Wireless Internet Reviews
Clearwire Mobile Broadband Wireless Service
Overview
Founded in October of 2003, Clearwire is a high speed wireless internet company based in Kirkland, Washington. The company currently offers service in 50 markets across the United States and Europe with a current subscriber base of about 350,000.
In January of 2008, Clearwire announced a partnership with search giant Google that would incorporate Google's applications, including gMail, Google Calendar and Google Talk into Clearwire's wireless Web platform. Additionally, Sprint owns 51% of the Clearwire company.
Pros: The Clearwire service maximum download speeds are much higher than your typical mobile broadband provider, the pricing for the actual plan is competitive and you can get the activation fee waived by signing onto a contract.
Cons: The Clearwire network is new, so the coverage area is extremely limited. Additionally, we weren't huge fans of the hefty activation fee without a contract or the extremely high cost and limited choice in PC Cards (there is only one).
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Detailed Provider Information
Plans: Clearwire high speed internet service offers one plans that features wireless high speed internet access that is not restricted to your home and mimics the service capabilities of larger mobile broadband providers. The plan is called PC Card Premium and costs $59.99 per month. This plan offers you unlimited wireless high speed internet on their Clearwire network up to 1.5 megabytes per second download and 256 kilobytes per second upload.
Customer Service: Customer service for Clearwire wireless high speed internet is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week via online chat at their website. Additionally, customer service is available via a toll free number from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. PST.
Credit Check: No
Contract: Service is available without a contract, however, the pricing changes and is less expensive the longer you are willing to commit.
Payment Options: Payments can be made online or by telephone by credit card, debit card or electronic funds transfer. Payments can also be pre-authorized to go through automatically via any of those options.
Bandwidth Restrictions: The data transfer speed of the Clearwire connection has a maximum speed of 1.5mbps download and 256kbps upload.
Activation Fee: There is an activation fee of $50.00. The activation is waived, however, when you're willing to sign up for a two year contract.
Cancellation Fee: The maximum fee for canceling your Clearwire high speed wireless service contract is $220.00. Please note, the cost will go down the further into the two year contract that you cancel your service. Clearwire will credit the $220.00 cancellation fee by $5.00 for each full month of service you've received and paid for during the contract period.
Roaming Charges: The Clearwire high speed wireless internet service will only work on the Clearwire network. There is no way to roam, so therefore there are no roaming charges.
Modems and PC Cards: Clearwire only offers one PC cards (also known as air card) which Clearwire gives you the option to lease for $6.99 per month or buy for a one-time charge of $229.98. If you have your own PC Card that matches the type they support, then you can pay a one time $5.00 fee to use it instead of getting one directly from Clearwire.
Some of the Available Modems and PC Cards are listed below:
Clearwire Motorola PC Card (shown)
Coverage Map: Clearwire PC Card Coverage Map
