Clearwire too good to be true?

[amdforever2]

Where I live now I cant get DSL, FIOS, or any decent internet, but I am in, at worst, a Sprint CDMA 3G area.

Clearwire offers unlimited, no throttle, at whatever their 4G is capable of, for $49.99 a month.

My first question is, is their 4G WIMAX or LTE?

Secondly, I don't live in a city they support, but the guy told me it will work nationwide and I can have any address be order address and they will ship to where I really am.

So, I know my Sprint coverage is 3G CDMA, my officially supported clearwire is N/A.

Will their service revert to Sprint's 3G CDMA or is it by some other method they have coverage nationwide?

Also, what is the theortical maximum of Sprints 3G CDMA.

 

[CZroe]

My understanding: WiMAX. Also, it will be CDMA if there is no WiMAX in your area. Sucks.

 

[evident]

friends had it. it was horrible. couldn't stream any videos, and where he was, i'd say a 56k modem would have provided a better experience. im sure ymmv depending on where you are though.

 

[Anonemous]

Theoretical max for 3G CDMA is 3Mbps, real world max is around 2-2.5Mbps (2 is already very good).

As for Clearwire, I would steer clear of Clearwire, early subscribers reported throttling for no reason.

If you wish, you can also get a Virgin mobile 4G-Wimax phone, root it and tether at 4G speeds (this is IF you do get 4G signal at your home) for $35/month. 4G-Wimax on Virgin Mobile is currently (unofficially) UNLIMITED and not throttled. They get their 4G-Wimax from Sprint which made a deal with Clearwire to use their 4G-Wimax network.

You can check on www.sensorly.com for a preview of your 4G Wimax signal in your area.

//Currently the HTC EVO V 4G (a VM 4G-Wimax phone) is on sale at radio shack for 89-99$ slickdeals.net has more info on that

edit: Nvm, I misread the OP, I thought he didn't know if he had 4G in his area...

 

[Kyle]

I had it for a few months, but this was 5+ years ago- it was horrible, couldn't stream video, disconnected all the time - hated it. I'm hoping it's better now...

 

[ViRGE]

friends had it. it was horrible. couldn't stream any videos, and where he was, i'd say a 56k modem would have provided a better experience. im sure ymmv depending on where you are though.

No, it's basically like that everywhere. The frequency has poor building penetration, and the network itself is massively oversubscribed. Even when Clear isn't throttling you, there's a good chance the local tower is struggling to keep up with the mix of Clear customers and WiMax capable Sprint phones.

The latency is sometimes better than UMTS, but the throughput most of the time is worse than HSPA+ (AT&T/T-Mo) to put things in perspective.

 

[amdforever2]

Can clear devices fall back to 3g or are they 4g exclusively?

 

[Fox5]

You have no other cell phone carriers in your area offering 4g? And no faster land wire connections?

 

[bignateyk]

I'm in the same boat as you. The area I live in has no cable or DSL, so my only options are dial-up, satellite, or 4G LTE from Verizon.

The LTE is the fastest, but it really sucks because you only get 10GB/month for $80, and it's $10/GB after that.

I never thought I'd say it, but I miss Comcast.

3G is gonna suck as a house connection though. You'll be able to load web pages, but streaming video is pretty much out of the question, and streaming music will be hit or miss.

 

[WannaFly]

I have clearwire at home, its not LTE. It is SLOW AS MOLASSES in January. I don't know how they can market it as broadband - I can't even watch a youtube video without a few minutes of buffering first. I tend to use my phone more since it's LTE and blows the clearwire out of the water.

Now, it does seem to work good sometimes, on some websites, but my overall impression of it: it is not broadband internet.

Do not expect to play any online gaming off of it.