 Review by koolman2 
UPDATED: 342 days ago
member for 5.8 years, 3293 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Anchorage,Anchorage,AK
 $55 per month (12 month contract)
 "fast. reliable enough for browsing, pings similar to DSL, mobile"
 "contract auto-renews without your permission"
 "DO NOT GET CLEARWIRE WITHOUT READING BELOW"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
1.5 Mbps/256 Kbps for $49.99/month plus the $5 modem lease. I just showed up to Radioshack, said I wanted Clearwire, and within 15 minutes I was on my way home. I plugged in the modem, connected my laptop to the non-Cat5 ethernet cable, and was on the internet. The ethernet cable they include with the modem happens to only have two pair of wires inside, versus the four needed for Cat5. Since 10 Mb ethernet only uses two pair, it's fine.
It uses dynamic IP addressing, using DHCP.
Their tech support is very friendly and personable. Radioshack screwed up (of course) and forgot to enter in the promotion code to get the first three months for $29.99 (plus $5 modem lease), so I had to call them up and get it fixed. My account was credited almost instantly, so my next bill will be $20 off.
Later on, the Clearwire "buzz" wore off, and I decided to cancel my service. I called them up, and it turns out that my contract was renewed for yet another year after my contract was over. They claim that they sent me a letter telling me that the contract would be renewed, but I received no such letter, as I read every single thing any service provider of mine sends me. Due to this renewed contract, I would have to pay $210 in cancellation fees if I cannot convince them of their iffy business practices. I will be fighting them, and hopefully be able to get out of it, or at least come to a reasonable compromise.
The support tech I talked to was very friendly and personable, and I appreciate that, at least.
FINAL UPDATE: I contacted the Better Business Bureau about this, and, after informing Clearwire of my complaint, got them to change my account to a month-to-month status as to waive the early termination fee. The only reason I contacted the BBB is because Clearwire NEVER returned my original call in which the support agent claimed to have escalated.
Followup comments:  
markinak
@gci.net
| give me a break You must either be a shill or dont do anything but vist eBay. I have had my service for a year, and it has slowly been getting worse and worse. Hence, I find myself here.
At first it seemed fine, but as I actually started to use it for downloading streaming video, or P2P files, forget it.
My connection went from a blazing 5 lights, to three and then one. So I traded in my modem, The new one at first seemed permanently stuck on three lights. It too, went down to one, and now it just scans looking for a signal.
The great tech support people said that it is because I am getting interference from trees (that werent full of leaves in the winter, when I signed up. WTF?) They couldnt tell me why it worked so well in the steel reinforced concrete mall where I signed up.
This ISP is a joke. You wait and see, I predict a class action lawsuit in their future.
Has anyone ever gotten one item of mail (including email) from Clearwire? I havent. | |
|  | bigbody
join:2006-10-06
Anchorage, AK
 ·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: give me a break yeah ive been getting the same problems too. I got clearwire in back in july and i was just fine. every month after july each light has been going down 5 in july 4 in augst etc etc. now its october and now its hovering around the 1st and 2nd light. Also i don't like the auto pay system. I like to know when i pay the bill and not the company to decide when to take out the 40 bucks out of my checking account. | |
| | | ranquet91
join:2003-07-21
Everett, WA
·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: give me a break Yeah I agree with the class action lawsuit.... I have had clearwire for almost 3 months now and the first half was great. Now my pings are ranging from 600-2000ms. They have checked the tower which is about 100 feet from my house and have found no issues. My modem always shows all 5 bars, I have asked numerous times if they have too much traffic on their lines since the latency generally jumps after 4pm and I am told no. Anyone else having this issue? | |
|
rleesbsd
@clearwire-dns.net
| Whats the fuss? I see many negative statements about Clearwire here, and that confuses me. I have never (before Clearwire) had a simpler, more reliable, hassle-free internet connection.
The speed is constant (and always above the "100" figure that was quoted by another poster), and it doesn't seem to matter much whether the signal strength shows as five bars or one bar.
Admittedly, I am only a half mile from the closest tower, and the signal varies (primarily) when there are rainstorms in the area. I am in a fairly deep valley, and that probably cuts some signal; but as I said, the system seems to work fine even with one bar signal levels.
Doing a traceroute on my IP indicates that it quickly goes into the Road Runner network, so I'm guessing that Clearwire is a front-end that is used to supply wireless service for customers, who ultimately get plugged into the TW wired network. (I'm not sure about this setup ... I'm just guessing based on traceroute data)
It's simple, and it works very well for me, so I don't plan to change to any other provider.
| |
| |
koolman2
Premium
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK | Re: Whats the fuss? You are quite correct in that Clearwire buys bandwidth from a local broadband provider. Here in Anchorage, it happens to be GCI that they piggyback on.
