My Clear/WiMax gear arrived last night so I took the day to give it a thorough shakedown in a variety of ways. My company is a reseller but I wanted to be sure I knew the in's and out's, pros and cons before selling it to our customers. Clear uses the Spring network FWIW.
WiMax promises super fast high speed mobile Internet anywhere in the coverage area. In your office or home, in your car, in the park, at a ball game, you name it - the promise screaming fast - almost fiber speeds.
In one major area they do deliver 100%. In another major area they do not... yet. I'll discuss both.
The basic package comes with 2 devices. A modem for your home or office, and a USB modem about the size of a flash drive. The USB modem is for people who want to roam and have Internet access.
Setup was VERY easy. Absolutely anyone can do it. It took about 30 seconds. They really did a nice job here.
I have an AC to DC converter in my truck so I can plug in and get AC power whenever I need it. I plugged USB modem into my laptop and plugged in the wireless modem into the AC.
The good: If you are a home or office user and you are within the coverage area it delivers. I drove around NE Tarrant County following the coverage map. I made several stops at different offices, stores and houses of folks that I know to give it a thorough test. Once connected I used http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest for my download and upload tests.
For home and small office people, I was able to get between 2.5 Mbps and 9.4 Mpbs download speeds. Seriously! At 10 different locations in Colleyville and North Richland Hills the wireless modem gets a great signal and and the speed simply flies.
Faster than cable and DSL, but not as fast as fiber.
The bad: The USB modem for roaming is wimpy. Does not get a good signal at all whatsoever. The only way I could get it to connect and stay connected was to be within about 100 yards of the tower and have a direct line of sight. This is not the way it's supposed to work. Or what they are selling us. I do believe they'll fix it however. Remember this is brand new stuff. Clear - so far - appears to be a well managed company and well capitalized for the long haul.
I did get on the phone with Clear's tech support for a while to try to remedy the USB situation. They answered immediately. And an American who spoke perfect English answered. He said basically that the USB antenna is just not very strong.
Also, Clear's service is not available in the Southlake area yet. I did get a signal south of 1709 in Southlake. But I could not get any signal north of 1709 no matter where I went. Southlake is supposed to get service in early 2010.
Bottom line: If you are a home or small office, this is a great solution for you. If you want to wander wherever you want around town, wait a little longer.
If you are interested, please call or shoot us an email. We want you to "try before you buy." We'll come to your home or office, plug it in and let you try it for free.
Prices are between $35/month and $75/month. VERY little or no setup fees. They want to make this extremely easy for you.
Sincerely,
Matt Porter
Christian Geeks - IT Consultant
(817) 605-1819
AIM: BigTex0
http://www.christiangeeks.com
http://twitter.com/christiangeeks
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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