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Review by bmialone 
UPDATED: 93 days ago
member for 106 days, 2 visits, last login: 93 days ago
 Anchorage,Anchorage,AK
 $35 per month
 "easy set up, multiple computers and printers on one ISP entry point"
 "Very slow-esp. evengs and wkends, adds unauthorized servcs, restarts contracts w/o authorztn, too many dropped connections"
 "Much slower than advertised and dishonest slamming of accounts with services and contracts not authorized"
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First ordered base plan for about $30.00 per month. Terribly slow speed so upgraded to 1.5 for about $51.00 per mo, but speeds stayed the same & customer service finally admitted we can't get those speeds here. Refunded difference and we dropped back down to base plan. Recently, customer service talked my husband into upgrading to the speed they'd admitted they can't deliver here. In the meantime, they slammed our account with a $4.99 per mo "security package" we never ordered and did not use. We paid it for a year before I noticed. They refunded only 3 months of the unauthorized charges. This time when they talked my husband into upgrading to a 1.5 speed, they charged only about $35.00 per month instead of $50.00. Seems capricious charging practice in addition to delivering speeds slower than the oldest school dial-up we had 15 years ago! So slow, our connections times out, our connections drop, we often can't even stream YouTube videos on top notch computers. Evenings and weekends are terrible. Late at night, sometimes internet just completely goes down and we can't get it back.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Clearwire Wireless |
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Review by ChrisTheCat
UPDATED: 105 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 34 visits, last login: 102 days ago
Portland,Multnomah,OR
$40 per month (12 month contract)
 about 1 days
"None"
"Slow, slow, slow"
"Unaceptable"
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I signed up for home 4G wireless. No matter how much I rearranged the modem or moved it around, I never even got 1mb download, much less the "up to 10mb" that was promised. Ping was actually a decent 50ms, but the download speed was painfully slow.
Then it took me 45 minutes on the phone to cancel the service and get an RMA for the modem. They hassled me every step of the way to "try tech support" even after I told them I'd already talked to tech support. You can't cancel in an office, you must do it by telephone.
Followup comments:  hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | Promise? Upto? LOL Nothing is promised as far as speed. It's always "upto" that's not promising anything just saying you can access the network up to that speed. You also may be on the tower that is overloaded or are two far out to get anything decent. | |
| | ChrisTheCat
join:2002-09-04
Portland, OR | Re: Promise? Upto? LOL Of course nothing is promised, but when the purchase is for "up to 10" and the delivery is "less than 1" there's an unacceptable gap. | |
| 
Grover Dill
@clearwire-wmx.net | I'm happy so far. But I can see the antenna from my window. Still kinda iffy, but until they move better bandwidth via dsl (NO COMCAST), I get fast internet. | |
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madzac
@hp.com
| Happy So Far Just hooked up Clear's WiMax home modem yesterday in Boise. Once properly positioned, I have consistent 3Mbit downloads and .7Mbit uploads, and average ping rates at 75 ms. I definitely noticed that moving 10 feet in any direction can greatly diminish transmission speeds and increase ping rates. | |
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Review by fotopla35
UPDATED: 108 days ago
member for 108 days, 0 visits, last login: 108 days ago
La Vergne,Rutherford,TN
$34 per month
about 1 days
"Immediate Install, Local Product Pick Up, Speedy Tech Support"
"Wouldn't Accept New Banking Information, Local Office Does Not Accept Payments or Product Returns"
"Refuse to Ever Use Them Again"
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We had trouble with the common local service in our area going in and out. So, before my husband went overseas he signed us up for Clearwire. We used the service for about one year. The speed was faster than the common local service, but we had about equal trouble with the internet going in and out. Overall, we were satisfied.
Our trouble had to do with trying to pay our bill. For the first year, there was no trouble. The bill was automatically debited each month from our bank. However, we changed banks. In anticipation of this, I called to have the banking information changed so that the payment would be made from our new bank (also a joint account). Clearwire would not allow me to change the banking information, even though I had my husband's account number, social security number, date of birth, passcode, and answer to his security question. They stated I needed a Power of Attorney... TO PAY A BILL. It's not like I was taking anything from them... I wanted to pay them. I explained to them that when the payment was processed, they would not be paid because the bank account was different. I just wanted to pay, and pay on time. I could not mail a payment, as they are a paperless company. And, they won't give me an address so that I can return their equipment.
