Clear Wireless 4G Internet Service - Is It Any Good? Here's What I Found Out

A new internet service provider is making quite a splash here in San Antonio.  Its green and white signs are everywhere -- they even have green and whtie "Clear" flags attached to cars driving around town. 

And it sounds so great.  You're free to connect to the internet all over the place, you're not tied down to any one spot.  Plus, it's cheaper than your current ISP.  Wow.  And, wait!  There's more! It's faster than your usual WiFi.   It's 4G, in some places, it's 6G.  Broadband speeds, anywhere and everywhere.  Always available, faster, and cheaper. 

That sure sounds good.  Except I can't find anyone here in town who's actually USING this service, even if little Clear stores are opening up on every corner.  So, I went surfing around on the web to get the scoop.

First, I learned that it's a big deal.  This company has plans to cover the country with its little stores, and San Antonio is far from the first city to get inundated with these green and white signs and stores.  In Texas, it's already in Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Killeen/Temple, Lubbock, Waco, and other places. 

Here are some of the review that I found, from various parts of the country where Clear 4g Wimax has been in business longer than here in the Alamo City:

1.  Sarah Savage at Associated Content wrote in August 2009 that it was great for being able to pull out a netbook and write anywhere you wanted but there were drawbacks -- and recommended that if you're using the web mostly at home, it's not worth the purchase.  Also, some drop-off issues if the computer was idle for a couple of hours (no problem just signing in, again, tho).  Not sure what city we're talking about here, either.

2.  Yelp.com has 16 reviews for Clear WiMax Internet coming from Atlanta users.  Together, they're giving the service 3.5 stars out of 5.  Some comments include (1) lots of folk experience outages (2) and slow, slow service - not nearly the swift service that is touted by Clear.  There are some here that love this service, and some here that absolutely hate it. 

3.  Yelp.com has 30+ reviews for Portland's Clear WiMax Internet.  Yelp looks to have closed this forum sometime last year, but there's still lots of info here to consider.  And, there are lots of opinions here.  Again, some love and some hate.  Outages and slow speeds are discussed quite a bit.  Those trying to download big documents or watch videos seem to be very dissatistfied with the service.

4. Nick Mokey at DigitalTrends.com took Clear for a spin in Portland one day last July and bottom line, he liked it.  It wasn't perfect, but for some, Mr. Mokey opined that Clear would be just fine.

5. Nathan Roach in San Antonio gives it a thumbs up. I know Nathan Roach, and respect his opinion on all things Techno, so imagine my surprise when my surfing stumbled upon a review he'd written about trying out Clear -- here in my own hometown.  Perfect.  And, what does Nathan say?  His opinion is the same as Nick Mokey (see above, I'd just read Mokey's review when I found Nathan's so this was real deja vu)  -- and he gives lots of legal advice regarding the contracts and the service that's provided.  The reps lied to Nathan, I don't like that -- and there's a 2 year contract involved. 

What am I going to do?  I think I'll wait on Clear.  When I take my netbook to the B&N or local Starbucks, I'm happy enough -- and Clear's sounding too problematic to me. 

Free WiFi at Starbucks in San Antonio

Woo Hoo!! If you have a Starbucks card, and you happen to be in San Antonio, then you can get two hours of free WiFi at any of the local Starbucks per day. That's about how long I can count on my laptop battery at this point, so what a deal!!!

This should be coming to a Starbucks near you, too -- it's part of the new Starbucks contract with AT&T, which is replacing TMobile as the WiFi provider for Starbucks across the country.

For more info:
ComputerWorld

Skype - Is It 4 U?

Skype (rhymes with "type") advertises unlimited calls to anywhere in the US and Canada for $3.00/month (calls between Skype users are free) and now that WiFi is so widely available, Skype is offering its own cellphone too. For $99.00, you can buy a Skype Phone and use it anywhere there is a WiFi connection to make calls via your Skype account without having to turn on your computer.

Yes, Virginia: that's amazingly cheap phone service (national and international) from your computer and now, from a cellphone, too. Free if you call Skype users. Yes, free. Wow.

Yep. Skype calls are free between Skype users in the US or Canada. If you buy the "Skype Unlimited" package, for $30 a year, you get unlimited Skype calls to any landline or cell phone within the US or Canada. Regardless of whether they've ever heard of Skype or not.

