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Review by bobfranklin 
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 1.7 years, 12 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
 Sun Valley,Washoe,NV
 $35 per month
 " always on no kickoffs (so far)"
 " throttling 51 - 63 kbs down, 9 kbps up!!!!"
 "lousy"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
signed up w/clearwire 10/01/07, choosing the 768/256 plan.
first download (Firefox browser) @ 91 - 96 kbs. Not as fast as I'd expected, but way quicker than dialup. certainly worth the intro rate of $25.25! 11/07, still good no noticeable drop in speed. 12/07, slight to troubling drop in bandwidth - weather, perhaps? Firefox browser download now happens @ approx. 25kbs. 01/08, intro ends,obvious throttling.
02/08, bandwidth as follows: downlink (total) = 51 - 63 kbps.
uplink (total = 9 kbps. Say that with me. "nine". not even a double digit number. I was foolish enough to sign a two year contract, because of a desire to lose dialup, & because dsl hasn't yet reached my address. When that great day arrives, Cleawire is history! I will HAPPILY eat the early termination fee. The only potential advantage over dialup I can see at this point is the "always - on" feature. I cannot in good conscience recommend these charlatans. My bandwidth is my own, for any legal purpose, including p2p & gaming. hindering me in these pursuits negates THEIR purpose.
Listed this review further down under "replies". sorry for the redundant post.
just wanted to count in the negative column! Mod can delete the other,if desired.
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Review by tdd0474
Posted: 1.7 years ago
member for 1.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
"wireless"
"customer service and odd throttling"
"Avoid"
| |
I have had clearwire for over one year and for the first 8 months it was fantastic. I was also one of the early buyers on this in my area. Once it started selling and more people started using it the network went to hell in a hand basket. Let me cover my points from above.
Wireless - Awesome. I have a cell phone and have no need to even plug anything into a phone jack. I loved that. When I moved I just packed it up and set it up in the new place with out having to call anyone or wait for anything. I loved it.
Customer service and odd throttling - Bad, very bad, even worse. Never call tech support if you want something fixed. They tell you it's your fault for running this or running that. If you have billing issue, forget about it and just pay the ETF and then call your bank immediately to have them deny charges from clearwire. As for the odd throttling. I have run several different virus scans on my computer, I have a router with a firewall, I use firewall software, yet any time I try to stream video my connection drops and then my computer mysteriously restarts. Only happens when I stream video. I get a max of about 7 minutes then I get pinged so hard my computer saves itself by restarting. I have taken my computer to 3 local repair shops and they can find nothing wrong with it yet when I stream video online my whole computer shuts down and it does not matter what site it is from. Oh and if you to download a massive file forget it. They drop you to dial up speeds until you call and then they tell you it was because you were on too long and threaten to cancel your service if you do it again. Like I said I use a router for my machine and my girlfriends machine and if we are both surfing at the same time we get random disconnects while our modem shows full service.I have 2 tickets in and I am waiting for a call back. We are looking into other options and have found maybe a local firm that does microwave will work. like anything do your research. I suggest finding the Better Business Bureau website. Get to the company and check the complaints section. It will give a good indicator of how they do business.
Clearwire had 37 registered to the Nevada (Corporate headquarters in Vegas) BBB in the last 36 months. It usually takes quite a bit to get some one to even consider going to the BBB. Pretty much at that point you are already looking for a lawyer. Do the math.
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Review by rustybear59
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 140 visits, last login: 40 days ago
Reno,Washoe,NV
$47 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
"no phone no cable no problem."
"not very reliable"
"great if you cant afford another service provider."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I had to have Internet access but could not afford a phone and dsl also and dial up was out of the question. Cable is not available in my area so wireless seemed like the way to go.BUT....
They offered speeds up to 1500 and the key words are UP TO, my speeds range any were from 1500 down to 200 ! Voip doesn't work well with it as the up load speed is UP TO 256 k makes for a bad connection most of the time.
So if nothing else is available then yes go with Clearwire just don't expect too much and you wont get too much.
UPDATE:I've been using Clearwire for about a year now and I still have an unreliable connection most of the time but again I don't have to pay for either a phone line or cable so in the long run I guess it will have to do. I wish there were a cheaper solution for internet service but .....
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Review by hwsgeo
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 2.2 years, 12 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
Anchorage,Anchorage,AK
$54 per month (12 month contract)
"nice introductary rate"
"Horrible billing practice, Referral program is scam"
"Stay CLEAR of ClearWire"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have nothing but unhappy experience with Clearwire. A typical bait and switch company! Ironically they greet you with "Thank you for calling ClearWire WE MAKE IT SIMPLE!" Is it true? Read on...
I signed up for their basic service (780K download speed) package on June 3 at the price of $19.99 plus $5.00 fee for the modem lease. I was given a $30 discount for the first 3 months and a 7-day risk free trial. At the time of registration I asked the agent in the Mall here in Anchorage if I were to move someday to a location that's outside of Clearwire's service area, would I be liable for any termination/cancellation fee. I was told NO. To make sure I sent an email to ClearWire. NO RESPONSE --until one month later - by then my trial window was over and I was locked in with a 1 year contract. They finally responded saying I would be paying $175 cancellation fee and they were sorry for the late reply due to high volume of tickets received.