Becoming furious over not being able to pay, I decided to try to drive a payment out to a local office. I found out there were a lot of local offices to sign customers up for service, but there were no local offices to accept a payment. I called Customer Service back and requested to close the account before the new billing cycle so that there would not be an issue with owing money. They stated that I could not do this. I explained that they would disconnect our service when they didn't receive the upcoming payment. I waited for them to disconnect the service and then ordered service from a local company.
Now they are calling a minimum of 6 times and as many as 14 times per day wanting to restore our service. Irritated by this harassment, I called Customer Service recently. The representative stated that with all of the information I had, I should have been able to set up the payment with our new bank and that I had been misinformed. I told them I refuse to use their service ever again and have already signed up with a local company where, if the need should ever arise, I can speak to someone face to face and pay a bill without any trouble. The account is still "active, but disconnected". They still call everyday. Only my husband can close the account. This is ridiculous as I am co-owner of the home. Even my utility companies, car loans, personal loans, etc. never questioned my working on our behalf to make sure our bills got paid.
Side Note: I am a patient person. I am diplomatic, and understand policies and procedures. But, this is beyond reasonable. I live in the 12th fastest growing city in the nation. I plan on positively promoting on a personal level any internet service that has real offices. I also plan on warning new home owners to avoid Clearwire in this area.
Followup comments: ernliz
join:2001-11-25
Abilene, TX | Incredible!! Thanks for the review. This is NOT good customer service. I also wonder if any Clearwire (Clear) personnel in management read stuff like this and wonder about themselves. | |
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JNB4LONG
@comcast.net
|  Clearwire is the worst ever!
I spoke with 3 people including a supervisor who said there is nothing they can do, and that I would continue to receive calls.
The Clearwire Slogan:
THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO TO HELP YOU!
AVOID CLEARWIRE. | |
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out there
@bellsouth.net | Re: Clearwire is the worst ever! As a former collector, this actually may be accurate. I don't know if there have been enhancements to autodialers, but not too long ago it wasn't too uncommon to hear these things from people. Not making excuses, but just givin some feedback. | |
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Review by Gandolf9
UPDATED: 109 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 11 visits, last login: 69 days ago
Medford,Jackson,OR
$29 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Mobility, Low Cost. Easy setup."
"Less reliable then wired access, limited uploading, connection shaping."
"Best suited to low bandwidth users with a strong signal at multiple access sites."
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I am trying to reconcile my good experience with Clearwire and the bad reviews on this site. Including myself, we now have four family members on Clearwire, including two in Hawaii and two in Oregon. I was initially hesitant to try Clearwire until family members in Hawaii, both Maui and Oahu reported satisfaction with this "transportable" service. I was impressed by their ability to move their internet service between islands! So I signed up my in-laws who are low bandwidth users previously using dial up in Oregon with good results. Faced with rising cable pricing I elected to give up my cable internet for Clearwire since it works both in OR and HI and I travel between the mainland and Oahu. I was fortunate in that I could test my Clearwire signal in OR and HI before purchasing another modem. To achieve a strong signal, 3-4 bars, in OR, I placed my wireless modem by an attic window and I route the signal over AC plug-ins to a Mac Airport Extreme Base Station. I have the low speed Clearwire service and I am getting consistent 500-800 Kbps downloads. My speed is faster if I connect directly to the Clearwire modem.
It seems that a lot of the complaints are about the automatic contract rollovers. These complaints seem quite valid. However, Clearwire accounts now roll over to month to month accounts as of November 2007. After visiting this site, I got this in writing during my trial period.
