BEWARE!!! of "Clear or Clearwire" WiMax ISP Provider!!!!!

[KirkLasVegas]

Read ALL about this company! It's somewhat new and they CLAIM UNLIMITED speed and data, no restrictions, all the Internet you can use.
DONT BUY IT!
This company has been "Speed Capping" people that either watch Netflix or Hulu or even download a large PDF file. The software is automatic and hits everyone. When you first sign up, you will see upwards of 6Megs download and 1-2 upload.
At first everything looks GREAT! Then it gets good, they cap you around 0.25 download and 0.80 upload. Yep! you read correcly....Dialup is about the same speed!!!
When you complain, they admit nothing, blame you and give you lip service. Your on the hook for the Early Termination fee (about $225).
Class Action lawsuits are in the works, there are a few websites www.clearwiresucks.com and a Facebook page dedicated to this chicken-shit company.
I WAS a subscriber, I dumped them last week for these reasons. I had purchased my equipment outright so they couldnt hit me for the EFT. I warned them if they did hit the card for another month I would file fraud charges.

Stay FAR away from this shitbag of a company, it's CLEARly a ripoff in the making!

[Yoeddy1]

They kept coming to my door, even after I told them several times that I WAS NOT INTERESTED!  Finally after 3 times in one week, and ripping apart my current ISP, the 'F' bomb dropped and the door was shut in his face.  I'm not a jerk, but that experience made a vein blow out in my forehead.

[knagl]

Thanks for the warning, Kirk.  I saw a booth of theirs (well, really just a folding table) at a local electronics store the other day and was intrigued by the concept.  Now I know to steer clear of them!

[poppo]

The problem is not with the service, but with people not reading the terms of their contract. Had the same problem with WildBlue when I had it. People whining because they didn't read the contract and got capped. Here is right from the Clear's acceptable use policy. People need to READ before they sign. A class action will go nowhere.

Just a few snips.

Nature of the Service.The Service provided to you is intended for reasonable, periodic, non-continuous use by a person using a computing device, consistent with the type of use made by a typical individual consumer of our Internet services. Examples of allowed uses of our Service include web surfing, sending and receiving email, sending and receiving photographs, occasional on-line gaming, and the occasional non-continuous streaming of videos and downloading of files.
.........
Prohibited or Actionable Activities.
Excessive Utilization of Network Resources.Wireless networks have capacity limits and all customers can suffer from degraded or denied service when one or a small group of users consumes disproportionate amounts of a wireless network’s resources. Clearwire, therefore, will monitor both overall network performance and individual resource consumption to determine if any user is consuming a disproportionate amount of available resources and creating the potential to disrupt or degrade the Clearwire network or network usage by others.
........
Unlimited Use Plans.If you subscribe to a service plan that does not impose limits on the amount of data you may download or upload during a month, you should be aware that such “unlimited� plans are nevertheless subject to the provisions of this AUP.

http://www.clear.com/legal/aup


BTW, I am on a WISP (being rural with no other options) and things slow to a crawl in the evenings because of the bandwidth hogs. There is only so much BW available on a tower. I wish my ISP would implement traffic shaping.

[KirkLasVegas]

WRONG!!!! (And your comment insults me personally) 
I KNOW how to read my contract!
They said and I quote "All the Internet you can use", "Watch movies on a train or a bus" Remember the commercials with all the floating bubbles??
There WERE no limits! PERIOD. None....no limit on data, no limit on speed.
The system SUCKS BALLS! It's Slow, has poor thru-put BEFORE the speed-capping. Coverage sucks, The sites do NOT hand off, in other words you lose your connection and have to reestablish MANY MANY times if you are moving around.
Their signal on the 2.5 to 2.6Ghz frequency just doesnt get into buildings worth a shit
This piece of shit company renigged on the deal. I have joined the Class Action Lawsuit, I have destroyed both Modems (reduced to wreckage) as I dont want them ever again in service.
This company is LOSING customers by the dozens. (I guess we are ALL stupid and cant read a simple contract).
I got speed capped for moving large PDF files and using VoIP services, hardly "Abuse" of their shitty system.
Their CEO jumped ship Dec 2010, he KNOWS the score....