During my first week of service, i got a dial-up like speed even though i were able to receive 4 lighted bars. After talking to the clearwire tech i was advised to upgrade to 1.5M, which i did and paid a $10 fee. Turns out the speed improved a bit but never close to the advertised 1.5M. Called the clearwire tech again and was told i need to upgrade my PIII PC. Thanks ClearWire. You could have advised me to upgrade the PC first, but you chose to have me upgrade the service! WOW..
On July 3,- my second promotional month i discovered ClearWire started to charge me the full $54.99 premium rate. No more discount. I called to inquire and was told that because they upgraded me from basic to Premium, i now lost my entitlement to the promotional discount! I was outraged and complained to one supervisor who, after doing some research, came back to tell me that i would continue to receive the discount and he was sorry for the wrong information given by the customer service rep. Before he ended the call he promised this wouldn't happen again in the following month. true ? Read on..
A few days later i checked my account online and found that they did credit me back $30, but added a $3.02 tax, a fee that didn't exist before. I contacted the local agent who sold me the service and was told that Anchorage is exempt and i shouldn't be paying for the so-called Fed Uni Fee or tax. I immediately contacted Clearwire and spoke to a billing agent (Keitha 702-965-1399 ex 5235). She, however, insisted that Anchorage is NOT exempt and asked me to go to a local legislative office to obtain an exemption letter to prove my exemption status or i will continue to be billed $3.02 / month for the remainder of my contract!
I asked to talk to her supervisor but she refused and HUNG up on me. Hours later i received a call from one supervisor (Jene 702-951-1972), who, first tried to pull out the agreement term - applicable Tax on me. I told him Anchorage is exempt and the so-called "applicable tax" doesn't apply to this area. I told him to confirm with the agent here in Anchorage, which he did. Later on the same day he and the agent called me on a tele-conference and admitted Anchorage is indeed exempt and i would be credited back all the taxes i paid.
On August 3 - my last promotional month, I checked account online to make sure they didn't "forget" my promotion discount. Sure enough, they did! full premium rate - $54.99. Called the billing department. Again, "No discount" from customer rep, "Yes, $30 discount" from one supervisor. But i must call back on Monday because he was not authorized to credit more than $30
Monday I called and talked to the same Supervisor. This time he credited $30- Not to the credit card, but to NEXT month payment.
I can't wait for my 1-yr contract to be up so I can send back their modem along with their crappy service. I should have stuck with my ACS DSL from day one -it's not perfect but at least I don't need to worry about deceptive billing practice. For those who are considering ClearWire, don't be fooled by their sweet introductary rate. They will do anything they can to take the promotion away from you!
update 2/11/08
This is my 9th month into the 1-year contract with Clearwire. Overall I am not impressed with their products/service. Slow-down, outage and traffic shaping issues continue to occur frequently, particularly during evening peak hours. Calls to tech support are not followed up for over a week.
On a side note, their referral program is a scam. I referred a friend in October and was told i were to receive a $25 Visa web certificate in 10 to 15 business days. Since then i've inquired TWICE about the so-called certificate - not that i care about the $25, I just wanted to find out if ClearWire indeed honor its referral program. Sadly they ONLY sent me two emails (ticket #163198)saying they are working on it. Nothing Else! It's been 3 months. i feel it's safe to say they have no intention to do so!
Followup comments:  
Ak Consumer
@clearwire-dns.net
| ClearWire Anchorage We've had no problems with service BUT I strongly sympathize with the writer about what amounts to deceptive billing practices in his case. Strongly suggest he document his experience and file a complaint with the RCA, which is HQed here in Anchorage. ClearWire is applying to provide land line phone service and the RCA should be apprised of its poor customer service, unreliable discount promises, confusion over taxes, etc. These are all subject to RCA regulation as per the approved tariff and CW is liaible for its failure to follow the approved tariff. Complaining online is a start but CW will not be likely to clean up its act unless the RCA fines it or forces it to suspend service.
I never, ever approve autopay for utilities like CW unless and until I'm satisfied that they are following the contract I have with them. Nothing like withholding pay or challenging a credit card bill to make them take notice and fix their poor service. | |
| 
koolman2
Premium
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK
 ·GCI.net
| Cancel BEFORE contract expires Please be sure to cancel IN WRITING 30 days or more prior to the end of the contract term. In the ToS you signed, it states that your contract will automatically renew unless you provide, in writing (or by calling I presume), notice of cancellation. I learned this the hard way and almost had to pay $210 in early termination fees.
--
There's no place like ::1. | |
| hwsgeo
join:2007-08-08
Anchorage, AK
 ·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | My posting caught ClearWire's attention Thanks to this forum and the two Anchorage ClearWire customers above, my posting finally caught the attention of ClearWire.
