Clearwire throttling at-home WiMAX users?

Ah, throttling. Can't ever seem to fully shake it, can we? Just weeks after hearing about a similar issue with the EVO 4G, scores of Clear at-home WiMAX users are now up in arms over apparent throttling on certain accounts. As the story goes, it seems as if the company is pulling back on upload and download speeds (from 10Mbps to around 0.25Mbps) for users who have consumed between 7GB and 10GB in a month, which is comically low even compared to Comcast's hated 250GB / month usage cap. Forum users are finding customer service lines to be no help whatsoever, and some digging has found that this may all be a part of a network traffic administration program that's ongoing within Clearwire. Have any of you seen similar issues? How much data are you sucking down per month? Does your usage clock still show up in your account profile? Let us know in comments below.

Clear's iSpot Is a WiMax Hotspot For iPhones and iPads

With more cities being blanketed in the warm glow of WiMax every month, 3G speeds are going to start seeming primitive, fast. Clear's iSpot hotspot lets iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches get a taste of the delicious 4G future.
Clear's iSpot can serve as a hotspot for up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices at a time—its site says it was optimized for Apple's mobile devices, whatever that means—while running on its rechargeable battery or juicing up over USB. 
The device, which looks a lot like a Mighty Mouse, or a bar of soap, will be available August 10 for $99, with a no-contract, $25 monthly plan for unlimited data. Not too bad, if your city has already been given the WiMax treatment. Because there's no buzzkill worse than waiting for a snappy new iPhone or iPad to suck down a page over 3G. [iSpot via SlashGear]
Update: Today and today only, you can net the iSpot itself for $29—70% off.
Update 2: Ars discovers why this is so cheap, when the standard CLEAR plan is $40. It's dedicated to just Apple devices—in that, it detects what devices are connected and can only let them connect if it's an Apple device. If you want to unlock it to all devices, they'll bump you up to the $40 a month plan.
Of course, if you're on a laptop, it's probably rather easy to mimic an Apple device by changing some settings, but harder if you're on, say, a BlackBerry. [Ars]

CLEAR Introduces New "Series H" 4G USB Modem and Free Performance Dock Promo

After releasing two new hotspots earlier this summer, CLEAR has released another new device for their 4G WiMAX network. Their latest device, the "Series H" 4G USB modem" by Huawei, provides portable access to their expanding 4G WiMAX network. This modem fully supports Windows XP (SP2 or above), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OSX "10.5 and 10.6". This device also has a flip-up design allowing you to place the card vertically in your laptop to save space. Like the PXU1900 the "Series H" aircard is fully compatible with the CLEAR performance dock.

In addition to this latest aircard, CLEAR is also offering a promo in which you receive a FREE performance dock with the purchase of either the "Series H" 4G USB or UBEE PXU1900 4G USB aircard. The performance dock is designed to increase your signal and overall device performance. All customers ordering either of these devices will automatically receive the free performance dock!

Best Buy to offer notebooks with CLEAR WiMAX modules

CLEAR has announced a partnership with Best Buy which will make WiMAX capable laptops available at Best Buy locations across the US. The goal is to outfit every laptop with an Intel Core series processor that Best Buy sells with a 4G modem by the holiday season.

The CLEAR press release only mentions a couple of models by name, including the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, Inspiron 14 and 15 laptops, and Toshiba Satellite M645 notebook.

It’s not clear at this point whether the CLEAR modem will drive up the price of these laptops, but the 4G network is offering customers a $100 discount on the notebooks when they sign up for a 2-year service contract.

While CLEAR says the WiMAX capable laptops will be available at every Best Buy location across the country, it’s also not entirely clear why you’d want to pick up a notebook with a CLEAR modem at each of those locations… since CLEAR’s coverage area doesn’t even come close to Best Buy’s.

via Electronista

Clear adds Mac-friendly 4G/3G modem, 4G routers

Clear today swung attention back to its 4G networking hardware with a particular focus on Macs. The Sierra Wireless-made 4G+ Mobile USB is its first dual 3G and 4G modem to support Macs and gives them an EVDO data connection fallback when 4G coverage is poor or non-existent. It should work with Mac OS X Leopard or later and will cost either $115 outright or $6 a month for a lease.

