Clearwire? Anyone?

[meg]

Is anyone using clearwire? I’m in highland park area and using qwest and not very satisfied. Have used comcast in the past and found that to be worse (though, that was years ago so maybe it is better now).

I don’t have/use cable or a landline so bundle packages are useless to me. I just want reliable and speedy internet access.

Opinions? Thoughts? Suggestions?

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[johnnyblegs]

DO NOT USE CLEARWIRE.

I was in the middle of my contract when we replaced our windows with more energy efficient double panes. The signal would not go through the double panes, it couldn’t and we were told it wasn’t designed to. The signal wasn’t a problem with our window open though. Customer service told us to just leave the window open for service. As you know, that’s ridiculous when it’s winter. It took a while but we got out of the contract without penalty.

Now we use Qwest. Not great but the best for the money. Qwest is owned by Verizon. Our bill is therefore bundled and discounted because of that. Haven’t used comcast. Too expensive for what we need.

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[christopherboffoli]

I just made the jump from Qwest DSL to Comcast. I had been paying for a 7Mbps downstream connection which would degrade to a barely 1Mbps connection every couple of months or so. Then I would call and they would put me back on a fast connection, only to have the same thing happen repeatedly. One night a tech support engineer told me candidly that they have sold more fast connections than they can technically provide and will bump people off until they call and complain. Of course corporate subsequently denied this. But handling all of the large picture and video files that I do I was just fed up with all the trouble I had with Qwest. I had never worked so hard for any kind of utility service before. They were great at charging me for the service but not so good at delivering it.

Comcast just came out last week and installed a 22Mbps connection that is actually closer to 30Mbps when I run speed tests. Now my uploads (at 5Mbps versus the previous 784kbps) fly. I was able to keep my telephone number but dump my landline and move to digital voice. I didn’t opt for a cable TV package as my TV content comes to me over the Net. But they’ll be happy to sell you something along those lines too, of course.

The best part is that I have mush faster service now at a lower price than I was paying to Qwest. I should say though that I am aware of a lot of discontented Comcast customers. But telecoms are always the lesser of evils.

Best of luck to you!

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[FullTilt]

Clearwire is horrible. Avoid it.

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[Ken]

Qwest is not owned by Verizon.

However the idea that someone could believe that is a triumph of marketing as a tool of misdirection and misinformation. Think about that and realize that many many people think that because a candidate puts non partisan next to there name, that it really means they are non partisan rather than a stealth Republican trying to get elected in a Democratic majority area.

Qwest recently switched from peddling sprint/nextel as there cell service to selling verizon cell services.

Long ago qwest sold off their cell subsidiary (“One” something or other) while absorbing some group of CLEC’s and finessing the tarrifs.

DSL is probably not oversold at qwest.The same wire that carries your phone carries your traffic and is limited by the speed of light and the length of the wire.

It might be oversold at the Qwest ISP portion (still MSN?).

All phone service including internet, is provisioned on the basis that not every customer will use the system at the same time. This has been the core metric of capacity planning since the first switch replaced the manual operators.

Your DSL signal is transported via ADSL via a single pair of copper to the CO (DSLAM) then handed off via ATM to the ISP where it becomes subject to IP layer routing, switching, traffic shaping and latency introduced by aggregated network traffic and over-utilization (overselling) of hardware.

Qwest CAN implement traffic shaping and optimization at the DSLAM but it is far more likely that the ATM link or the router at the ISP end is where rate limiting or traffic induced latency occurs since they sell massive fiber connections to the ISPs and are happy to force capacity upgrades on those upstream customers.

If you choose MSN as your ISP, you get whatever MSN decides to give you. When companies reach a certain size, they don’t listen to customers anymore and as long as the churn rate is overall positive, no VP’s are denied their golden parachutes. Customers are statistics.

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[JoB]

this statistic is grudgingly happy with clearwire..

at least as happy as i was with QWest… but i do wish they would upgrade the system.

I suspect that communication service providers have lost the concept of customer service like just about every other service business out there.. competition or not. Once they have you on contract.. they lose interest.

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[The Aviator]

Clear wire is okay for what it is… A wireless internet connection. Clear wire uses AT&T DSL lines and therefore you are subject to latency due to A: DSL is a slower packet transmission rate due to bandwidth restrictions. B: Latency between the transmission antennas & your wireless modem. And finally C: Signal degradation due to objects blocking the signal i.e your neighbors house or the high rise condo building next door. But if your just using it for web surfing but not gaming, Clearwire is a cost effective alternative to Quest, Verison & Comcast.

I myself have T1 service to my house, because I run a ton of bandwidth clogging software that requires aleast a T1 to operate properly.

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[KatherineL]

I moved to Clearwire from dial up. At first it was wonderful to be able to watch video clips. Now I’m having almost as much trouble watching them as with the dial up. The quality of my service depends on how many people are using it at the same time. Sometimes I have to unplug the modem and restart my computer several times a day just to stay online. I’d switch to something else if I knew what would be better.

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[JoB]

KatherineL..

there’s the rub.

i don’t know what would be better either..

although if Seattle doesn’t get the upgraded network they have in Portland, i am likely to find out in a year…

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[MargL]

We’ve had Comcast for years and haven’t had much trouble with them. Pretty reliable, reasonable customer service, good upload/download speeds. Right now we’re paying $45.95 a month which includes a $3 modem rental fee. I think this is a slightly discounted rate since we also have limited cable service for $13 bucks a month.

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[lizru]

Here’s what I reeeeaaallly like about Clearwire. Plugin the modem, turn on your computer and you’re done. No goofy configuring modem stuff, you’re there. Have to say I haven’t had the above “window” problem, though have had recent slow down problems.

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[luludog]

Clearwire is HORRIBLE! I feel totally duped that I have a contract with Clearwire- which you don’t realize until it is too late and you are in the middle of installation. The sales person I spoke with failed to mention this. (First BIG clue that there will likely be issues). Second, when you call to tell them that you have only intermittent access, they tell you that you either need to sell your service to someone else, or pay $250 to break your contract. They are a very dishonest company and I am not sure how they stay in business. Honestly, dial up was faster. If you BING clearwire, you will see many negative comments that are similar to mine. My blood boils on this topic; don’t do it.

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[aunteesocial]

Clearwire is awesome if you enjoy the speed of dial-up internet 15 years ago.

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[Sue]

We were actually doing some research into Clearwire recently since we were considering it. While I don’t doubt that some people were not told upfront about the contract, I have to say to their credit that the guy in the Westwood Village location *did* tell us (while we were browsing) about the 2 year contract and the cancellation fee (and how you could cancel after 1 year at a lesser fee), and that you could try the service out for 7 days and return it within those 7 days without any fees/penalties.

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[Kevin]

Comcast is probably the best bang for the buck at this time. We have been quite happy over the last 10+ years we have used them.

.

And for Sue – DON”T do it! Forget Clearwire. If Comcast was not around, I would use DSL before I would ever think about even “trying” Clearwire.

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[JoB]

Kevin..

why?

I can understand if you are a gamer or do work that requires high speed downloads…

but even hubby who can be rabid about internet service has been basically ok with clearwire.. at least as ok as we were with QWest.

and you can’t beat the convenience for set-up.

We wouldn’t have considered it if QWest DSL had been available when we moved last year… but on the whole are satisfied.

what i don’t recommend is a combination of satellite isp and voice over internet phone…

though now that i am using the home phone mainly for business calls… that is working adequately…

i can pretty much ignore the phone and the voice quality doesn’t seem so important for short messages.

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