should I try Clearwire wireless?

[Geraldo8022]

I only have two choices in the rural USA where I live, 1) Embarq DSL at 3Mb or 5Mb. 2) Clearwire wireless (not Wimax) at UP TO 2Mb.
I would like the portability of the Clearwire wireless and think I will take advantage of their seven day trial offer. Do you think the speeds that I get over that seven day trial will reflect what I would get once I commit? Streaming Flash video is a big part of what I do on computer.
I spoke with CW over phone and, of course, rep painted a very rosy scenario. Things like: "it will generally connect anywhere your cellphone connects." (I use the term "generally" all of the time so I know what that means. Leaves yourself a big loophole), and "We expect to have Wimax in your area in maybe about a year depending on how things go. What do you want a bet that one year becomes closer to two years?
With the Embarq DSL I must continue the landlline, which I never use, but the whole set up is about $70 month. The service and speeds are fine. The Clearwire is two years at $30 month. I guess having to keep the Embarq landline is what gripes me. I have heard of "naked DSL", but somehow I doubt I could get Embarq to agree to it. Pretty rare, isn't it? CW has a prorated $220 termination fee. Does anyone ever get that rescinded?
Ok, I admit it. I just came here to gripe. I see the speeds and prices of consumers in other countries and just think the USA is getting shafted. I went to DSL Reports, but they are no help as they are all dissatisfied with everything.

 

[xSauronx]

id stick with dsl. when it works wireless can be great...but it still cant beat a landline.

 

[JackMDS]

Best way to decide is to find a neighbor that uses Clearwire and see how it works.

 

[Geraldo8022]

I think landline is likely best, too. I do have one friend that has Clearwire and it works fine for him, but he is six miles away. Close neighbors either have Embarq or don't have a computer! I will still try Clearwire for the seven days, but I found out they charge five bucks a month for the modem. Wish I had the choices I see those in Japan or Korea have. I doubt I will ever see that here, though.

 

[Zensal]

My parents have Clear and it sucks bad. I have "4 bars" of signal and get 1-2Mbps on their "Up to 10Mbps" plan. Clear says its supposed to be like that. Also, unconfirmed, they seem to throttle bandwidth intensive services, like torrents, or even things like Hulu. The connection also seems to just die every once in a while. Reset the modem and it's fine again, but what a PITA.

Also, a company this young should not have 2 hate websites.

http://clearwiresucks.com/blog/

http://www.clearwireblows.com

 

[Pantlegz]

I agree with Zensal, my parents had it at one point and it was pathetic, just slightly faster than dial up with huge latency typically 3000ms and above with good signal. download speeds were ok, after the initial 3-5 seconds but they always seemed to hit the download cap every month just browsing the web.

 

[Zensal]

So what is the actual cap? It says "Unlimited", but in the agreement it states that you cannot impact other peoples service. So do you know the magic number?

And yeah, ping is terrible. ~200ms to Google. ~500ms on a TF2 server.

 

[ihatedook]

I would definitely go with Embarq if you have the choice. I have the 3M myself and it's great. Latency off the first hop is usually 4-7 ms and holds stronger all the way to wherever you're going.

And they do offer Naked DSL now, it's called Pure Broadband. You just have to call a special 800 number to get it.

Here's the website:

iwantpure.com