On August 14, 2007, 12:10pm, i received a phone call from a lady by the name of Dianna (private number removed by mod). She said she was from ClearWire and had read my posting on dslreports.com. She was able to pull my account and verified my claims since i use the same ClearWire ID for dslreports registration. She was sorry for the grief that i went through and acknowledged there are areas for improvement on their parts (such as billing errors, tax..). She said she would do anything to make it right. The first step she took was to refund $30 to my credit card. I checked the credit card today 08/20/07 and yes, the $30 has been credited back. Secondly she pledged to work to make sure that tax be excluded from Anchorage ClearWire customer account. Finally she offered me one free month service (a value of $55) as their appreciation for my helping them notice the tax issue.
I can not say ClearWire has completely turned me around as only time can tell but i am glad that they have acknowledged there are areas to improve and they are willing to try to do the right thing. In light of that i am willing to stick around
The company perhaps spends millions of $$$$ advertising their products, in the end it only takes a small handful of unhappy customers to destroy what their $$$ try to accomplish.
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|
collie
@xanadoo.com | clearwire I hate clearwire. They tell me that they cannot locate my contract anywhere to prove when I did sign up. Let see.........with holding my contract, that is fraud and fraud is a crime, well, well, well.......what do we have here. | |
|
Derek
@clearwire-dns.net
| Have had the same problem I am also in Anchorage. I have had this modem for almost 2 months now. I've tried to cancel my 2 year contract with cw but they tried to charge me a $250 cancellation fee. I was upset that I am getting charged to cancel service that I wasn't even getting. From day 2 I have had severe problems playing a computer game called Counter Strike Source which operates on ports #27015-37015. I experienced severe lag, in servers from Seattle, Washington at ping ranging from 150 - 700 + . Packet Loss has been at 25%+ sense I've had the modem. I've contacted tech support over 15 times to resolve the issue, went through the same steps, flushing dns, re-provisioning my modem, speed testing, checking which tower i was on. I even mentioned that I had been reading on forums about clear wire and port blocking. I was disgusted at what I had read that cw blocks port 80 and any application they want to. The tech support and customer support both said they are not aware of this and/or stated that they did not block any ports. I still to this day am not able to download movies or games from direct2drive.com, play any internet based games. I am literally paying for server I am not getting. My grandma's 56k is faster then this, I'd like a refund. | |
|
Jo
@comcast.net
| Dont ever go for clearwire.. BAD BAD service I relocated to a place where they have no coverage.
When I signed up, the sales person assured me, if I move to a place where they have not service, I dont have to pay an early termination. I repeatedly confirmed this at that time.
I asked the company to make my account dormant till I go back to an area where I get the service.
Clearwire didnt allow that and so they charged me $200, and I had to terminate the serivice. They dont honor the customers, who are not able to use it, because their lack of service.
I feel really really bad about my decision to use Clearwire.
It is a BIG loss for me | |
|
FROTOMAN
@ca.us
| Cleawire dropping emails I have been a Clearwire customer for two years. Generally I have been satisfied although I have not really needed to use Clearwire's customer service. Recently, I have found that I have not been receiving all of my emails from other web sites. These are from multiple domains which if I redirect to my online Yahoo email - all are received properly. I directly use the Clearwire's email website and so it had nothing to do with my local machine. Yet, after explaining to a level of exhaution, their multiple customer service people constantly redirects blame the user and makes the user responsible for their clear defect. There is something wrong with this ISP provider lately. The have issues and are keeping them to themselves. Horrible service response and they don't listen, particularly when customers are losing important data/emails. They may be tweaking protocols and ports to maintain a facade of performance at subscriber's data expense.
Looking for other ISP options. | |
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Review by Clearwire101
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 1.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Jacksonville,Duval,FL
$40 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Easy set-up"
"Terrible customer service, unexplained multi-day outage, slower-than-advertised."
"SAVE YOUR MONEY! Go with cable or DSL or two tin cans and a string."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
I live in Jacksonville, FL, I had Clearwire Wireless for 4 months (just canceled it today). The signal never reached its maximum, falling in the mid-range consistently no matter where the device was placed within the house. Consequently, the speed was more akin to dial-up. But, I stuck with it because of the contract terms and, at the very least, it provided connectivity.
On Saturday, 02 February 2008, Clearwire suffered an outage in the entire Jacksonville, FL area. The outage lasted 4 full days...perhaps 5 and counting but I didn't attempt connection today to find out.
I called 3 times (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday). On Sunday morning the sales personnel said they were receiving many calls but could not get the tech people on the line. On Sunday evening, the tech people advised there was an outage in the Jacksonville area but that nobody knew what the problem was. On Monday the tech people read me a letter e-mailed to them from management stating that they were aware of the problem and were "working expeditiously" to correct it. On Tuesday the tech people said that they still were working the issue but that they still could not determine the genesis of the malfunction nor could they determine when the service would be functioning again.
