| Buildout If it's anything like their hodgepodge spotty Wimax network, thanks but no thanks.
I understand they have an enormous amount of spectrum, however,the frequency they use alone is simply useless in America. |
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Reviews:
 ·Charter
| The wimax network sucks because they use so little mhz of their total amount. If they put their mhz to use and built more towers it would rock.
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| reply to Telco
Clear has many cities with WiMax the problem is they are NOT turned on for what ever reason. Toledo and Sandusky Ohio are only 2 out of how many cities in Ohio that have a built network but ZERO customers on it. Waste of money. All due to their major shareholder doesn't want it on. The network has been built for over 2 years now. |
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 dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO | I think they also have a few locations turned up just to keep the licence from expiring... I was in a city the other day... noticed 4G in a couple spots... checked the map when I got a chance and clear says "while clear is available we are not currently offering service in this area"... the sprint 4g wimax map showed nothing. |
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 swintecPremium,VIP
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
kudos:4
 ·RapidVPS
 ·Sprint Mobile Br..
 ·VoicePulse
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to 25139889
said by 25139889:Clear has many cities with WiMax the problem is they are NOT turned on for what ever reason. Toledo and Sandusky Ohio are only 2 out of how many cities in Ohio that have a built network but ZERO customers on it. Waste of money. All due to their major shareholder doesn't want it on. The network has been built for over 2 years now.
How do you know they have no customers on it? Are you watching cell traffic every minute? A lot of the areas like you mention are just protection sites so clear can keep their spectrum licenses. Maine has 5+ of these and they are decent when you spend time in that area. Driving through not so much but it is there for now. They will not show up on Sprints WiMax coverage maps, but they are a decent surprise when the 4G lights up on the phone.
Sprints LTE / Network Vision is well under way btw, ahead of schedule. I know how much that must grind your gears. 
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Reviews:
·Callcentric
| reply to Metatron2008
Clear's 2.5GHz is little match for 700MHz in terms of raw coverage. It would take clear about 4 to 5 times the cell tower to cover the same areas as 1 700Mhz AT&T/Verizon cell.
Some of their base stations, which are spotty as it is, have less than a mile radius worth of coverage. Whereas, I have been able to hit a VZ LTE tower over 6 miles away.
Not to mention, both Sprint and Clear have gone for TD-LTE, which means the coverage has a GSM type hard distance cap. |
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 tiger72SexaT duorPPremium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1 | said by Telco:Clear's 2.5GHz is little match for 700MHz in terms of raw coverage. It would take clear about 4 to 5 times the cell tower to cover the same areas as 1 700Mhz AT&T/Verizon cell.
Some of their base stations, which are spotty as it is, have less than a mile radius worth of coverage. Whereas, I have been able to hit a VZ LTE tower over 6 miles away.
Not to mention, both Sprint and Clear have gone for TD-LTE, which means the coverage has a GSM type hard distance cap.
Clear simply cut corners on their deployment. Instead of deploying equipment to enough building-tops, towers, etc. they tried pushing the limits of their cell sizes, AND refused to use their spectrum assets properly. As shown above, they had a ton of spectrum, yet they deployed on 10mhz and 20mhz, and then capped the speeds on top of that (1.5mbps upload cap? really? why?). So people had poor reception, higher latency than they should have, and slow speeds for "4g". As soon as T-Mobile upgraded to HSPA+, their network beat Wimax in just about every single speed test (and my TMO and ATT devices on HSPA *still* outperform my Sprint device on Wimax).
The spectrum used isn't much of an issue. Proper deployment is what really matters. And Clear simply rolled out a shoddy network.
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"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? ...If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."
-United States Secretary of Defense (1961-1968) Robert S. McNamara |
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| reply to swintec
That network that is NOT turned on- they will tell you- it is NOT turned on- Sprint doesn't use it and Clear will tell you- no customers are on it- and nobody in the City has service from it. You can't even get a Wimax device from Clear to locate the signal.
And NV maybe under way- but what happens when it runs out of money? You forget Sprint is broke thanks to iPhone and Dan. Sprint will NOT be able to keep going with their current spending of Dan and the iPhone. That money should have went into the network and not a fanboy type device that will NOT return their money in 2 years. |
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swintecPremium,VIP
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
kudos:4 Reviews:
·RapidVPS
·Sprint Mobile Br..
·VoicePulse
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by 25139889:That network that is NOT turned on- they will tell you- it is NOT turned on- Sprint doesn't use it and Clear will tell you- no customers are on it- and nobody in the City has service from it. You can't even get a Wimax device from Clear to locate the signal.
Which network? The protection sites built by Clear? The ones just in Ohio? Sprint does not show it on their coverage maps, but I can tell you that they can be connected to. I have done it in 4 protections sites across Maine (one for an extended period overnight at a hotel, pulling many gigs). Other sprint related forums from users across the country confirm this as well.
Clear will not allow customers located there to sign up for normal clear service either which is odd, but the protections sites were thrown up without much in the way of backhaul. Some are still connected by T1's for a 4G service but that is rare...oddly the FCC does not care simply because the spectrum is being used.
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Reviews:
·Callcentric
| reply to tiger72
Speed was indeed a big issue for WIMAX and as you pointed out, they way they built the network was ridiculous when considering all the spectrum they have. The second 3.5G HSPA+ beat them, it was game over. VZ's LTE just destroyed them.
Second issue was wasting the 4 year head start they had over everyone else.
The other issue was the biggest of them all and that was the crappy indoor coverage and extremely limited coverage caused by the 2.5GHz frequency. In fact, various people were literally told to open their windows to be able to acquire signal.
Not to mention, rather than build like the rest do and expand sequentially, they had one tower here and another arbitrarily there. This resulted in massive coverage blackspots. Whereas, the main carriers are expanding mile by mile. |
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| reply to swintec
I really look forward to this. My 2 year contract on my Epic 4g (which I never got to use because WiMax was never turned on in my damn city) is up in November... I can hold on to it until LTE is activated here, then get a new handset and BAM. |
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