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January 3, 2013 at 7:41 am #606108
celeste17ParticipantHi, I am thinking of dumping comcast and am wondering about Clearwire. I called them tonight and they did say that I do have service in my area but I am wondering about the wireless signal. I live in a depression area imagine the bottom of a bowl) and I am surrounded by churches and schools. Would I be able to get a signal?
January 3, 2013 at 8:19 am #781643
EdSaneParticipantIf you have a Sprint phone (w/data) that is the kind of service you can expect. They use the same network. Personally, I found it spotty at best (near the Junction). Not worth it at any price.
January 3, 2013 at 2:50 pm #781644
KatherineLParticipantI’ve had Clearwire for several years. As I understand it, they have a tower somewhere near the Junction, and another one on northern Delridge. I live between them, so get service until one or the other goes down.
What irritates me is that Customer Service will never admit that there’s something wrong with one of the towers when you call to report. I don’t know if nobody tells them, or they’ve been ordered not to confess that it’s their fault.
January 3, 2013 at 3:58 pm #781645
JoBParticipanttheir customer service sucks…
when they finally sent someone out to “check the service” after a month of complaints/non-service, he admitted he was really only there to map the outages when they “updated” the towers.
i would never use them again even if i lived next to a tower.
January 3, 2013 at 4:15 pm #781646
sam-cParticipantI really haven’t been impressed with Clearwire’s internet service.
January 3, 2013 at 6:56 pm #781647
KenParticipantCentury Link dsl seems to be working fine. I got the 20m speed and beside the upload speed being throttled artificially at .7-.8 It works ok.
Their website is barely functional with some important technical info only findable with Google
since their current links don’t work or the config page is not linked at all.They push you to a sales droid that is pretty well informed on what they sell but can actually connect you to someone who can recognize most network terminology and answer questions if that is needed. The basic info needed to do a self-install
is apparently not trusted to either email or your account web page nor USPS. Ya have to call them.
I had to divest myself of 35 Ip addresses and setup a dynamic dns to reach some of my computers (and move the rest to europe) and drop the ISP that I helped build in the early 90’s but I enjoy the speed so far. I might even go to 40 mbps if I can get a measurable increase in upload speed.
January 3, 2013 at 7:14 pm #781648
skeeterParticipantWe’ve had Clear (formerly Clearwire) for home internet for about three years. We are currently subscribers. There are two things to consider.
First of all, you need a clear/consistent signal. Your modem will have five bars. You need at least two lit bars to get good service. We live in Highpoint and consistently get 2 or 3 bars even though our modem is not near a window. So that has not been a problem for us.
Second, you should be aware that Clear does not have fast service. It is okay for most web surfing but is inadequate for viewing videos. So if you are a streaming Netflix fan, I think you will find their basic home service to be inadequate. However, if you do not view video you will most likely find the speed to be fine.
For us it came down to price. We don’t watch a lot of streaming video, so the Clear price justified the slower service. We pay $19.99 per month and there are zero taxes, fees, or modem rental. I was verbally promised this rate for life and so far they have never tried to increase our rate. I suspect they no longer offer this price but who knows?
Also be aware that the speeds slow down in the evenings when (I suspect) people stream videos.
If I was you, I would go to the Clear store in Westwood and ask if you can borrow a modem for a day to insure you get adequate reception. If they want your business then they will do it. If they say no, I would walk away. I would also ask them to beat any deal offered by Comcast or Century Link. I do not think Clear is worth $40 per month, but if you are price sensitive it may be a good deal for you at $25 or $30 per month. If you are not price sensitive, then I suspect you’ll be happier with another provider. Good luck!
January 3, 2013 at 7:19 pm #781649
skeeterParticipantCeleste, now that I think of it, our answers might be more helpful if we better understood your motivation. Why are you considering “dumping” comcast? Price? Speed? Customer service?
January 3, 2013 at 8:20 pm #781650January 3, 2013 at 9:05 pm #781651
celeste17Participantskeeter, two things are motivating my change. One is price. My fees for Comcast are about 70.00 and two is that I had a problem with my and it took several phone calls over several days to finally get it fixed and even then they couldn’t help me with the wireless part of my problem without me calling another number that would cost me money. Thank goodness for Ken who walked me through some steps and I was able to get my wireless going again.
January 3, 2013 at 9:08 pm #781652
celeste17ParticipantI mostly use the internet to play games but I do watch some video’s (Netflix and Hulu) so maybe Clear isn’t the best choice.
Are there any other choice other then Comcast or DSL? For speed?
January 3, 2013 at 11:02 pm #781653
skeeterParticipantI believe your only choices are Clear, Comcast, and Century Link.
It is possible that Clear has a plan with higher speeds available. It’s probably worth a quick trip down to the Clear store in Westwood. I just wouldn’t sign a long-term contract unless there is an option to cancel if Clear does not meet your needs.
January 4, 2013 at 1:04 am #781654
TanDLParticipantClearwire has a tower in the Morgan Junction area on top of a tall building.
January 4, 2013 at 3:15 am #781655
dcnParticipantI saw a few posts here are for Century Link. Do people like this for streaming video? I would like to dump Comcast for upping my monthly fee repeatedly for my “triple play”–internet, TV, and phone. It is currently running me $168 (another $25 jump as of Jan 1). I will dump my landline, and go with Hulu and Netflix for TV, and so I will just need decently fast internet for video streaming.
January 4, 2013 at 6:23 pm #781656
skeeterParticipantI did some checking and Clear offers two levels of home internet service. I have the lower of the two, I think. So if you are considering Clear you will also need to consider what level of service you want.
January 4, 2013 at 10:58 pm #781657
VstromMemberI have the 40mb/s plan with Century which costs 75/month. I bought the vdsl modem through Craigslist. I also do not have a landline nor tv package. When I left Comcast, it was $62-ish for the 20mb/s plan. I’ve had great service with both, though less outages/downtime with Century.
January 4, 2013 at 11:07 pm #781658
skeeterParticipantJust today I upgraded my Clear service from “home basic” to “unlimited home” or whatever. I’ll report back what kind of speeds I get.
The normal rate for unlimited home is $49/mo but they cut me a deal as an existing customer threatening to cancel.
January 5, 2013 at 1:14 am #781659
JKBParticipantKen – got any advice for who to get service from that includes static IP? I run web and email servers (both personal/noncommercial/smalltime) so just being on a cable loop doesn’t work.
And I went wireless-only and canceled my cable because there was never anything good on, so the bundling deals usually suck. But it always seems to be the servers that are the sticking point. Ideas?
January 11, 2013 at 1:56 am #781660
clark5080ParticipantJanuary 11, 2013 at 9:08 pm #781661
skeeterParticipantAfter upgrading to the “unlimited” Clear home plan last week I am still pretty disappointed with the speeds. Getting less than half of the speed I am paying for.
January 12, 2013 at 6:31 pm #781662
dcnParticipantSkeeter, that’s too bad. Are you at least getting faster speeds than with the basic plan? I think I will stay away from Clear as my internet service for the time being.
January 15, 2013 at 12:46 am #781663
skeeterParticipantdcn – yes my speeds are a bit faster than the “home basic” plan, but not even half the speed of what was promised. I would be hesitant to recommend Clear to anyone who does anything more than very basic webpages such as wikipedia and WSB articles. Clear really struggles with speed when it comes to multimedia. My guess is they have oversold the network in an attempt to maximize revenues.
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