprint overdrive). I finally tried it since they offer a month to month plan vs 2 year contract. The Clear Spot 4G mobile router only costed $100 and it supports up to 8 devices (you can rent with contract). I've personally tested this and it really can connect 8 devices. I've had home routers that could only handle about 4-5 before someone wouldn't be able to surf the net. I've even played TF2 on Clear 4G and it wasn't bad. About 100-150 ping indoors with 2/5 bar signal.

My cousin though had Clear in Portland and said it was fast when you had coverage, but the coverage zone wasn't that good yet. She switched to Cricket 3G since the coverage was better.

BTW you can return Clear within 14 days, I believe. They also ship out the hardware with 1 day shipping.

 

Hello, I have clear wireless and I have had it for about a year now and I have the 4g and 3g and I love it. I live in Texas and I recently took a trip to the ozark mountains and I took my laptop and it worked all the way there it worked the whole time I was there. I even was downloading music while I was there with no problems at all. Everything worked just fine I was very Impressed and now I am getting ready to take a trip to England and debating if I can take it and if it will work there, so if any reads this and knows please advise me please. But I have to say I love clear!

 

Would you all consider this a better solution then just tethering your smartphone? Tethering any blackberry is easy and most androids can do it as well now. (can be done outside of what your carriers offer through the programs provided at tether.com)