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Gadgets Clearwire Adds Ten New 4G Markets
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - September 2, 2009 10:03 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 20 comment(s) - last by daviangel.. on Sep 8 at 3:17 AM
Eight of the new 4G markets are in Texas

Sprint and Clearwire bet big on WiMax as the 4G technology of choice. So far, the two companies are running the only commercially available 4G networks in America, but Verizon is set to launch a few 4G LTE markets this year.

Clearwire has been working hard to roll its 4G service for mobile and home users out to more areas of the country. In July, Clearwire added Las Vegas to its list of served communities and today Clear has announced that it has added ten new 4G service areas.

The new areas include Boise, Idaho; Bellingham, Wash.; and Eight Texas Markets, Including Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Killeen/Temple, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Waco and Wichita Falls. With the addition to these ten new markets to the Clearwire stable the company now has 14 total markets up and running with 4G WiMax service.

"CLEAR combines two of the most exciting technological advances of our generation - mobile communications and the Internet - in order to free our customers to take their rich home or office broadband experience with them anywhere around town or on the go,” said Mike Sievert, Chief Commercial Officer for Clearwire. “Our 4G WiMAX network provides a valuable new category of Internet service designed to make people’s lives more enjoyable and more productive by giving them access to the connections, information and resources that matter most, wherever they happen to be."

Clear mobile and residential broadband connections offer average download speeds of three to six Mbps with bursts of over 10Mbps. Pricing plans for the service in the new markets starts at $25 per month for a home plan with mobile plans starting at $35 monthly. Clear also offers a day pass for $10 allowing users to try the service or use it as needed.

A Clear WiMax 4G USB modem is needed to use the service and Clear offers one for $49.99 after an instant rebate or with a lease as low as $4.99 per month. Home users can get a Clear 4G modem made by Motorola for $69.99 or least it for $4.99 monthly.

Clearwire also announced today that it has applied for a "modest" amount of stimulus funds to roll its service out to underserved areas in Detroit and Puerto Rico.

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Not competitive with cable / dsl
By RandomUsername3463 on 9/2/09, Rating: 0
RE: Not competitive with cable / dsl
By Flunk on 9/2/2009 12:28:19 PM , Rating: 2
If you need access on your laptop on the go? WiMax adapters are available small enough to bring with you.


RE: Not competitive with cable / dsl
By RandomUsername3463 on 9/2/09, Rating: 0
By Maxima2k2se on 9/2/2009 1:52:37 PM , Rating: 4
Wrong again, you also should say,

"sorry I am misinformed and putting out the wrong information, the laptop card I am talking about is with the older expedience service at $50 per month for 1.5Mbps / 256k. NOT WIMAX"

Try informing yourself before you try to inform the DT community. Everything you have talked about in your posts today involve price plans for the old service that is being decommissioned and replaced with Wimax. If you want Wimax pricing and info use clear.com


By DallasTexas on 9/2/2009 12:45:19 PM , Rating: 2
The point is that the WIMAX option does not require you to drag an ethernet cable across town when you leave your house.

It's a pretty good value proposition even if cable costs have come down.


RE: Not competitive with cable / dsl
By dgovmntwrkr on 9/2/2009 1:40:55 PM , Rating: 2
What this guy is saying is BS! I am on a "no contract" $40 a month (unlimited download!) mobile 5mbps plan. I do not have to worry a bout an "cable / dsl" introductory rate hike in 4-6 months!
I can cancel my service anytime without a penalty! And..... I can take my laptop into !many! major cities in the country and have the same service as if I was in my hometown. Heck, I can drive my a car to anywheres in the city and use the high speed. (The university, casino, work, etc......)
Try doing that with DSL or cable!!!!!!!!!!!
Clearwire Rules......


By Maxima2k2se on 9/2/2009 1:57:18 PM , Rating: 2
He is confused, Wimax is branded "Clear", he is thinking and talking about "Clearwire" which is what the old service being replaced by Wimax is called.


By Maxima2k2se on 9/2/2009 1:45:54 PM , Rating: 2
Problem with your prices you posted is they are not for Wimax. they are for the old regular clearwire service. Huge difference in price/bandwidth. If you want Wimax pricing go to clear.com not clearwire.com.


By Jeffk464 on 9/2/2009 4:11:56 PM , Rating: 2
Well I'm a long haul truck driver, so I definitly see the point. Can't wait until verizon gets into the 4G race too. 3g is ok, normally good enough for Hulu, but 4G will be fantastic and should get rid of the 5gig max limit.


By TheRequiem on 9/2/2009 9:15:56 PM , Rating: 2
Not sure how you received those prices... but the prices on Clearwire's webpage indicate that their prices are cheaper then Roadrunners. It currently lists 10/mb+ up and 2mb+ down for $40.00 a month. That's $20 cheaper then Roadrunner, just don't rent the modem, buy it for cheap on the internet. I will always need internet, so a 2-year contract isn't a biggie.


RE: Not competitive with cable / dsl
By MHz Tweaker on 9/3/2009 11:46:40 PM , Rating: 1
Not only are they not competitive, they are not even in the same league as other ISP's.

If you do anything other than check email or load a web page stay far away from Clearwire!!!!!

If you do any type of downloading stay far away from Clearwire!!!!!!!

If you do not plan on having Clearwire for the rest of your natural life, do not sign up with this company.

I lived with these pricks for 18months and their service and transfer rates are HORRIBLE!!!!!

They do not allow any type of large bandwidth consumption or downloading for more than a few minutes at a time and WILL throttle you down to about 30k a second. FACT.

I made the move to Embarq DSL two months ago and I must say it is like at least 10x more productive for me. I cannot get road runner here otherwise I would have that.

