Anyone have any experience with Clear 4G wireless Internet?

[JRCHolsters]

I am looking at internet options for my place in Idaho and the choices are fairly dismal to say the least. I was thinking about one of the various 4G Hotspot type of hubs and was wondering if anyone has any experiences with these. I want to be able to stream Netflix and all the other typical stuff you need the net for.
Any input would be appreciated.

[JM Campbell]

Been on it for almost a year. Absolutely no complaints. Has been faster then my over priced supper duper 100000 mph Road Runner wireless through Time Warner and with out the freezing or speed drop when high usage time periods. I opted for the base unit and a mobile hot spot and pay under $70 a month and am very pleased with it.

Granted I'm in Texas so it may be different in your area.

YMMV....

[TR675]

I am in DFW and have been using Clear for a year. I got the mobile hotspot for about $60/month and liked it at first, but now hate it. It is slow - how slow, you ask? Certainly slower than DSL. My mobile hotspot broke recently and as a crutch I started using my iPhone 4s as a personal hotspot. For rendering websites, my Verizon 3G speeds through my iPhone are not a whole lot slower than the Clear 4G service. YouTube videos actually download faster.

Speeds for a high-bandwidth application like Netflix were inconsistent at best. The picture quality was usually bad, and playback would routinely pause while the service adjusted itself.

Clear has been accused of throttling the speeds of its network depending on your usage; it has also been accused of adding more customers than its infrastructure can support. Based on my experience I don't doubt either of those. When I first got the service it worked just fine, but now it's unacceptable.

[JRCHolsters]

Thanks for the input guys. Sounds like it will be a hit or a miss. I don't have a lot of options, so I guess it can't hurt to try it out.

[Lot2Learn]

I'm using the 4G wireless hub from Verizon. It is fairly fast but it has a 4gb cap for $50 and every gig after that is an additional $10. I wouldn't use it for netfilx, you will rack up a bill pretty fast. Also, if you're not in a 4G area, the 3G is quite slow. Just my experience.

[Happypuppy]

Best bet is most likely satellite. Other options would be Verizon 4g with a booster. Where in ID?


Sent from my 300 baud modem

[JRCHolsters]

Thanks for the tips. I am checking to see what carriers are in the area.

My place in in Emmett, outside of town.

[PPGMD]

How well Clear works depends on two factors, what is between you and the tower, and how oversold the area is.

First issue is that clear uses a rather high frequency so it's penetration through objects sucks.

Second issue is that Clear has sold it's service as a "Home Broadband" service in a number of areas. In those areas Clear service is overloaded. How overloaded you may ask? Well even with full bars I was averaging 1mbps on speed tests. Most streaming sites either were unusable or requires extensive caching.

I switched to Verizon LTE and I am extremely satisfied. Yes I have a rather low bandwidth limit (5GB), but unlike Clear I get enough speed that I can actually hit that limit.

[Simon]

Best bet is most likely satellite. Other options would be Verizon 4g with a booster. Where in ID?


Sent from my 300 baud modem

I have Wild Blue satellite inter net and it is slow even using their fastest service. I was told by a Dish network employee (who installs Wild Blue for Dish) that Dish had purchased a satellite company and would offer 4G service. At this time there is nothing on the Dish site except Wild Blue. He said to call and ask a Customer rep about it but I have not called as yet. If it is as good as he said it would be, I will be leaving Wild Blue.

[PPGMD]

I have Wild Blue satellite inter net and it is slow even using their fastest service. I was told by a Dish network employee (who installs Wild Blue for Dish) that Dish had purchased a satellite company and would offer 4G service. At this time there is nothing on the Dish site except Wild Blue. He said to call and ask a Customer rep about it but I have not called as yet. If it is as good as he said it would be, I will be leaving Wild Blue.

I think he is talking about Lightsqaured (Dish had some sort of relationship with them), they announced bankruptcy just over two weeks ago. There are technical hurdles that prohibit LTE from satellites on the proposed spectrum and their proposed solution (ground based repeaters) interfered with GPS signals. So the FCC quashed their license.