Is WiMax (Clear) in Portland, Oregon worth the switchover?

I used clearwire (now clear) for a while when I was in Eugene. I just moved to Portland last week and saw that they are the same thing.

It was absolutely horrible. It was very slow and they completely crippled P2P traffic. And it is expensive for what you get. I hate Comcast too. I’m using DSL through Qwest right now and it is pretty good. And about a third of what Comcast was.

I hate Qwest too, but this isn’t that bad.

I would look at Clear if you want to be able to use it anywhere. But I would never use it if I had the option to use something else.

http://www.clear.com/shop/mobile_internet.php

Seriously, 40$ a month for for 2 Gigs of transfer. I do two gigs in a day. And I bet the unlimited is super slow.

I wonder if the home service is any better / faster than the mobile? I didn’t know that Eugene had Clear there. I thought that Portland and Balitmore were the only two cities that have Clear available and Portland just barely launched service on Tuesday of this week.

Perhaps Clear and Clearwire are two different services? Same company, but maybe different technology?

I really loathe the thought of giving any business to Qwest.

© 2009 Clearwire Corporation, All Rights Reserved

That is what it says at the bottom of clear.com. Maybe they did some rebranding. But I am pretty sure what I had in Eugene was WiMax. I could be better now but I wouldn’t count on it.

Clear and Clearwire are somewhat different companies. Sprint, Intel and a couple of cable companies along with Google pretty much bought the old Clearwire and formed the new “Clear”. Sprint is majority owner at 51%. The new Wimax networks in Baltimore and Portland ARE a new technology evolution of what Clearwire was and is still using in other cities. It is vastly improved. One of the great things about the new companies plans is no contracts, so if you want to try it, rent a modem and get a months service, decide for yourself is it works for you in your location, if not, turn the equipment back in after 30 days and say Bye-Bye.
Cole

I just switched to Clear here in portland and I just want to say I am very pleased with the service I have been with comcast for 8yrs and was happy to cancel. I play a lot of xbox live and it works great. I am only doing the fast package 3mbp down 352kbp up its great I would say make the switch. i do have the home service its only 34.99 a month compared to comcast 53.00 a month

The initial markets to launch Clear Wimax were Portland and Baltimore. For some reason Baltimore is being “re-launched”. Theoretical coverage is up to 30 miles from a tower. Thus I doubt it has ever been in Eugene. I just dumped Verizon DSL which baited me with one speed and installed a lessor. Cable has been notorious for delivering less than they promise at way more money. I got the ultimate home and mobile combo for $55 a month at 6 Mbps each and I got a Clear Spot portable hot spot. Being a geek Linux coder I can tell you Clear delivers their advertised speeds and unlike cable cannot be hammered by an overloaded trunk in your neighborhood. Best of all I’ve read Clear speed could go up to as much as 15 Mbps for subscribers uing radio signal equipment. Who needs FIOS? Get Clear and don’t look back.