Clearwire has been harassing me non-stop for a month with at least 10 phone calls a day from 9am to 9pm.

I have filed a Police report, a report with the BBB in Washington state and a Claim with the FTC. These are real assholes at Clearwire. Please please please do not believe me. Do the research for yourself and read the horror stories about Clearwire. I now wish I had researched Clearwire. Learn from my mistake. We will be reading about Clearwire someday just like Enron and other Ponzi theives.

Something is rotten with Clearwire and it starts with the president and CEO at Clearwire.

You have been warned


By daviangel on 9/8/2009 3:17:20 AM , Rating: 2
Agreed!
I'm currently paying $40/month for service from them since I just moved out of central cali to the coast and believe it or not in the fine print it says they'll still hit you with a $200 early termination fee if you move to an area where they provide no service!
Only way out if you read their fine print is if you die or if you somehow manage to hog up all their shared bandwidth(which isn't too hard in my experience) and they decide to terminate you!
Lucy for me I only had 2 months left on my 2 year contract.
And although they don't seem to care if you use torrents or download video all days(no download cap AFAICT) it doesn't matter if they WILL throttle you down to about 30k a second as was stated above as I saw plenty of times during my 2 years with them.
If you email them and complain that you are paying for 1.5MB or whatever you are paying they'll temporarily remove the throttling at least they did it once for me but as soon as you start downloading anything big they'll knock you back down!
They must have more lawyers working for them than technical people from what I can tell reading their fine print and dealing with their customer support so just by that metric I'd say they won't be around long.
But yeah unless you are desperate as I was living in the middle of nowhere with only dialup as an alternative I'd steer clear if possible.


A little behind the times on this...
By oTAL (blog) on 9/2/2009 11:35:29 AM , Rating: 2
For a country with such a low population density, the US should be more invested in this tech.

In the small country of Portugal (10M people) spread over 90 000km2, we have the 3 telecoms offering 2-20 MBps connections. There were a few other smaller services using different tech and the 3 telecoms also lease their network to other operator that resell the product (Like Zon, the largest CableTV company - they offer 100MBs / month to all their subscribers using Vodafone).

They all have pretty much the same price structure (with a few differences).

*Prepaid: 10€ gives you 14 days and 400MBs to spend (excess traffic rolls over) plus use of their large WiFi infrastructure (large am mount of public places).

*Postpaid:
22.50€ / month - 2 MBps and 1GB cap.
30€ / month - 3.6 MBps and a 3GB cap
35,50€ - 5MBps and no cap (this is a promotion)
50€ / month - 14 to 21,6 Mbps and a 5GB cap

I have a prepaid one and I must say that it's a life saver! Very good stuff, though it still needs to go down in price and up in caps.

reference:
http://www.tmn.pt/portal/site/tmn/menuitem.0204b1b...




RE: A little behind the times on this...
By Spuke on 9/2/2009 1:30:34 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
For a country with such a low population density, the US should be more invested in this tech.
With a total area of 3.6 million square miles (9.3 million km2), it costs TONS of money to implement even wireless solutions in the US.


By oTAL (blog) on 9/3/2009 9:57:09 AM , Rating: 2
Total area means nothing. Only population density matters (and penetration that depends on things such as the economic power of said population).

Do you believe the density is so low that even wireless is unprofitable in a large part of the country? That would explain the higher prices, but it doesn't account for the bad service and low availability on densely populated areas (a lot denser than Portugal).


Great News
By TheRequiem on 9/2/2009 11:31:22 AM , Rating: 2
I like Clearwire. I think this company is going to be a massive influence in America with it's 4G spectrum. I live in Las Vegas and we have been testing the new hardware and technology with impressive results. Currently, they recently upgraded their down-speeds of over 10+ mbps (still to be increased) and the cost with a 2-year contract roughly puts the cost at $40 a month, which is far cheaper then the next best thing which is Cable speed from Cox Digital. In order to get their similar segment, it is $57, or about $17 more.

The problem I have with cable is the speed varies throughout the day, this is probably due to the signal traveling over cables or as I would put it, through tunnels. Since using Clearwire's products, we have not noticed any slowdown at any time of the day. We get full signal 100% of the time, even through poor weather conditions. Also, I like the fact that I can take my modem anywhere in the city and soon... anywhere in the country and not pay overages or mobile internet. I think this is a very good deal for America, especially in rural areas when the access becomes available.

This company is good news, as long as they don't start charging by the megabyte.




RE: Great News
By osalcido on 9/7/2009 10:13:39 PM , Rating: 2
We also have Clearwire WiMax in the dormitory here and everyone who has it complains constantly about its slow performance.

Yes they tell you you can theoretically get 10MBps or whatever... but you'll never achieve it.

The problem is that it is unlimited... so of course every jackass neckbeard in the area leaves their computer on day and night soaking up as much bandwidth as possible even though they probably won't ever use half of the files they download more than once.


Detroito Rico
By 67STANG on 9/2/2009 10:53:26 AM , Rating: 3
LOL. I'd love to see that application the government got from Clearwire.

"We need stimulus money to roll this service out to an island.... and.... err... Detroit...."




Pricing
By bradmshannon on 9/2/2009 10:32:49 AM , Rating: 2
Glad to see the pricing is reasonable! This should take off!




!!
By manofhorn on 9/2/2009 10:32:44 AM , Rating: 1
but what about california??! los angeles? san francisco? and i'm sure there are parts of la that are much worse off than detroit. there you go, multiple reasons to get 4g to me.

a two minute google extravaganza just now told me sf will get 4g next year too. why did dt not tell me this? i see dt is not concerned about my emotional health.




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