I said it before and will say it again, "CLEAR" is shit. Deceptive advertising, upselling, customer service thats worthless. DO NOT do business with this SHITBAG of a ISP unless you like to be lied to, taken advantage and being told "NO" to everything.Forget about any recourse, your stuck with their shit due to Early termination fees, restocking fees and credit card drafts. They will drain your account if you dont stop them cold.
PLEASE see www.clearwiresucks.com and the facebook page concerning this.You will find a whole lot of us DUMBASS'es that cant read or understand a "Contract"
Things are changing quickly, 4G/LTE is growing quickly, 700Mhz rollout which outperforms CLEAR WiMAX hands down.

"Whining because I'm stupid" according to Poppo.....

Kirk

[poppo]

WRONG!!!! (And your comment insults me personally) 
I KNOW how to read my contract!

I'm sorry, but it is right there in black and white. <shrug>

PLEASE see www.clearwiresucks.com and the facebook page concerning this.You will find a whole lot of us DUMBASS'es that cant read or understand a "Contract"

Your words, not mine. But it's obvious that people are not reading ALL of the contract, or they would have known about all of this. It took me all of 30 seconds to find the info. As I noted above, many people were complaining about WildBlue for the exact same reason - failing to read what they are signing. The terms of service should be the very first thing anyone should be looking at before signing up for any service.

[KirkLasVegas]

<Shrug>??????
It's there in BLACK AND WHITE?
I told you....when I joined over a year ago, there WERE NO LIMITS!
NOW they want to limit.I have a right to be pissed off, they agreed to NO LIMITS, NO SPEED CAP.
What part of that cant you simply understand? If you bought a car in 2009 and they said you get a 60 month bumper to bumper warranty, then in 24 months they simply decide to not
honor it, would you accept that?
I hope like hell your Rural carrier FAPS/Speed Caps you...let see what you have to say about that.....

[KirkLasVegas]

WRONG!!!! (And your comment insults me personally) 
I KNOW how to read my contract!

I'm sorry, but it is right there in black and white. <shrug>

Bottom line Poppo.....

I WAS THERE, I have the paperwork to prove it...you wern't.
You have not done business with these shit bags, I have...your not qualified to even speak about it.
I have everything to PROVE this, And it's going to the Class Action Lawsuit lawyers, along with a LOT of others...


To the others on here...
Where there is Smoke, there is a fire......
My opinion....STAY AWAY FROM CLEAR, unless you want trouble, limits or not...even if you cant read your contract
This company wont deliver what you are paying for, simple as that......

[stayouttadabunker]

Hey guys... be nice to each other in the sandbox...




Kirk,
How did  you  first become aware you were being capped...

Do it appear that your browsing began to pop up slower or what?

[poppo]

<Shrug>??????
It's there in BLACK AND WHITE?
I told you....when I joined over a year ago, there WERE NO LIMITS!
NOW they want to limit.I have a right to be pissed off, they agreed to NO LIMITS, NO SPEED CAP.
What part of that cant you simply understand? If you bought a car in 2009 and they said you get a 60 month bumper to bumper warranty, then in 24 months they simply decide to not
honor it, would you accept that?
I hope like hell your Rural carrier FAPS/Speed Caps you...let see what you have to say about that.....

From the same link:

Clearwire reserves all rights including the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP or any other Policy at any time,...

My ISP won't cap me because I abide by the terms of the AUP and I am considerate of the other users sharing the limited BW.

[KirkLasVegas]

Hi Mark....
I used it to link VoIP node controllers. They require a constant 128K of traffic. The links would drop all the time, we couldnt get connections while mobile, I could not remote into my VPN from work.
The "Home" unit was at a radio site, linking a ITX computer to my home network for a radio system called "AllStar"
If I logged into Gmail it took about 30-45 seconds to retrieve simple E-mail.
A lot of applications would time-out.
Simple test thru www.speedtest.net would show that the upload speed was around 0.90M/s and download was around 0.25/Ms. WHen questioned as to WHY, they said "We have a problem with that tower" or your modem needs to be updated.
I FINALLY got a real tech and was told my account is being "Managed", in other words too much traffic!
I have a "Contract" dated April 2009 that says "UNLIMITED" service in it.

