My Clearwire ISP Experience - HORRIBLE

So I get Clearwire as my internet service provider. I have had probably half a dozen isps before this, and I'm just going to say, I have NEVER had so much trouble with the quality of my service from any company before.

First off, let me say that they advertise 1.5 mbps speed. While it is true that I have seen my internet test this fast, this is only the peak speed. Let me tell you how this works:

- Every other isp I have ever used let you download at maximum bandwidth speed all day long.

- With Clearwire, you can only get your peak bandwidth if you only log in for 20-30 minutes a day.

- Playing a game like World of Warcraft or anything online will diminish your speed to a near standstill. It will get so bad and so slow that you will literally get booted out of the game for a bad connection. This happens even when all 5 signal meter lights on the modem are lit.

- If you leave your computer on all day (even without browsing the internet or doing any other online activity), all that little traffic that the computer is always doing seems to add up. Gradually over time your connection speed will get slower, and slower... and slower. My 1.5 mbps speed will slow down to as little as 0.05 mbps.

- The only way to remedy this is to unplug your modem for about 8 hours. This seems to be the necessary time to reset the system. I do not reboot the computer. Just unplugging power to the modem, then plugging it back in 8 hours later, and I'm at full speed again.

- If you attempt to download files which takes more than 20 minutes to download, or if you download many files whose total time for download is more than 20 minutes, your internet speed immediately cuts in half.

- Listening to C2C streams, I have to select the crappy 8 kbps bitrate, and even this only lets me get about halfway through the program before it lags so bad I can't hear any audio any more. So I have to download the files the next day to hear last night's program. But this leads to download problems I spoke about above.

- Longer than about 1 hour, your internet speed will slow down to about 0.2 mbps

- If you attempt to upload anything more than 0.03 mbps or upload continuously for more than 20 minutes, your internet speed will be locked at 0.05 and you have to call them on the phone to get them to reset it. It will not reset on its own.

- Furthermore, if you have to call them 3 times to have your internet reset, they automatically cancel your service permanently.

- Cancellation of service means that your contract is terminated early, resulting in a $200 cancellation fee. Even when you don't initiate it.


I have been on the phone with these people more times than I can count. They won't give me a straight answer of what I can or can't do online, but in my experience it seems that the service is EXTREMELY limited. Furthermore, their customer support and contract policies are obscene, and I would have to give this company zero out of 5 stars for satisfaction.



(edit: accidental wrong category. apology to mods if you have to move)



[edit on 30-5-2008 by ianr5741]

Is it cable or dsl?

It's "wireless". No cable, no phone line. I believe it uses cell towers and multiple cell transponders in the modem. Certainly capable of 150 kilobytes speed, but they don't let you use it all for very long.

If your running broadband its going to depend how many people in your area are on your same node.More the people slower the bandwidth will be.

reply to post by ianr5741

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If it's using cell towers, the speed is going to drop especially if a lot of people are on the cell phone. Look at when the bridge collapsed, nobody could make a call on their cell phone because the towers were at full capacity.

This is new technology and I have not messed around with it yet, so I can't speak on this one.

I got a job there, be starting the ninth of next month actually.
Don't really know much about the job yet, that's what the training will be about.
HGowever, the wireless they provide isn't meant for gaming or anything, just general browsing.

reply to post by ianr5741

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I have a friend who also went with clearWIRE and he's expressed some unsatisfaction with its performance.

i always assumed "wireless" connections would be garbage. think of cell phones - the communication is sometimes half-duplex, (meaning the communication goes one way and favors the end that's making more noise), transmission has a small delay, service can be shotty, etc.

i cringe every time i hear an add for clearwire or similar services, because i can't believe it's in any way reliable. you might want to read your agreement and see if it makes any mention of bandwidth limitations. might be able to start a class action suit if they really are doing it and didn't disclose that in the agreement.

I cannot speak for every other market of clearwire's in the US but i can speak for the central valley of California. Clearwire is heavily oversold for the bandwidth they possess. On a daily basis i had people walking into the shop and complaining. Which was good for us since we sold DSL. But the customer base they have vs. the bandwidth they have equates to slower than dialup speeds at best. Worst is literally no connection with 4-5 lights on modem.

From what i have seen and heard you are not alone, not in the least. Good luck with your broadband endeavors. I hope you are able to get something that works for you.

