We Tried to Rent teh Internets from Clearwire

Until about 30 minutes ago, we were excited about our switch to Clearwire, a provider we'd never tried before. But as we were signing up for their ~$35/mo. Premium (1.5 Mb/s) plan, we discovered whoops some extra costs not mentioned before: the modem was either $99 to buy or $5/mo. to lease. And of course there was a $50 installation fee. (You know, for the service you just plug into a outlet.)

Just to set the stage, right now we have business service from Comcast. Normally we hate Comcast, but we're paying about $45/mo. and getting speeds of up to 15Mb/s. (It came with a lousy non-wireless modem, but we already had a wireless router.)

The problem was that we had to switch office buildings, and the new space doesn't have Comcast in it (because it's old, if that's not too confusing). We'd thought Clearwire's mobility would be handy, so after researching their offers online, we walked over to their location on East Pike, thinking we knew how much we were going to pay.

For their Premium service, you could either get a 3-month discounted rate or even "lock in" the monthly rate at $30. Why would anyone lock in a rate that is destined to go down? Mb/s are going to go up, and prices are going to fall. "Locking in" is not just Clearwire, everyone's doing it. It makes sense with the city-government-approved monopoly that is Comcast cable, because they can and will jack your rates, but internet service is a commodity sold in a competitive market.

We had made our peace with limping by at 1.5 Mb/s, but with the appearance *poof* of a modem lease and installation fee, sense stopped being made. It's typical for places to lease you a modem; we think it's mainly a way to quote the monthly bill as cheaper than it is. Modems are always $99 brand-new, which we guess is the amount that makes people lease them instead. But a lease and installation fee of $50 for a proprietary modem (your old DSL modem isn't going to work) that we plug in to an outlet plunged us into an abyss of despair and bafflement.

It really felt like they were charging us $50 for coming in to do business with them. Our new Qwest package, by the way, is $47/mo. for 5 Mb/s. Modem shipping was $15. Installation was $10. We could have locked that monthly price in, but we're betting folk.

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By MvB in Miscellaneous on April 29, 2008 4:15 PM

Comments [rss]

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Troy Morris

I forgot to mention that I moved across the hall and my internet wasn't working. So I emailed the address they gave and waited a day (their estimation on turn around). Nothing. So I logged into the live chat.

It took five minutes for the guy to tell me to walk around the apartment looking for a signal, which, if he would have read what I wrote he wouldn't have asked considering I prefaced the whole thing with "I have all lights as it's right next to the window, but it's still not connecting to the internet."

It was completely useless and wasted about 8 minutes of my life.

But to be fair, I just plugged the ethernet cable into the wrong slot in the router, but still.

polyrhythmic

Clearwire is not such a great deal compared to cellphone-provider internet. For $40 you can have unlimited phone internet on AT&T, and I believe it's $60 for unlimited computer-connected (tethered) internet. Sprint has the same at $60, and I believe Verizon and T-Mobile offer competitive plans also.

The speeds are as good or better than Clearwire -- 1.7Mbps, and moving up to 3.4Mbps soon (HSPDA aka 3.5G). Realistically I usually pull 1.1-1.3Mbps over AT&T's network, which I am very happy with. The upload speeds are competitive too. I haven't tried any gaming, but the lag seems short, and the connection is generally very responsive.

Also there's no big box to use, just a PC card to plug into the laptop. Alternatively, you can connect your phone into the computer and use the phone as a modem, but this is a bit more nerdy and complicated.

My huge plus for having unlimited phone internet is that I can hear internet radio ANYWHERE. On the bus, in my car, on a jog... And if you already have a crackberry or a data plan, it's cheap to upgrade to a laptop plan. Clearwire tried to partner with Sprint, but it didn't last -- which may be telling about the (lack of) future for Clearwire.

Erich

I'm in month 3 of trying to cancel my Clearwire account. This is after agreeing to pay the nearly $200 cancellation fee. Its been worse than trying to leave AOL!

Stay away from Clearwire, whatever you do.

Simonian

What the hell's up with access in this city? We live in the north end and there's no DSL. There's been a sign on the closest junction box saying DSL is coming soon. The sign's been there for THREE YEARS! So we either have to go with Comcast, a company we hate, or Clearwire, which is not sounding like a good option. Besides, I'm not inclined to do anything that would make the McCaw's any richer. (Is it Craig or Bruce that started Clearwire?)

Katelyn

We have Comcast currently and were considering switching to Clearwire, but after this article and the comments... hell no! Maybe we should charge interested parties a couple bucks a day to use our house's connection. Like an internet speakeasy!

Abbey

This is very very depressing to me.

I was just about to cancel my Broadstripe service, because they nearly tripled my bill after my introductory year. Seeing that I also live in the CD, my only choices are Clearwire or Broadstripe. Broadstripe is incredibly inconsistent, espescially for the cost and my Internet connection is often spotty at best.

So, what's a girl who depends on the internet, to do?

Saxtor

Clearwire's "cancellation" gets even worse than what GroundedGirl explained. Not only do you have to pay an exorbitant price to cancel, you have a 30day "window" to do so before they automatically renew your contract, thus subjecting you to the cancellation fee all over again.

Clearwire advertises an optimistic 1.5mbps speed, and in practice, it's about half that. By today's standards, that is terribly slow. You will certainly suffer while doing any rich-media activity online. And if you try for any extended period (ie. torrents), they will throttle your service back to worse-than-56k speeds as a punishment.

So now you're set up with a monthly payment similar to DSL, and speeds far worse than some $5.99 dialup service. And are locked into a contract that you have to pay big bucks to get out of, which you can only do for 30 out of 365 days of the year (8%).

In other words, Clearwire is DO NOT BUY!

GroundedGirl

I signed up with Clearwire a year ago when I moved to the CD (our only "option" is Broadstripe-- why no competition in the CD, hmmm?). I live in an old house which is oriented north / south. My service is sketchy, particularly on cloudy days or when it rains (doh!). I have to move the receiver around in order to pick up a strong enough signal. Watching streaming video? Not gonna happen.

When I called to try to cancel my service, they first tried to help me "trouble shoot". Thanks, but I only have one set of windows and I can't move my computer. The handy outlet adapter they sell won't work with the older wiring in my place. They want to charge me $155 to cancel the service. "Even though it doesn't WORK?" I protested. Yeah. Who else charges you to get rid of a service that doesn't work? Oh, the same people who want to charge you for the privilege of getting their service in the first place.

From what I hear, Broadstripe is actually worse- slower than advertised and inconsistent. Once my contract with Clearwire is up in a year, though, I'm looking for something else. Wouldn't you think that in a city like Seattle we would have stellar internet service? How hard is this?

Troy Morris

I recently got myself some Clearwire, despite being told about their reputation.

I do so for the same reason. I move a lot (too often). It's like I'm in the circus or a criminal, but really I just get ants in my pants.

I played it smart (no offense), bought my modem as it was cheaper than leasing for two years (and I figure, anywhere I go, I have to get a modem for a hundred bucks).

Overall, I'm pleased. It was easy to set up, it's coverage is pretty good (good enough for me).

Done. Except:

They called me three times the day it arrived to help me set it up. I work for a living. I didn't even get the package until I got home at 7pm. And no, I didn't need their help. They didn't call back though.

But then I kept getting emails asking about how I feel about their service. They kept asking about surveys for services I don't have. They're so damn needy.

I hate that. I wanted internet, not an un-sexy significant other I hide on the floor of my kitchen.