Another frequent complaint is about variable service. I can only recommend this service if the user has a strong signal and can tolerate variable service. That means 3 bars or more during good periods so that the signal will be "good enough" during bad periods such as during rainstorms or in Spring as opposed to Winter. It would be very wise to test the signal and download speed at the users site by borrowing a Clearwire modem from an existing user before considering this service. After reading the reviews on this site, I would avoid this service if the user cannot get a strong signal at home. Unlike wired access, Clearwater uses cell towers and the connection is going to be variable, much as cell phone service is variable. However, I suspect users are not going to be nearly as tolerant about variable internet service as they are tolerant of variable cell phone service while on the run. I was able to use this service while on vacation in Bend, OR while outside of the Bend service area. I placed the antenna outside wrapped in a plastic bag and was able to check my e_mail on a one bar connection. I thought that was pretty cool.
Another complaint is about lag time and Internet gaming, which seems valid for some Internet games, but it seems to me, WOW? does work over Clearwire, at least in HI.
I cannot comment about slowdowns due to the "sharing" of cell tower bandwidth, but I do know that cable internet also has this "feature". I once had to re download all of my iTune purchases including video that took hours and hours (Thanks Apple for letting me do that after I, an idiot, loss my iTunes library). After reading the reviews on this site, I am not sure if Clearwire would have allowed me to do this without shaping my service.
Finally, a lot of complaints are about site hosting, peer to peer networks and Voice over IP. I think Clearwire should be upfront that _uploading_ may be limited and that would appear to cover site hosting, peer to peer networking, Skype, and VOIP.
After visiting this site, I am going to say that Clearwire is a good fit for my family, but it may _not_ be a good fit for others. If absolute reliability, high speed gaming, p2p, Skype, VOIP, or web hosting is a concern a wired solution may be better. For low bandwidth users looking for transportable internet access, Clearwire may be a good fit provided that the user has a strong signal at all important access locations. In attempt to lower my fixed expenses, I am trying Clearwire as it replaces both a DSL account in HI _and_ a CABLE account in OR. The entry level Clearwire service is less expensive than either my pre-existing DSL account in HI or my pre-existing CABLE account in OR. The combine savings of replacing both services with Clearwire are significant.
UPDATE 8/11/09 I have had trouble free operation of my standard 750k system until recently when the system became intolerably slow to the point where I could not even look at webpages. Mike at tech support was able to debug my system and eventually we determined that there was interference from my AppleTimeCapsule wireless router and perhaps from my battery backup. I moved the wireless router to another floor and plugged the modem directly into the wall and now I have excellent service. So I want to thank Mike and upgrade my review of tech support to 5 stars, the best rating.
Followup comments: ernliz
join:2001-11-25
Abilene, TX | Me Too! I think there a LOTS of satisfied Clearwire customers, me being another one. The dissatisfied ones get the press here and I feel if they really worked with Clearwire, most of their problems would be solved.
See you.... | |
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Review by crws
UPDATED: 112 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 871 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Vancouver,Clark,WA
$85 per month (24 month contract)
about 3 days
"Easy connectivity, Good speeds, supposedly user balanced home signups"
"NO TECHNICAL DATA for reference. Modem is a NAT, FIREWALL, & DHCP Server. All bets are off if you change control panel settings"
"Need to be schooled, but has potential"
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Have run a home ftp for years, and assumed.... that the Moto modem was transparent or configurable to be. Not so. If you run NAT or DHCP behind your modem, beware. The CPEi 25150 is locked into NAT, with a private IP scope 192.168.x.x. End user access is not supported by Clear. Was told that the modem's 192.168.15.1 "motorola" password is now being randomized to keep users out of the modem control panel. You need access (now thru Clear tech support evidently) to set up gaming, port forwarding and DMZ zones if you plan on outside access to your subnet. $200 for new modem (leased) if you brick it trying.
Other than that technical detail, service & speed seems to be good, customer service seems decent, and getting online was a snap. Looking for the magic 5 bars can be interesting, as a Google search will attest, or for $70.00 you can accessorize:
»https://www.clearwire.com/order_entry/ac···ryID=338
Static IP's are $10, but are a reserved IP from the DHCP server.
The 10M down (burst)/1M up release was a non-event, even to current customers, with some rumors to the effect of higher speeds in the wind:
»www.michaelgossett.me/index.php/···4-weeks/
After my transparent bridging fallout and modem access uncertainty, I guess I'm split on Clear although the PHS300 and USB combo is great. It is definitely nice to be free of Comcast, especially when they are already touting the resale of Clear bandwidth at 40% margin.
