Clear brings mobile 4G to Austin: the game is about to change
A few weeks ago, myself and 225 other folks got to experience mobile 4G under rather trying conditions. The event was DrupalCamp Austin and the venue was the Norris Center. While Norris is a great place to host events, 200 people on laptops was going to overload their pipe.
Even though it was a few weeks prior to launch, Tara and Doug from the local Clear office set us up with 4 Clear 4G modems. Except for the few moments where all the folks were trying to connect through the same modem (due to our misconfiguration), the service was exceptional. At times, the connection was 13Mb/s.
All we had to do was plug the modems into the wall outlet and attach routers
This is a game changer for me. How so?
1) There are a lot of downtown venues in Austin at which I'd like to host tech events, but can't because they simply don't have a sufficient internet connection. Now all I have to do is show up an extra 5 mins early and plug in the modem. If it's a big event, I'll just bring additional modems. For all the tech groups in town seeking space for events, and for all the venues who could use some additional business during the week, this is a big deal.
2) When the wifi-box at Caffe Medici slows to a crawl because someone is pulling torrents, rather than going home, I can simply connect through a 4G USB stick. This is also good if I don't want to be on the same network as all the hackers at Epoch.
3) If I go to an event at UT, I no longer have to worry about getting access to their network.
The key benefit is simple. You can now decouple your internet connectivity from the physical surroundings. Suppose you want to move to the bigger aparment down the hall. Forget waiting for the TimeWarner/ATT install person. Forget the set up fee. Just plug the modem into the AC outllet. I wish I had that when I was in college. (Heck, I wish I had known about the internet when I was in college).
If you want to learn more about Clear, they'll be holding a launch party tomorrow, December 9th, 4PM-9PM at The Arboretum Courtyard. The band Nelo will be playing. More details are at: do512. If you can't make it to the event, you can check out Clear in person at one of their retail locations or local resellers.
As I have more opportunities to test Clear in and about downtown, I'll let you know how it goes. It looking pretty attractive so far.
-Lynn
Comments
This service, or others like
This service, or others like it, will become a game changer for me when I can buy them prepaid. For instance, I want to be able to load up an account with 50GB of data usage and then be able to use it until that data is exhausted. I don't want another monthly fee for a service that I may or may not benefit from during any given month.
It's a nascent service offering for broadband, so I do expect prepaid services in the future. They just can't come soon enough.
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