ClearWire Broadband

antodeco

Hey all!
Just wondering how many people out there are interested in clearwire? (www.clearwire.ie/home.html)
Also, what sort of services are you using at the moment?
Ive been looking into all this, so im just trying to see how many people would be interested in wimax as oppose to other services.
Thanks!

bk

antodeco wrote:

Hey all!
Just wondering how many people out there are interested in clearwire? (www.clearwire.ie/home.html)
Also, what sort of services are you using at the moment?
Ive been looking into all this, so im just trying to see how many people would be interested in wimax as oppose to other services.
Thanks!

I can't tell if you work for Clearwire or not.

Anyway, the site doesn't mention any specs or prices, nor does it give which areas it is available in.

Without this info then it is just useless marketing info which no one will be interested in.

It looks like a Ripwave, Non Line of Site (NLOS) sort of service. So far NLOS services like Ripwave are crap, you need a Line Of Sight service like Breeze for any sort of decent performance. With NLOS you get very bad latency which makes it unsuitable for many BB applications like gaming, VoIP, etc. Now maybe Clearwires gear is new and better, but I'd hate to be the one trying it out.

Also, some of the info in the Why Clearwire? page is misleading. In the comparison with DSL and cable they say:
Simple Plug and Play is No
This is not true, DSL is Simle Plug and Play, it takes about 2 minutes.
Also NTL offers a free engineer install, it doesn't get simpler then that.

Location Flexibility:
While less controversial, yes you can put the wireless modem anywhere, you can also attach DSL to any phone line and the NTL engineers will install your cable BB point anywhere you want.

Cable/TV Rental: NTL offer TV free for 12 months when you sign up for BB.

I suppose what is annoying me is that they are comparing based on irrelevant marketing BS, rather then the actual specs and price which is the only thing that matters.

BTW I currently have NTL Max - 3m/300k for €45 per month.
I use to have Netsource DSL 2m/128k

I would only be interesed in WiMax if it offered better speeds (including latency) and prices then NTL, with the same level of reliability (excellent). I suppose others who can't get DSL or NTL would be more flexible and more interested in it then me.

gsand

prolly not gona get a lot of customers given the 1.5meg opening package when most others are hitting(trying) to provide 2meg minimum and ibb have done an okish job of grabbing most wireless customers atm...

altho i suppose if they could prove contention was great and offer some sort of unlimited package it might get some interest...

Sponge Bob

Essentially it will be a more widely available version of Ripwave when it launches in the summer.

If it works better than Ripwave it will be a valuable addition to the product range, especially as it is Mobile and can in theory be used in quite a few areas including a lot of the Pale in addition to the big cities .

Clearwire are notorious in the US for blocking ports, particularly VoIP , a bad sign. see

http://www.corante.com/darkweb/archives/035393.php

bk

Sponge Bob wrote:

Clearwire are notorious in the US for blocking ports, particularly VoIP , a bad sign. see

http://www.corante.com/darkweb/archives/035393.php

Well that is pretty dumb, if one of their big selling points is that you don't need to pay line rental anymore.

Sponge Bob

Well their other selling point is that you cannot make or take phone calls across the net .

There are workarounds but they are a bit of a palaver TBH

flamegrill

duno if anyone noticed the wee link on one of the pages to: http://www.clearwire.ie/service/tariffs.html

looks like 512/128 for home users and 1024/256 for businesses. 8GB cap for home users and no cap for busineses.

Thats probably there a long enough time, I'd like to think they would go to market with better speeds/cap's. otherwise no one will bother with them.

Paul

antodeco

I rekon if they made the modem totally portabke (USB powered) it would be very beneficial. It would mean alot more portability espcially if you stay in hotels or anything overnight. Apparently there are only a few sights going live at first to test (again southside places!). The fact that most other companies are targeting the southside areas, surely it would make sense to target the other areas and get a better foothold on them.
I also rekon the tariffs will change as will the cap, otherwise, as rightly said, they will only cater for a smaller number of customers

azezil

flamegrill wrote:

duno if anyone noticed the wee link on one of the pages to: http://www.clearwire.ie/service/tariffs.html

looks like 512/128 for home users and 1024/256 for businesses. 8GB cap for home users and no cap for busineses.

Thats probably there a long enough time, I'd like to think they would go to market with better speeds/cap's. otherwise no one will bother with them.

Paul

I was looking at that too... what a joke!
And their comparison to DSL is a load of trip "upload barely" its the same freakin speed and the download is faster on DSL

pfftt

damien

flamegrill wrote:

duno if anyone noticed the wee link on one of the pages to: http://www.clearwire.ie/service/tariffs.html

looks like 512/128 for home users and 1024/256 for businesses. 8GB cap for home users and no cap for busineses.

This appears to be their licence obligations. This is the minimum package and maximum price they have to offer to retain their licence from ComReg. The only way clearwire could do well with such restrictive products is to go into areas where the other operators are not. There's plenty of people that want better than isdn always on net access. Given a choice of nothing or Clearwire I think they'll go for Clearwire.

Sponge Bob

Clearwire have a lot of licences in the ruralish southern half of leinster , see the SMALL circles inside the BIG ones

DemonOfTheFall

Their site has various different statements about its speed... Not very professional.

Also, WiMAX doesnt seem to be all its cracked up to be. Each transmitter cell can only handle 70mbps tops. Either theyre going to need A LOT of cells for dense areas of population or contention will be rampant.

antodeco

the same network issue is apparant with 3g. Again, a new network is needed to handle all these customers, with a contention ratio quite low. As said, they might just need alot of masts. Im sure that wouldnt cost much. I think of Clearwire want to be a main contender they have to go into places that there isint much there already and offer something like a free trial like eircom. They need to get people trusting in the product and also get their name out there before they try and launch properly. Look at america, they have a huge amonut of backing, but they only have a small number of sites. Well thats America for you. If you cant get your mobile phone to work there, wimax is definitely going to be no no!

antodeco

Sponge Bob wrote:

Clearwire have a lot of licences in the ruralish southern half of leinster , see the SMALL circles inside the BIG ones

that map looks like something from simcity!

Infini

Unless someone comes along that beats NTL's offer I ain't really interested. Hell these guys are outdone by IBB. Not a good start.

antodeco

thats very true! it will be interesting to see what they actually launch with!

Mac daddy

flamegrill wrote:

duno if anyone noticed the wee link on one of the pages to: http://www.clearwire.ie/service/tariffs.html
looks like 512/128 for home users and 1024/256 for businesses. 8GB cap for home users and no cap for busineses.

I would have gone over the cap in a week :eek:

Civilian_Target

Yeah - to be honest it sounds inferior to IBB...

antodeco

apparantly their contenetion ratio is 10:1. not bad at all....