»www.fiercewireless.com/story/com···-RSS-FW0
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Review by jerk
UPDATED: 118 days ago
member for 119 days, 13 visits, last login: 65 days ago
Aransas Pass,San Patricio,TX
$38 per month (24 month contract)
about 7 days
"Works OK at 3am"
"Doesn't work for crap 6am-11pm, blocks streaming everything, blocks all p2p, horrible customer service"
"its the AOL of wireless (thats bad)"
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Came to my grandparents house in Texas to see this little motorola wireless box, ok neat I guess. They couldn't get internet because there's no wires to this house other than electricity so I was kind of impressed that they got a signal. Thats where the good ended. My grandfather complained of having to get up and drink a beer every time he opens an email attachment. Suspicious, so I attempted to download a couple torrents to install Linux on this bad boy. Nope, not gonna happen. I kept getting "peer closed connection errors". This is might suspicious. So i set up some packet sniffers and ran some tests. They are spoofing RST packets from me! now for those of you who followed the whole comcast thing, you know that this is not even remotely legal. So I get on the horn with them. I told the guy I was pissed and it needs to stop. I asked him if he knew it was illegal (he did) but refused to connect me with anyone who can do anything. He directed me to the terms and conditions page where he claimed it says file sharing is prohibited (it doesn't say that anywhere). The only thing i could find in there was a clause saying they could charge for overages. Now being under contract, we cant just cancel, so we're stuck until enough of us can get together for a lawsuit.
If you NEVER use the internet for Netflix, videogames, email, websites with images, torrent (legal or not) and are in an area where it's not congested (it's really slow in the day ~40KBps) and it's seriously your ONLY option, then I guess get it; but if you plan on using it for the actual internet instead of just a couple web pages a couple times a month, avoid it like the plague.
Update 9pm on a sunday:
Yes that speed you see there is actually SLOWER than dialup.
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 Review by JoeG4
Posted: 141 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 1494 visits, last login: a few hours ago
945941
$35 per month (24 month contract)
"$35 a month, instant setup,"
"kiosk salespeople were totally overwhelmed, but it was to be expected"
"A no brainer if you're in the service area."
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This review is for Clear 4G not the old service, never had that.
First I found out Clear was available in Las Vegas. WTF is that? Ohh Wimax internet with affordable pricing! Neat. The only deal killer off the bat is the horrible rep Clearwire has. Geez! Sign 2 year contract with them? I must be nuts.
Nah, I've done it before (current longtime and HAPPY vonage/t-mobile customer among other things), couldn't afford the $115 for setup if I didn't have a contract, so I just went the contract route.
Where to start? Since the service had JUST come out, Clear had nothing on their website about sales locations, the phone support said they'd ship me a modem since they didn't have any offices. On google maps, there was a (long defunct) Clearwire office, then I found out on craigslist that Clear had JUST opened the kiosk in a local mall.
I went there, about 4 people standing around taking the sales person's attention, he didn't even notice me so I just sat on the kiosk until he did (lol). In the mall they wee getting 1 bar of reception on their home modem, but the sales person assured me I would be "pleased when you get home and plug it in" - took less than 5 minutes to get signed up, but they do require the first month's payment in advance (and from there on, it's automatic on your bank card).
I got home, plugged it in, and I was indeed pleased. Again, no real need to do anything, the modem just fired up, I got online, and a day or two later it gave me a sign up screen (the internet was usable the whole time, though!)
It speed tests anywhere from 2.5mbps (rare) to 10mbps! Not bad for paying for 3! It's solid as all get out too, only thing is mine would drop out a few times between 3AM and 5AM every single day.
Still have it, I LOVE it.
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Review by upriver
UPDATED: 144 days ago
member for 144 days, 3 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Sedro Woolley,Skagit,WA
$35 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Anyone Else Have Problems With the Upgrade To Clear?"
