Clear Spot 4G+
 

OK people, who has one of these and do you like it?

I bought one off eBay and got the ten dollar a day thing to try it out and it's fast at my office and house, but wondered what y'all's experience is.

is this like the Verizon mi-fi?

I signed up for two years of 3G for my Android phone. The original plan was to go with with one of these portable hot spot units like mi-fi once they were ready for 4G to use with a Android tablet or with my phone on wifi settings. But I caved since the prospect of unlimited internet on cellphones seems to be going away.
$30 a month for a 3G data, albeit unlimited, doesn't seem like such a bargain when I' barely cracking 1 mbps in most Verizon areas. And my broadband at home is underwhelming.

"is this like the Verizon mi-fi?"

I guess it might be, but I've not researched that. I will say that it's a lot faster than what you're describing. I'm seeing bursts of 5-8 mbps and up.

However, it's based on loads. If you are near a cell tower where another user is peer to peer sharing a bunch of movies or you are in peak usage times such as drive time, it's slower too.

Once real 4G (what Verizon has) makes a real market entrance (more than just a city or two) Things should be making a big change in the Cell service. At some point they will stop charging per MB or GB and they will charge for the speed of your plan, much like Internet service.

The only reason now they do the things they do with charging per data usage is their networks are not up to the challenge. In time they will be much like the internet.

You can already see this with Verizon. They have a much superior network, hence they can still offer unlimited data. ATT on the other hand cannot. (not with the amount of subscribers they have.)

^ that's going to be a problem in the meantime. NetFlix accounts for something like nearly 40% of all web traffic, probably higher during 'off hours'. If the carriers know you are using a lot of something they aren't exactly going to change the pricing model so that it favors your high data habits. Right now I think if you can get your hooks into anything that says 'unlimitied' and means 'unlimited' you should jump on it. 4G pricing is already looking like its going to cost you nearly $60 a month when tax and tip are included. Now add in your broadband at home and your spending more on internet than you are on gas for your car.

Update.

This Clearspot 4G+ is fast. Faster than my home internet through ATT, which is the mid-range speed level. Faster than my office internet speeds too, even though I'm the only one hitting it most of the time (I only have one employee who is not internet intensive).

I think we'll dump our ATT at home and just use this little box from Clear. If we both go on a trip we'll take it with us. If one person is home, we go back to the other way of hunting for a free WIFI connection or use our 3G data plan from our iPhone4's.

So for $20 a month more, I get much faster internet and portability.

It should be fast, 4G LTE has the ability to be in the 70-100Mbs range. which is ridiculously fast for an over the air network, whether or not that is what you get is a different story (its all about the money remember!).


These speeds are much faster than most in house internet connections. Even Verizon FiOS doesn't beat that until you reach their highest tier connections.

So if your Clearspot 4G+ has the same speeds as LTE should have, dropping your house internet might be a good idea.

EDIT UPON FURTHER RESEARCH

So I took the liberty to look up this product and see what it actually is all about. It seems that it is unfortunately not real 4G and by a longshot. They claim speeds of 6-9Mbits with "bursts" over 10. This is not 4G speed by definition. 4G speeds need to be around 100Mbits on a mobile style network. They are using it as a catch-phrase as opposed to what 4G actually should be. This does not mean that 6-9Mbits is sluggish in fact those are decent numbers for broadband internet.

Rover 4G Wireless Hot Spot
 

I travel around the country with one of these. They cost $150 (found mine for $99). It's pay as you go, $50 a month, don't recall what the daily/weekly rate is. I dumped the Virgin product after they capped the data at 4gigs a month.
This product works at client offices, airports and hotels. It even includes a car adapter for those drivers suffering from Internet withdrawal on the road.

www.rover.com

Mike (about to buy a '00 base Boxster. Pray for my wallet.)

Evidently, Clear is in cahoots in one way or another with Rover in the Houston market. I was told I could not go on month to month with Clear because of their arrangement with Rover, but I could sign a 2 year agreement, so I went that route... It's only $40 to break the contract, unlike an electricity provider or cell phone provider.

at the end of the day whether or not it is what they advertise it to be does not matter that much. If you are happy with the service and it does what it needs to do... that is all that matters.

So true, Lobo.

I have noticed that when everyone's on the network during peak usage times the speeds are slower, which is not something I seem to experience at home or my office on DSL, but slow on the Clear network is still faster than the average speeds on the ATT DSL.

what are your typical speeds? (I use Speed Test on my Ipad/Android devices).
In Florida (Orlando area) I'm getting 1 mbps here in NY/NJ I'm doing no better and sometimes as bad has .5 mbps. At Verizon store in north Jersey I ran the speed test on their 4G usb card thing and was getting 4 mbps.

I'll check tonight when I get home. I didn't bring the thing with me to the office today.

I guess the shine has already worn off :)

At 4 pm, my download speed was 3 mbps and upload was 1 Mbps

My dsl was actually just as fast. I'll check it again tonight late and tomorrow and post my numbers. Location matters too with signal strength and tower loads.

this is going to be a problem for cable companies. Given the choice between 3-4 mbps at home or the ability to take it with you....well most are going to grab the portability, particulary with all these tablets replacing latpops for recreational computer users.
I'm going to get either the mi-fi or Clear Spot for my mother. makes no sense paying for her Ipad with only 3G for $30 and no hotspot for other devices like a nice desktop or on one of those new LED TV's that come with wi-fi capability.