That's when I called Comcast. (Note that I DESPISE COMCAST but desperate times call for desperate measures.) I now have functioning and fast cable internet.
I called Clearwire this morning to cancel the service. For the pleasure of their terrible customer & technical service, I will pay $190 to get out of the contract (8 months remaining at $40 per month). The customer service representative (very nice young girl) worked hard to deflect my attention from canceling...trying to re-close the deal multiple times. I felt bad for her. Her management would not budge on waving the cancelation fee. I would not budge on canceling. They offered three months of free service as well as "compensation" for the 4 days' outage. I advised that compensation for 4 days of downtime plus the $168 I paid to Comcast to secure service that WORKS comes to about $190 so we should call it even.
No surprise that they did not accept my counter-offer.
In a nutshell (after you waded through the above), on many critical levels Clearwire is a terrible service . After the ease of setting it up it's pretty much downhill from there. My advice is to bite the bullet and go with the established DSL or cable internet services (as much as that pains you to read it and me to type it). I am now spending the remainder of this week posting this message on every board I can find and also will blog about it on my site. (shameless plug: fiercelyshe.com) Thanks for spending the time to read this little rant...it's been somewhat therapeutic. 
Followup comments:
specious
@rcn.com
| Why cancel when they were offering you 3 months free? You stated you had 8 months left on your contract at $40.00 per month yet the termination fee was only $190.00. The math does not add up.
Anyway you should kept the service if they were offering you 3 months free and STILL got your new service. That would tranlate into 3 months less on the termination fee that when you terminated at the end of the three months. In the meantime you could have started documenting things and then taken them to small claims court for breach of contract on their part and sue for the termination charges. Your copious notes would provide adequate ammunition to present to the judge.
It still might not be too late to rethink your cancellation stategy. | |
| WarmCoke
join:2007-01-31
Boise, ID
·Clearwire Wireless
| Another one..... Another example of:
A. Not spending the appropriate amount of time to ensure that you were connecting to the correct tower and getting the strongest signal possible.
B. Basing your decision to leave on an extended outage that most if not all broadband providers have a times.
C. Joining forums just to post rants and then never participating here again most likely.
Sounds to me like Clearwire was trying to be more than accommodating for you in the situation. | |
| |
Clearwire 101
@comcast.net
| Re: Another one..... The three-months off offer came after numerous VERY lengthy and TEDIOUS attempts by the sales associate to get me to stay with Clearwire. First, she denied that there was an outage (and then backtracked when I asked her to review her information), then she stated that I only called in once but then backtracked when I had the names of the sales and tech people I spoke with, then she said she would be able to take off 4-days worth of charges from the next bill, when I said that wasn't acceptable, she then said she could offer one-month off, and then finally, she said she was authorized to offer 3-months off.
All of this was done very politely but it frustrated me to the point of just wanting to be done with Clearwire...and I'd already secured service with Comcast as I couldn't afford to be without internet for additional time...I work at home.
I am going to fight the early termination charges based on information posted on another board.
WarmCoke -- I'm puzzled as to why your post is so overtly hostile. To answer some of your charges, this outage was not the norm that I have ever experienced with any other broadband provider. For the first three days of the outage the tech people couldn't even explain what the problem was.
Further, I'm not a tech person so it would frustrate you true tech types were I to frequent boards like this on a normal basis. That does not mean my experiences with a tech product are irrelevant and that others would not wish to hear of them. I know that were I to have taken the time to research Clearwire before signing on with them, I would not have signed that contract based on experiences I outlined above and others that I am now finding quite easily with just a quick Google search. Yes, I'm an idiot for not doing my research. That, however, doesn't negate the fact that Clearwire offers an inferior product and inferior service (in my humble non-tech-savvy opinion).
| |
| | | WarmCoke
join:2007-01-31
Boise, ID
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: Another one..... All too often, it seems, users of broadband providers (or anything else for that matter) are ready to bolt for the door at the very first sign of a hiccup. Services are not even really given a chance to prove themselves before consumers are on the phone demanding to be relieved of binding contracts. This seems to have been the case, at least in small part, in your situation.
I too had to take some time to search out the very best position for the Clearwire modem in my home and worked with their tech support to ensure I was connecting to the proper signal tower. But with the current configuration and placement, I have steady and solid signal and extremely consistent download speeds. You could not drag me back to a wired connection at this point. | |
| | | |
Clearwire 101
@comcast.net
| Re: Another one..... Well, I would not have considered getting rid of Clearwire were it not for the outage that couldn't be explained nor were they able to forecast an expected repair date. Again, working from home I was in a situation where I was forced to secure new service...and that's probably what upset me the most because I despise the cable companies and the phone companies. (and insurance companies and banks...but I digress)
For $40 bucks a month, I expect it to be up and running (slow, fast, whatever) and if there is an outage it's for a day at the most.
