Clear Wireless Internet Information

Clear Wireless Internet

Clear Wireless Internet is offered by Clearwire Corporation is another alternative to choose from when you’re thinking of not only mobile broadband, but home wireless broadband as well.  Clearwire Corp. was founded in October 2003 by the cell phone king Craig McCaw in Kirkland, Washington.  Clearwire unlike most of the major wireless broadband providers though uses WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) as their transmission platform.

In May of 2008 Clearwire merged with Sprint Nextel combining the two WiMax 4G networks.  This merging made Sprint a 54% shareholder in Clearwire, with the remaining shares being howned by a consortium of corporations like Google, Comcast and Bright House Networks.  Over time Clearwire’s service has become known as simply Clear, except in areas where the Clearwire brand name was firmly established.

Many have questioned Clear Wireless Internet and Sprints use of the WiMax System, since its scalability to the upside of speed is extremely limited.  Presently LTE (Long-Term Evolution) is evolving as the dominant technology in cell data communication.  Clearwire and Sprint also appear to be facing cash problems in completing their 4G network, which is presently under construction.  More on this later.

Clear Wireless Internet is offered in a number of flavors with prices per month starting as low as $20.00 up to a maximum of $45.00 with no preset speed cap and no limit on usage.  Unfortunately reports from around the country seem to indicate that even though there’s no preset speed cap that download speeds in many areas are only 4 megabits at best.  As Clear Wireless Internet continues to add customers and use up bandwidth speeds are likely to continue reducing.

As mentioned earlier Clear Wireless Internet is coming up against funding issues for the completion of its 4G network.  During its first quarter (2011) investor telephone call company execs said that they might not have enough money to continue operating for the next 12 months.  They say there are bullish though on being able to obtain funding through present or new investors.  Since Sprint owns 54% of Clearwire the chances are a good that a major portion of it will come from them. All is not bad news though, recently Clearwire has implemented many cost saving measures that has reduced their rate of capital burn.

When you start connecting the dots though with Clearwire’s founder Craig McCaw leaving in December of 2010, CEO Bill Morrow resigning in March 2011, Google not kicking in any money during the last funding, Intel selling 10,000,000 shares (10% of Intel’s investment) and their support of a transmission system that is headed towards the dust heap, one wonders how long it will be before Clearwire is either absorbed by Sprint or sold off for the spectrum.

Bottom line is if Clear Wireless Internet is available in your area and your other options are limited then give it a try.  Since it appears that Clearwire is dependent on Sprint and Sprint is dependent on Clearwire no matter what happens you will not wind up with zero Internet Service.  In addition the prices offered by Clear Wireless Internet a very competitive with the other providers, but expect that your speeds will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 megabits download and 1.5 mbits upload.  Not stellar by any stretch of imagination, but if it’s your only option it’s great. Just don’t expect tech support to show a whole bunch of sympathy when you call and complain about the speed.