Silver

I have had clearwire internet service for over a year now, and I'm happy with it. I've only got 1 "unacceptable bandwidth utilization" warning, but that month I transfered over 20GB of data using BitTorrent. Yes, I periodically get crappy connection speeds, (504Kbps is slow, but still faster then dialup). I am subscribed to the 2.0Mbps/256Kbps plan, and I regularly connect at speeds exceeding my plan. According to speedtest.net, (just ran the test), my connection is now at 2460Kbps/267Kbps with a 108ms ping time. My only complaint about clearwire is a minor one. There isn't a plan available with a faster connection speed. I would like to have a 10Mbps/5Mbps plan, but they don't offer it.

That is good info.
I am with time Warner cable for my internet and was ,until i read your article, going to go with clearwire if time warner implements metered usage to all of its customers, but after reading your article I have changed my mind on clearwire, it seems that even if time warner implements metered usage nation wide, I will have to stick with them because there isnt any other choices where I live, thankyou for saving me the time and expense.

reply to post by ianr5741

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I have been doing some research of my own on Clear W're service. I started with Clear W're roughly two years ago. Before I signed up I asked the Sales Rep in the company store if I would be able to run my own server out of my home as I have been doing for the last four years on my other ISP. The gentleman said, "oh yeah, no problem". First lie. I got the little black modem home, plugged it in and then I was up and running. I got my server up and live and to my amazement, I could access it from all the computers in my home but when I asked my techs to access it from their homes, no luck. I called Tech support and they told me that they block port 80. I was really upset over this and asked what the reason was for this. The untechnical tech support guy told me that it was to protect bandwidth. I told him that the other ISP services I used before Clearwire gave me no grief on this matter and that Clearwire was the only one who was doing this. RED FLAG number one.

Last year I started to watch "legal" movies on a Comcast website called Fancast.com and things went really good until one day I noticed that the movies and TV shows were starting to get choppy. Then they would freeze up. I checked my Clearwire modem and had five lights. I tested the bandwidth using my own program, DSL Reports and PC Pitstop and my bandwidth was down from 2.0 Mbps to only 210Kbps! I thought that this was just a tower issue and reset my modem and waited a bit and I was getting my normal speeds again. BUT, I went to watch a TV favorite with my wife and the problem started all over again!. I decided to do my own test and I can say without a doubt that Clearwire is "throttling" your Internet connections.

I have talked with Tech Support, my local Clearwire rep (who told me with almost a disdain for his own company) that Clearwire has chosen to "manage" their customer's connections and if you violate their bandwidth Karma three times, the forth offense will get you terminated and yes, you will pay the early termination fees!

Clear Wire is the example of a company that has only one thing in mind and it is not it's reputation or its customers. Once my contract is up I will never go back. I have even considered getting my own T1 line because Clearwire is not the only company who is into this practice. Many more are doing it and we need to stand up to them and tell them, "if I am going to pay for a service then you need to give me that service!"

Drop clear wire as soon as your can!

Yeah, I have had the same problem with the connection speed. During the mornings - mid afternoon my connection speed is fine (though it is not the advertised 10mpbs but just 105-190kpbs) but at around 7-11pm my connections drops dramatically to around 20-40kpbs. I really do not know why this happens but when my subscription expires, I will be either switching over to DSL or T1.

2.98megabits per second
363.96kilobytes per second
5.616seconds
0:56 AM Mon Dec 22, 2008

3.59megabits per second
438.16kilobytes per second
4.665seconds
0:58 AM Mon Dec 22, 2008

3.19megabits per second
390kilobytes per second
5.241seconds
0:58 AM Mon Dec 22, 2008

These are pretty typical numbers with Comcast broadband.

Clearwire is an incredible scam. I can't believe there hasn't been a class action lawsuit against them for unethical business practices (only one of the many complaints that should be filed). I am very good with computers and when anyone has internet problems, the first question I ask is if they have Clearwire. 90 percent of the time the answer is yes.

Here are my complaints against it:

1. The salespeople are complete liars. Everyone I know who has Clearwire was blatantly lied to by the representatives about a gamut of things in order to get them to buy it.

2. It's extremely hard to get a full connection.

3. Even if you can get a full connection, the speed is generally a tenth or less of the advertised speed.

4. They throttle the little bandwidth that is left, making even the simplest of online tasks unbearably slow (you might as well be using dial-up most of the time).

5. It is clear from the widespread and remarkably similar customer service reviews that there simply is no customer service. Unless you consider blaming the users for a horrible product "customer service".

6. Even after all the sleazy FALSE ADVERTISING, they have the balls to charge you $200+ to cancel the contract. Basically, the average consumer may think it's a great deal after what the ads and salespeople pitch (not just average lies; complete and blatant manipulation), and then after they invariably realize the service sucks, have to pay a ton of money to get out.



Clearwire is a huge wad of BS that should be shut down immediately.