Routers now include two new options. The Spot 4G is a basic 4G-only mobile router for those that don't plan to leave Clear's coverage, sharing its WiMAX with up to eight other devices over W-Fi. The Spot 4G+ is a rebranding of Sprint's Overdrive with a 3G option and up to five devices sharing the network.

Both are OS-independent and carry different prices to reflect their expanded functions: the Spot 4G costs just $100 up front or $5 on a lease, while the Spot 4G+ costs $225 immediately or $6 per month.

Rates for access depend on how the device will be used and whether it supports 3G. The Spot 4G is the least expensive to use at $45 per month for an on-the-go connection or $65 per month to add home use, while the 3G-capable hardware raises these subscriptions to $61 and $81.

4G+ Mobile USB



Spot 4G



Spot 4G+

Signs of WiMAX Showing Up On Evos in New York, San Francisco, and LA

Evo owners in New York, San Francisco, and LA are reportedly starting to see some 4G action on their devices. It's just a trickle for now, but hopefully it means Sprint's preparing to turn on the WiMax faucet soon. [Engadget]

Franklin Wireless intros U600 WiMAX modem, R526 and R536 mobile routers

Franklin Wireless supplies modems (primarily of the CDMA variety) to a number of carriers across the Western Hemisphere, and they've introduced a handful of rather interesting new products in that vein here at CTIA this week. First up, the U600 is an EV-DO Rev. A / WiMAX hybrid USB modem with a 270-degree swiveling USB connector for those ridiculously hard-to-manage ports (ahem, Apple), integrated GPS, and zero-CD installation -- all pretty standard features these days, and we saw a Sprint-branded unit at Franklin's booth which leads us to believe we'll be seeing it at retail shortly.

Much more interesting, though, was a pair of pocketable WiFi routers -- the R526 and R536 -- that support EV-DO and EV-DO / WiMAX, respectively. Most of the units were unbranded, but we did spy an R536 done up in snow white with a Clear logo slapped up top, so you can pretty much gather that this thing will be filling a glaring hole in Clear's lineup (right now, the best you can do is a USB modem plus the Clear Spot, which is basically a branded Cradlepoint). What intrigued us about the R536 the most was the fact that it's got the functionality of an Overdrive packed into a smaller, more MiFi-esque form factor without any of the Overdrive's bells and whistles, so it'll be a great alternative as long as it performs well and has enough juice to last a couple hours off the power grid; the 3G-only R526, meanwhile, had an Ethernet jack stuck on the side, which is kind of cool in the rare event that you need to connect a WiFi-less device and you don't want to go through the hassle of installing a new driver. The R526 launches in April (with what carrier, we're not sure) -- as does the U600 -- while the R536 should start to trickle out in May.

WiMAX-enabled HTC Supersonic rumored to debut on Sprint at CTIA

There's hardly anything here that we didn't already know, but an unveiling date of "next week" sure catches our eye. A new report over at The Wall Street Journal confirms earlier details that were fed to us over Sprint's first-ever WiMAX smartphone, and now we're learning that the HTC Supersonic will be officially revealed to the world at CTIA next week. We've heard before that the carrier anticipates selling a 4G phone "this summer," but you can bet we'll be digging for a hard ship date and price tag when we hit the scene in Las Vegas in just five short days.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Wall Street Journal

Clear WiMAX USB modem impressions

Clearwire (along with Sprint and Comcast, just to name a couple) has been fiercely expanding its WiMAX network across America for months on end now, and while select citizens in select cities have had access to the 4G superhighway for just over a year, we haven't actually had the opportunity to find ourselves in one of those locations for any amount of time. Until recently, that is. The Clear 4G service was lit up in Las Vegas late last year, which gave the Engadget squad just enough time to scrounge up a gaggle of Motorola 4G USB sticks and really test out the network while at CES. Meanwhile, the North Carolinians among us were also able to test the boundaries of the 4G patches that have been setup here, and we're finally ready to dish out a few opinions on the fourth generation of cellular data. Eager to know if it's the best thing since the invention of the MP3? Read on to find out.

