"Unlimited" wireless data...

Sat Dec 4 00:11:24 UTC 2010

On 12/3/2010 6:47 PM, Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
>> This came up in another thread yesterday or today, and I just got the
>> solicitation mailer for Clearwire's WiMAX service in Tampa Bay, which they
>> call "4G", though the ITU disagrees.
>>
>> The AUP is here: http://www.clear.com/legal/aup
> I cannot strongly enough discourage you from using their service.  My experience with them has been consistently awful - and given that they're headquartered in my area, that's unacceptable.  I'm informed that my experience is not at all unique - either to the Seattle area or to their service at large.  Their Wikipedia article tells you pretty much everything you need to know.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearwire
>
> Their definition of unlimited tends to be "barely acceptable throughput levels, until you start streaming youtube/netflix or doing a long-running download or using bittorrent to seed files to your work PC and laptop or using your VPN to retrieve a document, in which case, we won't turn you off, we'll just silently jail you into a 32-128kbps bandwidth profile.   Also, have some poorly implemented NAT on our ludicrously underpowered CPEs!"
>
> I also understand that they've been having financial difficulties, so they're unlikely to address the issues their customers are faced with.
>
> If I were you, I would keep your backpack offline until another option is available.  You're not going to be able to use VOIP on their service, anyways.
>
> Nathan
> (Speaking as an individual - not as the company I work for.)
My wife's employer(a multinational grocery conglomerate) tried clear for 
their internet access as well.  It spent more time offline than on.  
They have since switched that location to 3g cards in the individual 
machines and vpn back to the home office..:)