Review: CLEAR® 4G Mobile Internet

[snoorkel]

The only home internet service available to my apartment building is AT&T DSL. It's advertised at 3mbps, but my connection usually tops out at around 1mbps (whenever the modem isn't sporadically searching for a signal or rebooting itself).

So, I've been searching for a wireless alternative. Clear's 4G home wifi hotspots (clear.com) seemed promising. I ordered $50/mo home unlimited 4G plan + $50 one-time for the Clear Spot Voyager mobile hotspot. Free overnight shipping included.

It may be due to the fact that I had to submit a different address than my own to get through the setup process, but I'm not really getting anywhere near the 6mbps speeds they advertise (6mbps or even 3 would be incredible to me if I could realy...get..it). They do fully support my neighborhood, but it seemed like they were temporarily restricting new orders for capacity reasons (my guess).

The hardware is sort of cool, it's like a Verizon Jetpack/similar devices except even smaller, 6hr battery life, and can be taken anywhere in the country within Clear's coverage. It was also remarkably easy to setup, literally plug n play, no activation required.

I've been seeing extremely erratic results while pinging through the device's WiFi network--the latency seems to stabilize at 80-100ms, but routinely jumps to 300ms, 500ms, and as high as 1200-1900ms (unusable) for decent periods of time. It's been ranging between 500ms and 2500ms as I've been writing this.

At this point Clear isn't impressing me enough to consider getting rid of the $19.95/mo DSL subscription (at least it's only $19.95 right), and if the latency continues to be unpredictably erratic, I'll probably take them up on the 15 day money-back offer.

What I want is unlimited Verizon 4G LTE data, since it's fucking fast whenever I'm forced to use my phone as a mobile hotspot, but with Verizon's data rates/caps the amount I'd pay for monthly bandwidth is around $1,300.  

Initial impression: 3/7, poor. Will update

[snoorkel]

Also, at certain times it seems unable to hold the 4G connection, and whatever it reverts to (if anything?) is completely unusable:

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2105 ttl=50 time=10076.354 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 67652
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2106 ttl=50 time=11675.856 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2107 ttl=50 time=11871.049 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 67655
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2108 ttl=50 time=12247.372 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 67657
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2109 ttl=50 time=13219.312 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2110 ttl=50 time=12398.633 ms

I mean I guess it's really nice for a mobile/on-the-go unlimited data service, but for a home internet replacement (as advertised) this isn't cutting it so far. They even encourage gaming and multiple household users...

[silvertone]

>It may be due to the fact that I had to submit a different address than my own to get through the setup process,

?

[ME##]

what is the latency like when u tether to ur fone

[snoorkel]

what is the latency like when u tether to ur fone

like 30-40ms, and never spikes above 250ms for more than a few seconds ...

[ME##]

like 30-40ms, and never spikes above 250ms for more than a few seconds ...

woooow noice

[??????]

my friend has this
it's internet is on par with a 3g cell phone lol

[snoorkel]

its fucking awful I' m returning it

[Daddy]

its fucking awful I' m returning it

i was hoping something like this would be the OP and nothign else

[snoorkel]

i wanted to believe i would get 6mbps :'(

even 2 :'(

[silvertone]

believe in christ

[Daddy]

believe in christ

christ gives me 1gbps *

*speeds only valid on traffic using prayer protocol going to hevin

[applesauce]

we did a clear trial in ?2009? and it kind of sucked. it had great bandwidth but latency was 500ms+ at all times. #noooo

[snoorkel]

the refund was really easy to get at least.