Clearwire sued for crappy WiMAX service and unfair termination policy
By Will Park on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 4:43 PM PST In Sprint, WiMAX
And the problems keep mounting for mobile WiMAX network operator Clearwire. Made famous as Sprint’s WiMAX network partner, Clearwire has run into numerous bumps along the road to a truly nationwide mobile WiMAX wireless network. The latest pothole in Clearwire’s way is a newly filed lawsuit claiming that Clearwire is misrepresenting their WiMAX network’s performance and then unfairly charging customer early termination fees.
Clearwire is being sued by customers in Washington, Hawaii, Minnesota and North Carolina. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status in a bid to hit Clearwire as hard as possible. At issue is the fact that Clearwire markets its service as being a reliable alternative to DSL or cable internet services, which the lawsuit’s plaintiffs are claiming is false and misleading. Customers have complained of service outages that range from reduced, dial-up quality internet speeds to complete service interruptions that leave customers without an internet connection.
The lawsuit also claims that Clearwire’s Early Termination Fee is unlawful and is void. The lawsuit seeks to recover ETF fees for former Clearwire customers, as well as an injunction that would prevent Clearwire from falsely advertising their service and charging an ETF to customers wishing to disconnect their service.
Clearwire is in the process of rolling out a nationwide WiMAX network with partner Sprint. If this lawsuit causes even more delays in the WiMAX roll-out, Sprint (NYSE: S) may want to start seriously considering 4G LTE as a back-up plan.
[Via: CellularNews]
The lawsuit is in reference to the Expedience service, not WiMax.
i am very displeased to here this, i have been keeping up with all this new technology. First herd about it on http://www.rocketboom.com and the anticipation has been mounting till today!!
its nice information about new technology.i think its new way of going to fast future.
Mike is right, the lawsuit is for expedience (pre-wimax) platform, which is very unstable and do not use OFDMA, is outdated and has poor cell trhougput.
802.16e certified wave 2 WiMAX systems are extremely stable, and provides in an equal subscriber distribution in a cell scenario, almost double the usable capacity (based on HSDPA 21Mbps). Based on results from tests on Telstra in Australia and Clear in Portland shows that a single user in Telstra’s network can reach a peak DL speed of 8Mbps on an HSDPA 21MBps USB dongle and a user on CLEAR could get 13MBps on a Motorola wave 2 USB dongle while driving 70MPH.
A wireless broadband network will never be restricted by coverage, it will always be restricted by capacity, and in that scenario WiMAX has the upper hand.
As a final note for a mobile operator in an emerging market with low fixed line penetration who is competing against an incumbent full service provider WiMAX is the most sensible choice to allow you to compete in the enterprise market providing Data VPN, POTS and Internet alternative, to compete in the residential market providing a ADSL or Cable alternative and finally compete in the mobile broadband market providing a true mobile broadband experience with the same QOS and COS you experience on your residential broadband connection
As for CLEAR’s claims and early termination fees, I can only agree, it is ClEAR’s choice of technology (pre-WiMAX) its execution, network design, backhaul capacity marketing claims and legal departments user policy which are at fault, not their new WIMAX implementation. I can agree that this might distract them.
Clear’s WiMAX seems to be implemented with capacity and coverage in mind from the end user all the way through the backhaul and core. The proof will be when LTE and WiMAX goes head to head in 2010/2011.
“Clearwire sued for crappy WiMAX service and unfair
termination policy”
Crappy WiMax? It is more like crappy clients…
Maybe one of them wrote this crappy article?
As others have indicated, the suit isn’t about WiMAX at all. I’m not sure how the person writing this could make such a significant error, unless they’re specifically seeking to damage the reputation of the emerging WiMAX technology (ahem… AT&T?).
Article… FAIL.
Even though the title and article are a little off, Clearwire still needs to be held accountable for their shady business methods. “Clearwire” is the server that operates off of the old Wireless system whereas “Clear” operates off of WiMAX. Any potential customers looking for Clearwire service will likely find this information valuable, those looking for Clear’s service won’t likely find this at all.
Either way, I have no love for Clearwire and could care less about Clear since they’re using ill-gotten gains from Clearwire to help push-out Clear service.
Clearwire Blows, it fails to deliver in more ways than you could imagine and they know that it sucks yet they continue to advertise and push-off sales copy that “clearly” over-fluffs the reality of the quality (or rather lack-thereof) service.
ClearwireBlows.com – Join the Revolution, Spread the Message, Force Clearwire to Improve or Go Away.