[KirkLasVegas]

<Shrug>??????
It's there in BLACK AND WHITE?
I told you....when I joined over a year ago, there WERE NO LIMITS!
NOW they want to limit.I have a right to be pissed off, they agreed to NO LIMITS, NO SPEED CAP.
What part of that cant you simply understand? If you bought a car in 2009 and they said you get a 60 month bumper to bumper warranty, then in 24 months they simply decide to not
honor it, would you accept that?
I hope like hell your Rural carrier FAPS/Speed Caps you...let see what you have to say about that.....

From the same link:

Clearwire reserves all rights including the right to revise, amend, or modify this AUP or any other Policy at any time,...

My ISP won't cap me because I abide by the terms of the AUP and I am considerate of the other users sharing the limited BW.

Thats fine for you. I reserve the right to drop service without a ETF, and destroy the equipment. "Considerate"... if you CHOOSE to use a partyline or share a "Small pipe" then so be it.
All CLEAR did was force me to move on up, to find better service at a cheaper price and that they did.....
I now have a BLAZING 18M/S download speed and a 6m/s upload speed WITHOUT ANY RESTRICTIONS for home use....
For mobile I now "Tether" my Motorola Droid using "PDANet". IT'S FREE. i pay a flat rate for data on my Droid and now share it with my Panasonic Toughbook I get 1.5M/S upload and about 3.0M/s download speeds.
They didnt hurt me, I didnt pay a dime to leave, the equipment was trash anyways and now I have even FASTER service.
I will "Badmouth" CLEAR everywhere I can, warn others to NOT be a victim of this company with backalley business practices.
Most of us have choices...sorry you dont.....

[poppo]

Bottom line Poppo.....

I WAS THERE, I have the paperwork to prove it...you wern't.
You have not done business with these shit bags, I have...your not qualified to even speak about it.
I have everything to PROVE this, And it's going to the Class Action Lawsuit lawyers, along with a LOT of others...


To the others on here...
Where there is Smoke, there is a fire......
My opinion....STAY AWAY FROM CLEAR, unless you want trouble, limits or not...even if you cant read your contract
This company wont deliver what you are paying for, simple as that......

I'm not siding with Clear. I'm simply pointing out that just like every other company, they can change the terms as they want.

Anyone who knows anything about wireless systems knows that BW is much tighter than cable or fiber etc. Very few if any wireless carriers have unlimited anymore.

And I do think I am qualified to comment about it because I have had to rely on sat or wireless for years. But I actually research and read what the contract says. Especially that line about 'we reserve the right to change the terms'. I didn't like it when WildBlue instituted traffic shaping, but it was within their right. I changed to Sprint before they put a 5 gig limit and was not happy when they did that, but it was also within their right.

Good luck with the class action. even if it does win (doubtful) after the legal fees, you will probably see a $2.00 credit if that.

The bottom line is if anyone thinks Clear or any other ISP sucks, that is fine. But when the terms are clearly spelled out and posted for the world to see, it's hard to call them 'deceptive' (IMO).

Most of us have choices...sorry you dont.....

If you have choices, then what is the problem?   Just change carriers if you can find one that offers more.

I have a "Contract" dated April 2009 that says "UNLIMITED" service in it.

In case you still failed to read the AUP that I posted above, here it is again:

Unlimited Use Plans.If you subscribe to a service plan that does not impose limits on the amount of data you may download or upload during a month, you should be aware that such “unlimited� plans are nevertheless subject to the provisions of this AUP.

Seems pretty clear to me.

In any case, that is all I have to say on the matter. People can read the terms themselves and decide if it is deceptive or not. Crappy, maybe - deceptive, I don't think so.

[Neonkiss]

I went to an "All you can eat" Buffet.
After the fourth plate, they came out from the back and told me "That's all you can eat"  

Guess it depends on how you read it.  

[KirkLasVegas]

BUMMER!  well it is dinnertime, people are home on a Friday night.
My wife is watching Netflix in HD ONLINE.
I have 3 VoIP systems running
I have 8 security cameras streaming
I'm watching the 5:00 News on KHON-TV VIA a slingbox at a location in Hawaii...
WHY? BECAUSE I CAN! CABLE TV modem hauls ass.....
And I STILL got 10Megs down and 5 up! with all this shit running.......
I DIDNT even try to do any of this on CLEAR...no need to. I used it for linking on VoIP nodes and
while portable on a laptop....
No NEED for CLEARWIRE, they are obsolete, yesterday, other 4G/LTE will kill them.
SHHHH....dont tell anyone that they are sleeping with Sprint 4G...yep..if you are on Sprint
with a 3G/4G device....your really on CLEAR...........

