Poor Clear. Bashed beyond belief. Don't worry, I've actually come to praise you, not bury you. In fact, I love this service, though with some very (ahem) clear reservations. First, the love: using Clear's mobile USB modem, I'm able to maintain Facebook, surf the web and, yes, post to Yelp from work, entirely disconnected from my company's network, keeping Big Brother at bay and allowing me to keep my job. For that and that alone, I grant Clear eleventybillion stars. Still, it ain't all peaches and cream. Here go the reservations:
Speed: Clear isn't the fastest service. For me, that's not that big a deal. My internet needs are fairly minimal. I don't down or upload huge files. I don't watch much in the way of online video. Prior to Clear I ran a DSL and the speeds are comparable, which isn't to say they're all that great. But really, most people out there don't really NEED 10M/sec. The 2.4 M/sec I'm getting is good enough.
Connectivity: My home modem's connectivity to the Clear service is sometimes questionable. I've had it for several months now and it seems over the summer, I only got a maximum of 3 out of 5 bars (in terms of signal strength.) During the less humid winter months, I've had 4. However, were I to move that modem from its perch on my second story window sill, I'd lose connection all together. And if you have double-paned windows? Forget about it. "Fortunately" for me, I live in an old, old building with drafty, single paned windows. Therefore I get good enough reception where I live. Strangely enough, my USB mobile modem get GREAT reception, even in the bowels of my windowless office. Then again, I may be located right under a Clear tower for all I know.
Service: Service overall has been good. I had one 3 day stretch during which reliability was an issue. Connection (on the home modem) dropped repeatedly. I called and Clear rushed over a new modem. Unfortunately, they neglected to tell me that in doing so, they disabled my old modem, which meant I had to wait til (in theory) for the new one to arrive. I say in theory because once I called back to inform them that, no, I wasn't aware they disabled my old modem and no, I wasn't going to wait until the new arrived, they re-enabled it.
Finally, the wife runs Mac. She connects easily to my home router, but was told she needs different software to run the mobile modem. This isn't too much of a problem, since I monopolize that thing anyway. For the record, it took about 4 minutes for me to set up the mobile modem on my PC. Still, if you own a Mac, you may want to research further. (Oh, and shave that goatee while you're at it, you smug a-hole. Yeah, I know you're arty, but enough with the ironic facial hair.)
Four stars for the oft-maligned Clear. read more