I'm 39 and have had internet in many different places via many different types of service (to include in the former Soviet Union several years ago). I've never experienced an outage beyond a full day (24hrs). Maybe I've been inordinately lucky and should subscribe to a weekly lottery ticket!
The Clearwire outage, to me, was unacceptable particularly given that the tech people, for three days, couldn't explain what the problem was. Specifically, each tech person very apologetically said "We don't know what the problem is." (That is a quote.)
I wasn't on the phone yelling and browbeating. I felt very badly for each of them individually. My sympathy for their plight, however, faded quickly when I realized that I was stuck without internet for an indeterminate period of time and needing to go back to effin' Comcast.
It wasn't my intention to step on toes with my "spirited" review. I've since read other reviews that make mine look like praise. In a perfect world the powers-that-be at Clearwire will take all comments to heart and continue to perfect their mouse trap. Having an alternative to the monster cable & telephone companies is a VERY good thing...but that alternative has to work at least as well as the product pedaled by the big-footed competition.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. | |
| dcfxq
join:2006-02-06
Richmond, VA
·Comcast
| I hope you enjoy a long and happy Comcastic experience ... I just returned a Clearwire modem last Friday after finding out we would be relocating at the end of May so, not wanting to chance winding up in a "dead spot" or poor reception area I am forced to remain with Comcast.
Prior to returning it, we did a bit of reverse war driving with my laptop and modem using an inverter to power the modem while driving. In two of the three areas we are considering moving even inside the vehicle without optimizing location siting we got solid five bars and solid ping/speed results. Unfortunately, the most probable location we'll move to was the most erratic and weakest signal area so back it went, reluctantly so I'm stuck with Comcast for another four months. I will try CW again when we settle on exact location!
I won't burden you with my tale of woe but after 20 months of hassles and headaches I would rather have anything but Comcast. Speeds are all over the map from blazing fast ot slower than 350kbps, the wireless gateway/modem requires daily recycling, support is friendly but not terribly effective, billing problems occur every other month and in general just is highly frustrating.
I sincerely hope your Comcast experience is more satisfactory than mine had been. | |
| |
Clearwire 101
@comcast.net | Re: I hope you enjoy a long and happy Comcastic experience ... see my post above. i'm not a fan of comcast. i already know they don't measure up to their hype. i had them BEFORE i had clearwire. | |
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Review by ratatosk99
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 17 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Sammamish,King,WA
$36 per month (24 month contract)
about 3 days
"easy installation"
"moderate packet loss, laggy and disconnected tcp connections"
"get cable or dsl instead"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
I ordered Clearwire. The box showed up a couple of days later. I spent some time finding a place in my house that would give 3 out of 5 bubbles of signal and got it working (the "modem" needs to be a moderate distance from any wireless access point). A couple of calls to tech support were satisfactory - one to find the location of the nearest tower to help me position the antenna, and another where I had to correct the fact that the unit near a wireless access point which was causing interference.
The download and upload bandwidth were as advertised once I got the antenna positioned optimally. However, for large downloads (>100MB or so), it appears the download speed was throttled down to about 50KB/sec.
My main problem here was packet loss. This led to clearwire being pretty very annoying for my TCP/SSL based corporate VPN. The connection would freeze for up to 30 seconds at a time. Similarly any other service that was not tolerant of brief connection dropouts ended up being more or less unusable (skype, voip, online gaming).
The clearwire equipment is back in a box. I'm waiting for a return label to come by email so I can send it back. Looks like I'll be hit with a $220 termination fee because I exceeded the 7 day trial period, but I'd rather pay that than deal with the frustration of substandard internet service. The $220 fee is my own fault, however, I really couldn't get a clear evaluation of the internet service in 7 days because the performance was so erratic.
Followup comments:
Jacques
@clearwire-dns.net
| The connection would freeze for up to 30 seconds at a time I'm also using VPN and had the same type of issues.
I asked our system admin to look at it. After changing a few parameters on the servers that I'm connecting to and also looking at my Wireless Router the proplem disapeared.
By the way the System Admin had me change my Cisco wireless router for a Netgear wireless router.
I only have two lights on the top of my modem and I'm very please with the price/performance ratio of my ClearWire!
I was paying more than $85/month with Charter Cable and I'm paying only $29.98/month now
| |
|
him
@clearwire-dns.net
| vpn use I work out in the field all the time with a constant VPN connection through Open VPN and as long as i am getting 2 or more bars on my clearwire modem it works great. I have had no problems downloading the occasional large file. in fact i just downloaded Project Torque the other day to my laptop and play it online every now and then when i have some free time in my service van. The service does get a little choppy if i get out of town aways where i still get 3 bars on my modem but i think it's because of the distance i am away from their towers. | |
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Review by whitebark
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 2.5 years, 13 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
$34 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Installation is effortless"
"Service is unreliable at times; they make it really hard to quit"
"don't get Clearwire, unless you have no alternative"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I was a former dialup user and wanted to join the high-speed fun. Having heard vague good things about Clearwire, I wandered over to the university bookstore, a Clearwire vendor, and ordered the slower level service (800 kbs) which goes for $29.95 plus modem lease which is another $5 a month. After entering in some information into the computer kiosk and enduring a quick credit check, I was soon a proud owner (well renter) of a Clearwire modem. Rushed home to try it out and was amazed how quick and easy it was to set it up and go online. The next day I got an Apple Airport router and effortlessly set up a wireless network. Coming from dialup I was in high speed heaven!