--
huh? | |
|
ClearwireUser
@clearwire-dns.net
| Steer clear of Clearwire Clearwire has a terrible track record relative to signal strength and even total loss of signal. My experience is that when you happen to get a Clearwire signal the speed is ok, but unfortunately you often times get no signal at all. Overall speed, given the outages, is maybe on the order of standard dial-up. Their customer service is another issue altogether - they politely tell you where to stick your expectations of reliable service and refuse to correct the situation. Does anyone know if a class action lawsuit is in the works? | |
| |
JTS
@bellsouth.net | Re: Steer clear of Clearwire I hope so. We've experienced many of the exact problems that we've read about. At a minimum I'd suggest that people begin contacting their local Better Business Bureau. Start the ball rolling. | |
|
rleesbsd
@clearwire-dns.net
|  What's the fuss? (revised)
Now, in mid-summer, when it rains the signal strength drops to the one or two bar level, and (very occasionally) drops the connection (but auto-reconnects shortly afterwards). In the winter, rain had a minimal effect on signal strength.
I think that a clearwire customer would be well advised to consider how much foliage is in the line of site path to the closest tower. If a clear shot to the tower exist (even if the tower is quite a few miles away), I think problems should be very minimal. Otherwise, I think that the customer's mileage will vary. My overall opinion, after nine months of subscription usage, is that the performance meets my expectations.
That said, I should comment that my expectations do not include constant movie downloads ! | |
|
Marc in Bham
@clearwire-dns.net
| Give me a break Gee--I ran a series of download tests this AM and got blazing speeds as low as 0 and 92k!!! Most of them seemed to run between 400k and 800k with occasional though rare forays into somewhat higher numbers. Yeah. Has anyone heard yet if a class action suit is in the offing? I'd love to hear about it. | |
| WarmCoke
join:2007-01-31
Boise, ID
·Clearwire Wireless
| Still going strong here.... Just so that people do not think that the experiences above are completely indicative of everyone's experience with Clearwire I thought that I would post. 7 months and counting of strong, consistent signal and very helpful tech support for the rare occasion when I have needed them. I could not be more happy with their service in my area. I'm no 'shill' and I don't work for the local branch either! Just a satisfied customers of which there are many when it comes to Clearwire. | |
|
arcanepsyche
| No...bad Clearwire I just got Clearwire a couple weeks ago and I'm already having major problems. Don't get the service. | |
| | ernliz
join:2001-11-25
Abilene, TX
·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: No...bad Clearwire I've had Clearwire for over three years now, and except for the occasional problems that ALL ISPs have, it's been grand. I live approximately 4.7 miles from the tower, there's a hill in the line-of-sight, and some jerk decided to put a house up right on top of the hill! WTF!!! Anyway, incredibly, I still get 4 lights on my modem (down from 5) and the signal is consistent. They give me a free month every year during annual renewal time.
Tech support has always been great for me -- if you talk to them like a human should. They check my connection efficiency (Cheetah Score) and do all they can to help out when I may have a problem (usually it's my router's fault).
I don't understand all the problems others are having. Perhaps it's just the overload on their towers, and Clearwire should know this and adjust accordingly.
OK, enough..... | |
|
surebuddy
@hawaii.edu
| clearwire sucks Clearwire is an awful service. I have clear premium, advertised 1.5mp/s down and 256kb/s up (lol), but my download speed is usually around 200kb/s - 400kb/s, and my upload speed is almost non-existant, below 100kb/s. The download speeds are always inconsistent, and I notice absolutely no difference in actual speed between this Clear Premium plan and the Clear Value plan (advertised 756kb/s down and 256kb/s up). That is, if I were to download something off of the internet, it would take the same amount of time to do it with the Clear Premium plan as it would with the Clear Value plan. This would not be a big problem for someone who just uses the plan to surf the web and check emails. But you can't watch youtube, download Linux distros, movies, music or anything through iTunes - nothing. Now that I'm unsatisfied with the service, I can do nothing about it for two years because if I cancel my contract I have to pay $200. When I do cancel it, it has to be exactly 2 years from the date when I signed up, or it will automatically lock me into a new contract. Don't go with Clearwire if you care about your money and getting what you pay for. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Clearwire Wireless |
|
(12)
(12)
·