Clear WiMAX USB modem impressions

Unlike most 3G options, Clear's WiMAX solution can actually replace your home ISP. We'd probably recommend an at-home modem over a USB stick if you're going that route, but we suppose one could always shove their USB modem in their home desktop before hitting the web for the day. Our focus here is on the mobile side, but suffice it to say, if your home is within a well-covered patch of 4G, there's no reason you shouldn't considering ditching your existing ISP and giving this a shot. Granted, we wouldn't recommend that heavy users (particularly those who spend days on end uploading wacky YouTube HD videos) do such a thing, but for casual browsers the speed is likely to satisfy -- and it'll probably save you a buck or two in the end over what you're paying now.

The actual Motorola USB modem that we used was a 4G-only device, which makes it extremely limited when you're traveling. For example, if using a traditional 3G USB modem whilst in the backseat of a vehicle, it can automatically step down to 2G when you pass out of the city and into a more rural setting. It's typically seamless, and it enables one's internet experience to remain in tact even when jumping from one network to another. Unfortunately, this 4G stick is useless when traveling outside of a 4G coverage area; frankly, we'd recommend one of the 4G / 3G sticks if you're jonesing for something quicker, which will allow you to still surf at 3G speeds if you travel to an area that's outside of the 4G umbrella.

That said, the modem itself performed well in the 4G cities that we surveyed. Installation was a breeze on both Mac and PC platforms, and the bundled USB adapter enabled us to angle it as we pleased and prevented the stick itself from blocking our power ports when inserted. The connection management software was rather barebones, and it simply auto-searches and auto-connects to a network (at least on the Mac side) whenever it detects that a 4G device is present. Once connected, a row of lights informs you of your signal strength. And that's where things begin to get iffy.

More so than any 3G area we've ever been in, 4G connections just seemed overly finicky. We could literally move two feet from our current position and drop the entire signal, yet be downloading at blazing fast rates after we moved back and reconnected. We also found that the fringe areas of the posted 4G blankets are more "fringy" than those in the 3G world; unless you're in the heart of the city that Clearwire covers, you should probably expect spotty or intermittent coverage. As an example, the entire Engadget staff had full coverage (and great throughput speeds) while using 4G at our CES trailer; just a five minute walk away to the hotel brought about varied results.

I personally couldn't connect to Clearwire's network at all from my 18th floor room, while my Sprint 3G card hummed along fine; my good buddy and confidant Chris Ziegler had no issues hopping on the 4G waves from his 18th floor room that sat just a few meters down from mine. It seemed that our hotel luck was all over the place, with some connecting sans issue, some not at all and some with paltry rates and a signal that tended to drop with some level of frequency. We fully understand that CES was going on, but it's not like everyone has shifted to 4G handsets just yet -- in fact, we'd wager that the 4G network in Vegas was the lightest used during the show. We also had varying levels of success in hotel suites where press conferences were being held. Some of the team was able to liveblog entire pressers on 4G without a hiccup, while others just down the road couldn't find a signal at all to connect to (meaning we had to resort to 3G).

When we were able to nail down a solid connection, speeds were admirable. Not mind-blowing, but definitely a step up from the 3G rates that we've grown accustomed to seeing. On average, we were able to pull between 2,000 and 3,000Kbps down, while upload rates rarely topped 600Kbps. That's a fair bit less than those theoretical maximums (around half, actually), but since when has any internet service actually delivered those lofty peaks? We should also note that latency was far better on 4G than on 3G; we rarely saw ping times over 100ms, while our 3G test from a year ago rarely saw ping times under 150ms.

If you'll compare these rates to those found in the aforementioned 3G test, you'll notice that 4G is a lot more like 3.5G, so to speak. It's not going to smoke your HSDPA connection by any wide margin, and it's a lot more likely to drop out on you in our experience. Of course, one must remember than this technology is still in its infancy, and there are still waves upon waves of rollouts that need to happen before the level of infrastructure supporting it comes close to matching that already installed by 3G operators. Still, if you're looking to buy into 4G today, we can't recommend any solution that doesn't also offer 3G compatibility as a backup. In our testing, we found 4G networks to be far too spotty and unreliable to use as your sole mobile broadband solution. Even if your home or place of work is supposedly blanketed according to Clearwire, there's a decent chance that some rooms, corners and hallways won't be. 'Course, we'd be a lot more willing to forgive the shortfalls if WiMAX were available in more than a handful of cities, but hey, expansion takes time and money -- neither of which are particularly easy to come by these days.