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When we moved into our house, we had to decide what type of internet we wanted. Our choices included DSL, cable, and Clearwire. DSL was scratched, as we had no desire to have a phone line (both my wife and myself have cell phones). We thought about cable, but at the time, there was no cable service in the home and it’s also rather pricey. So, we thought we’d give Clearwire a try.
If you’re not familiar with Clearwire, it is a wireless internet service. You simply plug in the power cord and plug in the Ethernet cord from the back to the modem to the computer and that’s it. Very simple to set up.
Within a week of starting the service, I realized I made a mistake. I have never had internet this slow. It actually made me long for the days of dial-up. Our internet is so slow, it takes a minute to load the Drudge Report. Drudge! The site has 3 pictures and a bunch of text links! And don’t even try watching a video. Once, we missed an episode of the Office, so we thought we’d watch it online the next night. The video wouldn’t even load. I spent 5 minutes looking at a blank screen, refreshed the page and waited for another 5 minutes before I gave up.
Then, to make things worse, I received a call from their promotions department one day, asking if I would like to try out a wireless card for my laptop. I didn’t really want to, but they said they’d give me a faster connection speed for trying it out. I was told try it out, send it back after a week, and keep home speed upgrade. The day after I spoke with them on the phone, my account was being charged for both our home service and the wireless card service. I was also charged various fees, which took two months to get corrected.
This past week, I called customer support to see when we contract was up and they asked if I wanted to speak with a tech support guy, to see if he could help me get a better connection speed. I agreed and spent 45 minutes on the phone with the guy (he was very polite, no complaints about the support, this time). He informed me that we were within 1 mile of their closest tower, so if I just pointed my modem east, I should get the best signal. I tried that, then ran a download speed test. Keep in mind I’m on the 2.5 mbps plan. My results? 657 Kbps! I’m within a mile of their dang tower! My Blackberry is quicker!
When our contract expires, I will gladly pay more for the superior speed, reliability, and customer service offered by Comcast Broadband.
(I know I already wrote a rant about clearwire, but that was before we had Google News coverage and I was again irritated by them.)