The first month or so, the Clearwire performed well and at the advertised speed. But then, more and more, slowdowns, brownouts where speed slowed to a crawl, freezes, stalls,and outright service blackouts started occurring. I don't do VOIP or massive downloads--I'm just a plain vanilla web surfer--yet performance for that use has been getting insufferably bad at times.
The signal strength is somewhat weak at my residence, one to three bars. The strength fluctuates randomly and the connection speed does not seem to correlate with the number of bars. The modem often has to reconnect (flashing bars), causing more service delays.
Someone said that Clearwire is only good for grandmothers downloading knitting patterns, but if the service keeps getting worse, Clearwire is going to have a lot of angry grannies on their hands!
I can't compare this high speed service to other ISPs as I have not used any others. But I'm ready to give up on Clearwire, throw away the $180 early termination fee, and try Qwest DSL or something else.
update: I think the problem is that the local tower is overloaded. The connection during non-peak times seems to work much better. Right now (late Sat night) the signal strength and connection speed are good. Once the work week starts, I expect the miserable performance to return. This is Seattle, Clearwire's home base, a big market with many tech-savvy users. If they can't make it work here, where can they?
update 2: To be fair, I'm working through Clearwire's support system to give them a chance to fix the problem. Getting a hold of a live person was easy...we will see what they can do.
update 3: The internet connection has improved greatly after the tech found the one small sweet spot for radio reception. I'm not quite so pissed off. Still, because of their vicious contract terms, I would avoid Clearwire if possible. Also, as others have noted, they will throttle your bandwidth if you do anything other then websurf.
update 4, July 30: The clearwire connection has been working pretty well. I will still cancel when the year is up, because I don't want to get "reupped" for another year.
Update 5, Nov 7: For many months, I have been getting o.k. service from Clearwire. Few big blackouts or slowdowns have occurred like those last June. Speed seem to be meeting the 700 kbs that I paid for. Disconnects occur far too frequently..they are simple to fix by resetting the router or rebooting computer, but annoying.
Update 6, Jan 14
Am in the process of terminating my contract. This must be done carefully and by the book, otherwise they will sign you up for another year contract and there will be nothing you can do about it. Exactly one month before your contract ends you must call clearwire. They will not notify you to do this (even though they say they will). The folks at their retention department are unpleasant, borderline nasty. Don't lose your temper. They are supposed to e-mail you a shipping label that you can use to send your modem back. Typically, you have to call them several times before they will do this. They will give you bogus reason why the e-mail did not show up. If all else fails, you can bring the modem back in person to one of their main offices( not stores). Look at the "contacts" menu item for main office locations.
I've managed to get the shipping label, so I'm close to the end of this process. My modem is on the way to Vegas.
Followup comments:
Matt F
@clearwire-dns.net
| Are You Having Issues again? Hi I read your updates and was intersted because i too live in the seattle area and i think my tower was overloaded as well, back in June i had horrible service, then around early mid july it was great (Just like you said) now weather is getting crappy and people are staying indoors more and hmm, 1 or 2 bars most of the time. They are overloading their own network. Something needs to be done about this. Please contact me at my email matt8875@msn.com and we can discuss this further
Thanks | |
| whitebark
join:2007-05-18
Seattle, WA
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | clearwire update Hi Matt, My clearwire connection had worked o.k. for the past few months. The connection seemed "laggy" sometimes but when I did a speed test it was up to spec. There was a lingering problem with random disconnects, where I had to reset my wireless router or do various things to get the connection going again. Note, however, that I am not a power user of the internet, mostly web surfing with some large software downloads that Clearwire dealt with o.k.
Recently I moved to an apartment with a rock solid, lightning fast dedicated internet connections via ethernet cable. This is far superior than Clearwire ever was. My clearwire modem sits unused, and I plan to terminate service soon. | |
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Review by kon16ov
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 2.2 years, 37 visits, last login: 97 days ago
Dayton,Montgomery,OH
$42 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Insanely easy to set up."
"Connection speeds aren't as advertised most of the time, spotty connections, throttled bandwidth"
"A decent alternative to RoadRunner, but DSL is probably a better choice."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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So, I swore that I would never give RoadRunner another dime, as long as I lived. Since they were the dominant ISP, that left me with DSL or ClearWire. Since the house didn't have phone service (welcome to the Cell-centric society), ClearWire was the least expensive choice, overall.
