Clearwire ISP - rats!

[Pilgrim]

My two reasonable options for internet service in my neighborhood are Clearwire and Comcast. No DSL available; service stops about 500 yards from my house.

 

I used to use Comcast, but on two occasions my wife had to stop me from firebombing the place over billing issues (are you listening, NSA?) so I switched to Clearwire about two years ago and a bit.

 

Their service has been excellent. I am paying for 1.5mb service and that is what I have gotten, reliably.

 

Until last February, that is. Then, the connection became erratic, never out of service for long, but often enough to be annoying. And the speed dropped to about 2/3rds of what I am paying for.

 

I spoke with them. They sent a tech to look it over. He notes that the install is as good as it can be, and that despite that, yes, service has degraded. I am on a fringe area (a slight hill reduces the direct line of sight from their tower to me to near-direct line of sight, but signal had always been good anyway.)

 

Now here's what I don't get. The tech said (and on-line tech support confirmed later) that in preparation for Clear (as they have renamed themselves) transitioning to 4G service, they have cut down on the power of their transmitter. Now, that near-direct line of sight is not direct enough to sustain a good connection. In fact, I just came back up after 24 hours of no service, and the connection has dropped a couple times as I logged in here.

 

They are noncommittal about whether or not my previous level of service will ever come back.

 

A few questions for the cognoscenti:

* Does anyone else use Clearwire, and if so, have you run into this?

* From a technical standpoint, does their explanation of cutting back power make sense?

* Does anyone here have any experience with the Verizon wirless Mi-Fi mini-modem/router? Comments? Particularly any dealing with traffic volume charges and real-world connection speed.

 

Pilgrim

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

From a technical standpoint, does their explanation of cutting back power make sense?

 

Not to me. See "digital cliff." Imagine having a conversation wiht someone in a wind tunnel, as the operater slowly cranks up the windspeed. You don't lose ten words in a row and then the next 200 words come through completely fine: instead, as the signal-to-noise ratio drops, you come to a transition point where most of the bits suddenly become unintelligible.

 

I think sumthin' else is going on...

[Pilgrim]

From a technical standpoint, does their explanation of cutting back power make sense?

 

Not to me. See "digital cliff." Imagine having a conversation wiht someone in a wind tunnel, as the operater slowly cranks up the windspeed. You don't lose ten words in a row and then the next 200 words come through completely fine: instead, as the signal-to-noise ratio drops, you come to a transition point where most of the bits suddenly become unintelligible.

 

I think sumthin' else is going on...

 

When I first saw "digital cliff" I envisioned an article about a guy named Clifford with 11 or 12 fingers. Then, realizing that was not on-point to the issue I raised, I figure he was some sort of numbers nerd.

 

Once more, though, I have received an education from the multi-named moderator. Who knew you could fall off a graph? Makes sense, though.

 

Thanks, General.

 

Pilgrim

[FlyingFinn]

General, radio wave propagation is more complex than that.

What causes this sort of "signal is sometimes pretty good but then drops off" situations is multipath propagation.

 

The signal hitting the receiver is not one, line of sight, signal that's only degraded by the loss of SNR due to propagation loss. The signal at the receiver is a composite of multiple "copies" of the originally transmitted signal that are reflected and refracted off all kinds of objects in the general area of transmitter and receiver.

Even with stationary transmitter and receiver, like in this case, the environment does change. Cars move around, people walk about, trees sway in the wind... And that causes the slowly fading signal that annoys Pilgrim.

 

But I don't get the first part of their answer, that they lowered the TX power of the current system in preparation of rolling out a new one.

Well, actually I can think of few hypothetical reasons but the are kind of weak. Existing customers should not be made suffer from roll-out of a "new improved" service.

 

--

Mikko

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

One about-face thought: it's possible the reduced signal strength is taking you closer to the "cliff," but not quite over it. Then, some other intermittent thing in your area gets turned on for an hour (or a day), jacking up the EM noise level and positively pushing you over that cliff until it gets turned off.

 

Your neighbor look like this?

 

 

Thanks, General.

 

Please, call me Chicken.

[FlyingFinn]

...some other intermittent thing in your area gets turned on for an hour (or a day), jacking up the EM noise level and positively pushing you over that cliff until it gets turned off.

 

Your neighbor look like this?

 

 

Or almost equally bad scenario, something like this?

 

 

 

 

--

Mikko

[yabadabapal]

Comcast billing is terrible, I agree. But since you have such limited choices, think outside the box. Why not get a monthly quote that is acceptable to you, and then inform them that you would like to pay for 6 months at a time so that they will bill you only 2 times a year. That way, at least for the first 6 month trial, they cant fudge your bill. Another really cool idea that Id like to see you try, is get a large coffee can. Get some wiring, connect it to the can. Now, open up your wireless adapter, and connect the other end of the wires to the adapter. Then create the needed distance and direction of your coffee can, which should now serve as an antenna that should search and attract the wireless signal. Im really curious if this will work. It might be a good idea to cross reference this coffee can idea with some other members here, before proceeding. Good Luck.

[EffBee]

Please, call me Chicken.

 

Ah, Tso.