Thinking of getting CLEAR wireless or service in Chicago?

A family friend bought Clear phone and wireless service and it was terrible in several ways.

First the cost was $55 for a joint Phone and Internet.  Which would be cheap except that it is unusable.  The phone cuts out heavily while talking, and has terrible voice quality.  The internet we benchmarked at speedtest and it is about the same speed as 4 56K modems.  The latency is 5 times the average latency I experience with AT&T DSL and we live in the same neighborhood.

Second, The customer service was useless.  I contacted them through the phone and did an online web chat and it was silly.  Whats more the installer provided handicapped equipment and told her that if she wanted wireless she would need to spend another $70-100 for a wireless router and $70 for his services.  It made AT&T DSL residential look pretty good-by comparison.

Third, it requires more electricity since there are three devices providing the same service that two devices us to serve with AT&T.  I helped her connect her Wireless Access Point so she didn’t have to buy one and pay another service fee.  I wonder what the extra charge for that will be?