So, for $25, I took home the Expedience Wireless Access Modem (Model RSU-2510-SV) and a contract for 2 years at $25/mo for the first three months and a total of $42/mo, thereafter. The promised package was the ClearPremium, which along with a 10MB web storage and 5-email addresses, also promised 1.5M down and 256K up. The order process was painless -- it took less time to complete the order and walk out the door with the equipment than it did to drive to store where we completed the order -- under 7 minutes. Installation was, as I said, insanely simple, if not wholly satisfactory. I finally found a place in the house where I could get 2-3 bars, consistently, which is, coincidentally enough, about 1 foot from the computer.
Upon installation, though, the connections were flakier than a Crisco crust BUT I found that to be directly linked to the router -- a Netgear MR814v2. It did not play well with that router. When I swapped out the router with a Netgear MR814v1 with a firmware upgrade (the router had last been used in 2004), everything has been much happier.
We signed up in late August, so this is, as of this writing, the middle of month 3 with ClearWire. The overall impression has been decent enough, almost good. I've seen a LOT of reviews that are almost completely negative. I haven't experienced most of what these reviews focus on. I also may be more tolerant. The only outage I've experienced was when a tower "went up in flames" and there was no service for right around 24 hours. A call to tech support and I got the answer I needed quickly.
The positives? It's broadband and, while not the cheapest, when factoring in equipment leasing and contract costs, it's not much more expensive than comperable DSL packages in our area. It is easy to install. It's also pretty easy to troubleshoot. It's either the modem or the router 99% of the time, for me. The outage was the only exception. While the "reception" of the wireless router has been spotty at times, sometimes not connecting for a couple of minutes at a time, early on, since about the first of the month, I've dipped below three bars once that I know of.
The negatives? Well, the day after the 7-day trial ended, service slipped considerably and didn't seem to recover for about a week and a half. Speeds are not usually anywhere near advertised speeds, even in the paltry upload department. So, updating web sites, en-masse, can take a LONG time. Uploading 10x13" 300dpi TIFF files is almost painful. Also, there is obvious bandwidth throttling going on as newsgroups come and go, speed-wise, dropping off to 0 for periods of time, and torrent clients just don't do anything after about the first 30 seconds, if they connect at all. The only other kibitz is that my son plays games online and I can hear swearing every so often, telling me that his connection dropped. Considering that when he "jumps" to the neighbor's network after this and it STILL drops, I think it may be more indicative of router/nic issues.
Overall, it's not bad. It beats dialup, obviously. It's a viable alternative to TWC's RoadRunner and DSL, in my opinion. Something to consider is where you're located, I suppose, as most of the negative reviews I've seen have been out in Washington or down in Florida. I haven't had nearly the troubles I've read other having had, so while it hasn't been a completely rosy path, it's not been the pits of dark abyss, either.
[update]
Over the past month, there has been a definite improvement of service and reliability. I would say that the amount of time the router stays at 4 bars is up to around 75%, whereas a month ago, I had never seen it reach 4... It still hates P2P software, but even my FTP upload speeds are consistently higher (and closer to advertised speed) than they have ever been. I still have very little negative to say about ClearWire...
Followup comments: kon16ov
join:2007-08-25
Dayton, OH
·Clearwire Wireless
| Ball of flames...
The Final Straw |
I am now running AT&T Yahoo DSL at 3MB for less than ClearWire costs. What did I jump ship so suddenly? Well, after going through three routers that I *KNOW* worked and still not being able to maintain a connection to the modem, I just plugged it into the NIC on the computer. That worked well for a couple of days, but started dropping. Yeah, you heard me -- a hard line dropping. So, after 2 weeks of no one in tech support knowing how it was possible to be connected to the modem, directly, and still have "little to no connectivity," we just gave AT&T a call, and 2 days later we're flying at 3MB with no issues, no bandwidth throttling, no distressed connectivity during thunderstorms.
The next creative step will involve severing the ties with ClearWire without getting soaked for $200, as having not delivered the goods, it's not MY fault their equipment doesn't function as advertised. We'll see.
My advice is this: ClearWire is a LOT like DirecTV was in the beginning -- give it some time to mature before buying into it whole hog.
--
-----------------
The key to keeping secrets
is the keeping of the key. | |
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Review by tewdogs
Posted: 1.9 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
Tacoma,Pierce,WA
Contract price not specified.
"No wires"
"Limitting of p2p protocols all over the place"
"100K/s ceiling for any connection lasting longer than a minute"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Easy to install.
None of the extras one would expect from a full service ISP. NNTP in particular. Any connection, regardless of protocol, gets throttled to high 90s K/s. FTP, HTTP, NNTP, DCC, TFTP, SCP... any socket stays open long it throttles ALL bandwidth to around 100K. Not per socket, TOTAL. Don't EVER buy this crap. I buy 1.5M I EXPECT 1.5M. Horrible company. Avoid at all cost.
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Review by dr_draw
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Nampa,Canyon,ID
$43 per month (24 month contract)
"None"
"deceptive, bad service, bad product, Avoid at all costs!"
