Clear WiMAX launches in 10 new markets, adds new cities to plans
By Tim Conneally | Published September 1, 2009, 4:05 PM
Clear 4G WiMAX has come to ten more cities, just as Clearwire promised in the beginning of August.
Well, it's really like two cities and sporadic chunks of the biggest state in the contiguous United States. Bellingham, Washington and Boise, Idaho were the standalone cities that got switched on today, and the Texas cities launched today were Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Killeen/Temple, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Waco and Wichita Falls.
These new markets join Portland, Oregon, Baltimore, Maryland, and Atlanta Georgia, and Las Vegas, Nevada in Clearwire's coverage roster, and brings the company to 14 markets in total. Next year, the goal is to have coverage in as many as 80 U.S. markets, including Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington D.C.
Also Clearwire today announced that it has applied for "a modest amount" of broadband stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to bring Clear 4G WiMAX to underserved areas not on its initial roadmap: Detroit, Puerto Rico and five additional states which it did not name today. The stimulus-related plans are completely separate from the regular WiMAX buildout.
They did the upgrade for Abilene, TX about 3 weeks ago. Before the upgrade speeds weren't the fastest in the world but could still game online, etc just fine. Since.. well.. I'm lucky to get close to the old speeds and if I do get those speeds or the "faster" speeds it usually only last for maybe an hour at a time. I will lose connection completely at least every 4 hours. This upgrade was free with no option to not do it... if I could I would go back to the old speeds... which were reliable at least. With the new service it feels like I'm back in the 56K modem days. The other day it was out completely for 11 hours! My housemate is with them also and his problems mirror mine.
Since today was the "official" roll out, for the media anyway, I will give them a little more time, but if things don't improve drastically I am leaving Clearwire and will warn anyone of them!
BTW: Support from them is nonexistent.
Score: 2
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