[poppo]

I went to an "All you can eat" Buffet.
After the fourth plate, they came out from the back and told me "That's all you can eat"  

Guess it depends on how you read it.  

But if it says "All you can eat - depending upon the supply of food" or "All you can eat - but we reserve the right to limit it", and then came out after your fourth plate and said they were running out of food and want the other patrons to eat their first plate, then you would have no reason to complain.  

[KirkLasVegas]

Here...run the test again with the Netflix box and cameras off.....
And now the target is 350 miles out instead of local.......
Now mind you..this is $10 a month CHEAPER than "CLEAR"
WHY would anyone want CLEAR when they can have this for less?

[stayouttadabunker]

Holy Craps that's fast...look at mine!  

(gimme a minute...lol)

Costs me about $75 per month for this crapola!  
But it's ALL I GOT...

[KirkLasVegas]

Here is a Youtube video that represents Clearwire thats pretty accurate...........

 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/S1TJfULrTtg&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/S1TJfULrTtg&rel=0</a> 

[stayouttadabunker]

 
That's crazy...3 hrs of frustration...
I'd be on in the class action lawsuit in a second!!!
That was so funny I watched it twice!! lol

[poppo]

Now mind you..this is $10 a month CHEAPER than "CLEAR"
WHY would anyone want CLEAR when they can have this for less?

That was my point. If you have a choice that is better, then why not go for it? Sat and WISP are for people who have no other options (i.e. rural) and those people who are forced to use those services need to understand the limitations (and read their contract   ).

Here is what I have to deal with in the evenings when people are streaming on the WISP (and this is a good night). I get 4M down during most of the day. They don't need to cap me, the bandwidth hogs already do it. I would welcome some trafic shaping so I can at least get a somewhat decent speed regardless of the time.

[stayouttadabunker]

Boy! Our cows are faster than Texas steers Poppo! 

[KirkLasVegas]

When I signed on in 2009 it was $55 a month for BOTH the USB laptop and the home unit.
Back then it was "OK" at best..still spotty coverage.
It did deliver decent speed.
Fast forward to 2011.....
Coverage is worse, speed is non-existant and the company couldnt care less.

It's no longer a decent deal, hell..it's a AWFUL deal...
Look at the new 4G/LTE services, people won't be fooled into accepting shoddy service anymore.
The 700Mhz band is going to open up for data services. New fast devices are in the works
"Wildblue" (Hughes) on 19Ghz is a total ripoff, slow and VERY expensive.
The power companies tried to get into the game with "BPL" Broadband over Power Lines...total failure....
Sprint is planning to kill "Nextel" soon, it wants the RF spectrum on 860Mhz for other venues, wonder what that could be?

[poppo]

"Wildblue" (Hughes) on 19Ghz is a total ripoff, slow and VERY expensive.

It costs a lot of money to put a satellite into orbit. I got WildBlue when it first came out in 2009 since sat was the only option besides dial-up. It was expensive, but it was was better than nothing. $79 for 1.5M DL. At least it was consistent. But as the users increased the speeds started dropping. They eventually put in traffic shaping.

Next I switched to Sprint. A little less expensive at $65, with a lower cap, and speed, but it was more portable as I could take it with me.

Finally we got the WISP and while it has no download limits and speeds are 'up to' 4M down and 1M up, as noted above the speeds go in the crapper after 5:00pm. 300k is not unusual in the evenings.  But it's only $33 a month and I mostly use the computer during the day. It's still more than people pay for much higher speed cable, but given the options, it's really my only choice. I doubt we will ever see anything else out here. My iPad gets 1 bar on 3G if the wind is blowing the right way. So I am not going to hold my breath that 4G (or anything else) will be around here any time soon.

On the plus side, it's nice living where I can't even see/hear my neighbors.  That dot by the arrow is my house.

[KirkLasVegas]

It looks like a Patchwork Quilt..is that farm land?