International calls are usually cheap, but you have to check the country. You may end up paying a little over a dollar a minute for some remote locations; then again, you can call Paris for 2 cents a minute. It all depends.

What's Skype? How can they DO this? According to the company's website:

"Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, as well as voicemail and call forwarding. Skype, based in Luxembourg, has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers and is an eBay company."


Is Skype for you?

1. There are expectations that Skype will face attacks similar to Vonage as the Big Phone Companies try and fight to keep their hold on the marketplace. Patent infringement suits against Vonage are threatening bankruptcy according to the sages over at Business Week, for example.

2. Internally, things are in flux at Skype. Its CEO resigned on October 1st; no new Big Kahuna has been announced. There's an interim guy at the helm right now who hails from EBay -- both Skype founders and its "technical wizard" have jumped ship. And, EBay recently has announced that its taking a hickey on its purchase of Skype back in 2005.

3. Companies are coming alongside Skype, as well.

On October 17,2007, a partnership was announced between MySpace and Skype - now MySpace friends can chat with each other. (Skype also sells WebCams as well as Headsets in addition to its new Skype phone.) In addition to the MySpace alliance, some big guns are being Skype-friendly.
For example, at Walmart, you can buy a General Electric called the "2-in-1 Internet and Standard Phone" for $149.98. The 2-in-1 connects to both your broadband connection and your home phoneline. The 2-in-1 lets you makes Skype calls or regular phone line calls, your choice. It has caller ID, a headset, and a speakerphone. The old VOIP problem with 911 service is solved here: that second line lets you access emergency services even if the Skype line is in use.

As for whether or not you should try Skype, why not read thru the Walmart GE 2-in-1 phone reviews? One guy is claiming to have saved $1000/yr in phone bills. Then, too, there are reviews over at CNET, and a good review of Skype overall at VoipReviewsOnline.com.

For info on Vonage and VOIP in general, check out my January 25, 2006 post "VoIP - What About Those $25 Vonage Ads?"

So, is it for you? Well, there's the outlay for the new phone (or phones if you buy the new cellphone, too) but that lower monthly bill each month might balance things out at the get-go, right? Quality of the calls is supposed to be good, too.

One bad thing no one has mentioned: with the use of a webcab, Skype is offering us the ability to chat with each other just like the Jetsons -- but no one's selling that Fully Made-Up and Great Hair Screen that Jane Jetson used early in the morning. I know that I, for one, am very interested in hearing about THAT product appearing in the marketplace.

Personal Post: Free WiFi Security Tips

Yesterday, I left my laptop running in the back bedroom, next to an open window, and promptly forgot it. Hours later, I returned to turn it off.

Good news, battery was recharged to 100%; bad news, a message that "others are using this computer, turning off power now may cause them to lose their work." Or words to that effect ... I don't have the message down, word for word.

I thought I had disconnected the laptop's automatic birddog feature of finding nearby wireless networks. Wrong!

I immediately shut the laptop down. And, today, on my desktop with its secure wired-in internet access, I went surfing for solutions to this problem. Thought I'd share them, especially since this would apply not only to neighbors with wireless, but to all those free Wifi HotSpots around town these days.

1. There are blocks you can establish within your files, including passwords and "do not share" parameters on certain files. A good set of directions is provided by Arnelle O'Neill at Microsoft, albeit her article is somewhat dated.

2. There are firewalls that you can buy (I have ZoneAlarmPro, and I don't know why it didn't work) and internal blocks under Network Connections to use. PC Magazine gives some good instructions in another older article written by Leon Erlanger.

3. TechWorld offers a TopTen List for Safe WiFi use. It's a good one, with lots of detail. Included here, free tests - not only of your WiFi security as a whole, but the effectiveness of your firewall and anti-virus protections.

Now, I'm off to implement the things I've learned from these sites. Since I don't access the web from the laptop - I only use it for word processing - I'm not that worried about things. No passwords, no financial info for the Evildoer to have found.

I still don't like the Evildoer roaming around, reading my drafts and things, though. And, I hope that I didn't store my FitDay info on the darn thing. I hate to think that my neighbor's teenage son (and therefore, his mother and everyone else in a 60 mile radius by now) knows how much I weigh.