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I have been using clearwire for almost exactly one year and have been very happy with the service. I live about five miles from the nearest tower (located in Sedro Woolley, WA) and with the modem on my roof I can reliably get between 1 and 3 bars of signal strength. The DL speeds will vary from 300-2000 kbps while the UL speed is almost always 256 kbps. I have the 1.5 mbit service so I am pretty happy with the results especially since I have no other options for high speed access. The connection is negatively impacted by heavy rain and snow... but for the most part, like 95% of the time, I have a good connection.
So... along comes the wimax upgrade offer from clear. More speed at the same price seems like a good deal to me. So get the new modem, install it in the same position as the existing modem and get zero signal. I wander all over my roof with the modem looking for any sign of a signal and get nothing. Bummer.
Does anyone know how the source signal strength of the wimax compares to that of their existing service? I have yet to call clearwire to see if the wimax service has even been turned on in my area yet.
What have other people's experiences been like with this upgrade process?
thanks
Followup comments:
Clearwireuser2
@clearwire-dns.net
| I've got the same problem I've been experiencing the same difficulty. At our house, we live about 5 miles away from the closest tower on Guemes Island, WA, and for the last two years we've had a decent connection of around 1.2-1.5 MB/s (which would occasionally dip to 0.4 MB/s, causing frustrations...) with the old modem, usually getting between 1 and 3 bars in the best location in our house. Then, we got the new modem, and we experienced the same problem you have. It couldn't find a signal in the same place as the old modem, and it couldn't find a signal at any other window in the house. In fact, we found out that we could possibly get a signal of 1-2 bars at one place on the roof, but we're gonna have to build some sort of shelter for it if we plan on having it out there, exposed to the elements, which raises all kinds of problems.
Actually, our neighbors are going through the same problems, and while they used to get 4 bars in one location of their house with the old modem, the new modem gives them 1 bar in a different location, and speeds that aren't as good as the previous modem.
I don't know what's going on. Right now, we still have one more month of Clearwire with the old modem, but after that, I don't know what we're going to do. It seems like this 'upgrade' is just worse service so far. | |
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Review by w0g
UPDATED: 146 days ago
member for 8.2 years, 1801 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Portland,Multnomah,OR
$45 per month (24 month contract)
about 5 days
"6Mbps+ downloads, wireless, lower latency than 3G"
"Higher latency than cable, it's sort of pricey these days"
"Clear WiMAX is a viable broadband alternative"
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I'm confined to a hospital where I can't exactly have my own service hooked up. I was happy Clear was around, as I'm a gamer and I've used 3G before (such as Sprint Wireless) and the latency was horrible. With Clear I'm getting the full broadband experience including speed upto 9Mbps, and latency as low as 60ms to west cost servers. I was annoyed that they have priced the same service differnetly depending on the modem you choose. Theoretically you can use the home modem everywhere service is offered, same as the mobile option, yet they charge $20 more per month if you want something powered directly by the USB bus.. The home modem came fully firewalled by default and I couldn't receive any incoming connections, and the modem was password protected. Clear wouldn't give me the modem password and required that I call to have only select ports opened up. I found out the password is just generic "motorola" and the modem can be set up for DMZ which forwards all ports.
By the way, my extra awesome results with Clear might not be typical. My modem receives a full 5 light signal, and I was informed by Clear that I sit between two very close towers. I also live above all surrounding buildings and trees and have a direct line-of-sight to the towers, and the building allows exellent wireless penetration.
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Review by rvandam
UPDATED: 155 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 155 days ago
Alpharetta,Fulton,GA
$55 per month
"4G speeds as advertised, easy setup"
"usb dongle is pretty big"
"Recommended."
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I got the 4G Clear usb dongles on a $55/month plan (no contract). The only difference between contract and pay-per-month is that they'll wave the $35 signup fee if you sign up for two years -- not worth giving up my freedom for.
So far, speeds have been as advertised, the setup was smooth, everything works as advertised. Haven't tried the fringes of the footprint yet, will report on that later. The dongle is too big, it really sticks way out. I'll solve that by using a USB extension cable, so I can hide the dongle behind my PC. Other than that, nothing bad to report. Pings are 100, speeds are 6 to 7 Mbits down and .5 Mbit up.
I had read the avalanche of bad reviews on Clear, but decided to take a chance anyway since they were about Clear's non-4G network.
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Clearwire Wireless
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Not all bad...
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