Clearwire sued for crappy WiMAX service and unfair termination policy

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 may want to start seriously considering 4G LTE as a back-up plan.

[Via: CellularNews]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

Mike Hunt

The lawsuit is in reference to the Expedience service, not WiMax.
Magnus

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.
Not so crappy

“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?
Get Your Facts Straight

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.
Clearwire Blows

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.
Bill

I started with six months of great service, but then something changed. For the last sixteen months, the service was VERY unreliable. Clearwire had hundreds of excuses. They replaced the modem, claimed it was my equipment. Informed me I did not understand what I was doing. Then cliamed my address was not servicable.
After the servicale address was stated, I asked to terminate the service, and they through the ETF at me, it did not matter that they claim my address is not servicable.
A couple of month ago, they finaly offer to terminate the aggreament, with a catch. I have paid anually, it it was implied that I would not get a refund of the remaing five months of the contract.
I had decided to hold out untill the rollout of WIFIMAX, but after only three days under the new service, I have taken a step back to the old dialup days.

I have gotten burst speeds of 1.7 megs, but .8 megs burst has been the norm. Overall averages are running around 200k, with hour long periods below 56k.

SO MUCH FOR FASTER SERVICE!!!!
Amy

I’m in Texas and want to be a part of this lawsuit!

We were “sold” on the company Clearwire at a Best Buy store in San Antonio, with their claim they’d be fully launched in San Antonio, Texas on November 1, 2009 (soft opening). When we signed up, we were assured we’d have “super high speed” internet, but instead got less than dial-up speeds. When we continued to have crappy service, we finally called tech support, who stated our nearest tower was 7 or 8 miles away (contrary to their map which showed us fully in their service area), and San Antonio was NOWHERE NEAR ready to launch in San Antonio! We were LIED TO & told there were over 120 towers. Their tech support admitted they have LESS THAn 20! We canceled services immediately.

We tried working this out with Best Buy (where we purchased everything), but to no avail…..”they’re just contractors.” After hours of being on the phone & a lot of arguing w/ the Clearwire rep, they offerred to waive the “cancelation fee.”…..yet they had crappy service & lied from the beginning!?!? And why would I have to pay a cancelation fee when there was no contract? They finally refunded my $66.22 after I threatened to call the Better Business Bureau, the news, & the A/G’s office….4 days later. They e-mailed us the labels (for me to drive) for the modems to give to UPS. Jan. 15, I wake up to find $184.22 STOLEN out of my account. Against my better judgement, we took it to UPS, instead of insisting on getting a receipt back from Best Buy. They’re offerring to refund me $84.22 for my trouble, & keep $100 for their modems. WHAT?!?!?!? WE SENT THOSE BACK ALREADY!

After several days of more arguing w/ their rep, they wanted to give me a fax# (who, besides a business person has a fax machine in their home?), they refused an e-mail address because they “don’t have one” (yet, they E-MAILED me the UPS labels!), and listed their address as 3525 E Post Road Suite 110…..um, where you send your PAYMENT to!!!!

This is where my baby’s child support payment goes into. I have bills to pay w/ that money, & they’re STEALING it from my 3-year-old. I want a piece of this lawsuit, & I want it in TEXAS! DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS!!!!!
John

I agree, they aren’t providing the service (speed) they advertise. I have 5 months left in my two year contract (3meg plan).

I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I receive solid 5 lights on the modem indicating excellent signal reception. The only positive I have to mention.

At an average, I get 700kb download. Sometimes as low as 30kb. Or when the tower is packed with users, my modem will not connect. Usually Saturday and Sunday nights. Maybe a lot of folks downloading movies? who knows.

What disturbs me the most is the latency times I see when doing speed tests, how’s 265ms to Greensboro, NC. 50 miles away!

It’s also obvious how choppy the downloads can be, it’s not smooth whatsoever, requiring double-clicking to reach websites or to revive the downloading of files.

I had cable internet, at one time, with Time Warner. No such issues. And I really had no complaints. What I was sold I received. With Clear, I liked the idea of packing my modem from work to home. I liked the “ease of mobility” option.

Very disappointed with my decision to switch Clear.

John

p.s. one final note, don’t call their customer service number near closing time (20 minutes). You’ll be placed on hold, then you’ll hear silence, and your phone will go dead. Not even a courtesy message. Nothing. Ask me how I know.
John

Typo:

“Very disappointed with my decision to switch to Clear.”
charlie

Has anyone confronted this problem? you try to go online and poof…a wimax ad!!!! without a no thanks"!!!
i actually have to call clear, have them reset my modem!!! My computer is DEAD until they do it…I use chrome. Each and every site is REDIRECTED to an AD campaign!!! I want in…let me know what i can do. This is entrapment.