I’m not usually one to bash products or services but Clear Mobile Internet (“4G Wireless Internet Service with WiMAX“) is the most-frustrating service I’ve ever used in my life, which is saying a lot because I’m constantly being bombarded with new technologies on a daily basis. Our relationship started out really well: A rep contacted me and let me borrow a device to see how it worked and to be perfectly honest… I absolutely loved it. I could use it anywhere. My house, the park, my car, downtown… the bathroom. Anywhere! I canceled my current service and got my own CLEAR wireless modem. But after using it for a while, I’m not having any luck with this thing.

The service worked great for a little over a month. I’d get home, click connect and be blazing all over the internet at lightning fast, 4G speeds. I could download full-length DVD-quality (700MB+) movies in a little under half an hour. Sometimes less than twenty minutes. Which was awesome. I could play World of Warcraft without any lag at all. What did this mean? This meant that I could nerd it up on the train. I could nerd it up in the park. I could nerd it up anywhere I wanted with a really, really good mobile internet connection.

So, what’s the problem?

The wireless modem stopped connecting to the 4G WiMAX network. At first I was like, “You know what, this is probably expected of a company that’s just starting out on a 4G WiMAX.” But it didn’t get any better. After a week (I actually put up with this for seven entire days), I decided to contact someone about it. I called CLEAR and they said everything was working fine on their end, which I know every company says regardless of whether or not there is a problem so naturally I didn’t believe them.

I reinstalled the drivers, I disconnected/reconnected the modem, I went to different locations to figure out if my walls were causing the problem. No dice. Then, out of nowhere, I get a connection. I’m like, “Sweet!! Time to get online!” Wrong. It dropped the connection almost ten seconds after I started surfing. So I just kept clicking the connect button. I mean, I had ten little bubbles and the program said Perfect Signal. Why shouldn’t I be able to connect?

Why I think I couldn’t connect.

I think that CLEAR has over-sold their service. I think that CLEAR promised a lightning fast, 4G network and that there are too many connections in the Chicago area for their technology to handle. Once I’m on the network, I can usually go a little while before being disconnected. However, 95% of the time, I can’t even connect. It goes: 1) Searching for network… 2) Ready to connect! 3) I press connect. 4) Connecting… 5) Searching for network… Over. And over. And over again.

I’m going to give CLEAR another month before I give up on them for good and decide to switch to another internet service provider. I chose them for two reasons: They’re new (I like new technologies) and they’re cheaper than Comcast. The only frustrating thing is that I went from being able to get online any time I wanted (most of the time.. I mean, I did have Comcast and we know how that goes) to never being able to get on. And when I do get on, the latency is so high I want nothing more than to get off my computer!

Boo to you, CLEAR. If you’ve had (or someone you know has had) a horrible CLEAR Mobile Internet experience (or even regular CLEAR Internet), I’d love to hear about it.

Tags: Awesome, CLEAR