"This company will tell you whatever it takes to get you to sign their 2 year contract whether it's true or not"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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This company is terrible, I just got off the phone with someone at Clearwire named Kisha, the most rude and condescending person I’ve spoken to in a long time.
I was just informed they had turned down my dispute of charges including the early termination fee.
It didn’t matter to Kisha that I was told by the salesperson that I wouldn’t notice any difference in my internet service if I switched from high speed cable to Clearwire. I’m a photojournalist and I need to upload high resolution photos several times a day. My uploads were averaging around 6k to 12k …. I get 112k using my cell phone as a modem!. A file that would normally take me less than an hour with cable would take days with clearwire. Yeah right no difference. I would be out of business!
Not only does this company have a bad service but their business practices are receiving and dishonest too. The reason they make you sign those long contracts is because it is the only way they can keep customers. But don't just take my word for it. See what others have to say ... I wish I would have.
For those of you who are familiar with Chris Pirillo and Lockergnome check out what he has to say about Clearwire:
»www.lockergnome.com/windows/2007···y-taste/
Now for the best part. When I signed up over the phone the sales person spelled my name wrong. When I picked up my modem the next day I pointed the mistake out to them and was told they would fix it. Now you can only get Clearwire if you give them your credit card information so they can bill you automatically. This service was for my business so I gave them my business credit card for the billing.
This same credit card is used for all of my other reoccurring business expenses as well as my Paypal merchant account.
Shortly after signing up with Clearwire I get notified by my bank that being issued a new credit card because they believed my account had been compromised. I later found out Clearwire had charged my account using the incorrect name. My online sales were down for 2 days while I changed the billing changes to my merchant account not to mention the time and headache to change all of my other billing info with everyone ..... EXCEPT Clearwire!
Don't just stay away from Clearwire ... RUN away!
Followup comments:
Reply
@clearwire-dns.net
| When is comes to service providers there is good & bad Sounds like an isolated incident, there are angry customers when it comes to any service provider wether it's an ISP, Bank, Gym, Cell Phone, Etc...
Thats too bad you had such a bad experience because truly one ignorant staff member does not make up the entire team. | |
| | DoRight
join:2007-07-20
Mechanicsburg, PA
1 edit | Re: When is comes to service providers there is good & bad Look at the reviews my friend.. When you have 50/50 reviews from consumers that is not good... | |
| WarmCoke
join:2007-01-31
Boise, ID
·Clearwire Wireless
| Clear sailing for this Idahoan While I am sorry for your experiences - it is NOT atypical for customers of Clearwire in Idaho as my experience with them here in Boise would go to show. If you were having speed issues - they can be worked through without instantly trying to get out of a contract.......... | |
| melikemyers
join:2008-01-25
Edmonds, WA
| Clearwire is really a bad internet service provider We have been using Clearwire since February 2007 and we do not receive sufficient signal strength to use my VONAGE Voice Over the Internet Phone. The same internet phone worked well with Comcast modem and Comcast service. It even worked well with wireless router at my home. Then I gave it to my daughter to use with her Clearwire internet service.
I bought Clearwire for my daughter last year and she has been using it. She has been complaining about the bad service Clearwire provides her since last year. However, as a customer, I gave time to Clearwire, a new startup company, so it would be support from its customers to get stronger. We were expecting that Clearwire would improve its internet service in a few months so my daughter can use that Clearwire with no problem.
She can understand the words of the person other side during telephone communication ( it seems downloading data works somewhat).
However, the person at the other side of the line can not understand the words because the line breaks when uploading the voice data over the Clearwire internet service and Clearwire radio modem.
We want to cancel Clearwire service plan with no disconnection fees and no other monetary penalties due to Clearwire's technical defects and bad service.
It has been 11 months since we are experiencing problems with Clearwire internet service provider, and I still can not understand what she says over the internet phone when I call her. It seems we customers overestimated what Clearwire can do.
Melike Myers
melikemyers@yahoo.com | |
| bobfranklin
join:2008-02-25
Sun Valley, NV
·Clearwire Wireless
|  my own little review
first download (Firefox browser) @ 91 - 96 kbs. Not as fast as I'd expected, but way quicker than dialup. certainly worth the intro rate of $25.25! 11/07, still good no noticeable drop in speed. 12/07, slight to troubling drop in bandwidth - weather, perhaps? Firefox browser download now happens @ approx. 25kbs. 01/08, intro ends,obvious throttling.
02/08, bandwidth as follows: downlink (total) = 51 - 63 kbps.
uplink (total = 9 kbps. Say that with me. "nine". not even a double digit number. I was foolish enough to sign a two year contract, because of a desire to lose dialup, & because dsl hasn't yet reached my address. When that great day arrives, Cleawire is history! I will HAPPILY eat the early termination fee. The only potential advantage over dialup I can see at this point is the "always - on" feature. I cannot in good conscience recommend these charlatans. My bandwidth is my own, for any legal purpose, including p2p & gaming. hindering me in these pursuits negates THEIR purpose. | |
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