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03-03-09, 09:13 PM
Hey All,
My first post in Foo after nearly 4 years on BikeForums. Just letting off a little steam. As a software engineer I take a keen interest in my internet connection and actively monitor and record my bandwidth at 1 minute intervals (automatically). After nearly a year with Cricket, I decided to start using Clear.com (http://www.clear.com/) - the difference is remarkable, enough to warrant posting here and sharing with others that might be thinking about getting wireless internet. Cricket cannot be trusted.
The bandwidth with Cricket varies mostly depending upon the time of day - after midnight things improve dramatically. The obvious tempting conclusion is that a lot of Users are loading the system during the day. But it seems that Cricket is using software to dynamically change the bandwidth.
Clear.com (http://www.clear.com/) is [so far] much better, both bandwidth and customer service.
For those interested in the numbers: Cricket bandwidth would often drop below dial-up speeds 50 k bits per second. On a really good day, bandwidth might spike for a few seconds to 1 M bits per second and sustain 500 k bits per second. That is just about enough to watch a YouTube video without pause. Clear on the other hand is typically 4 times faster for half the price. Enough said.
My first post in Foo after nearly 4 years on BikeForums. Just letting off a little steam. As a software engineer I take a keen interest in my internet connection and actively monitor and record my bandwidth at 1 minute intervals (automatically). After nearly a year with Cricket, I decided to start using Clear.com (http://www.clear.com/) - the difference is remarkable, enough to warrant posting here and sharing with others that might be thinking about getting wireless internet. Cricket cannot be trusted.
The bandwidth with Cricket varies mostly depending upon the time of day - after midnight things improve dramatically. The obvious tempting conclusion is that a lot of Users are loading the system during the day. But it seems that Cricket is using software to dynamically change the bandwidth.
Clear.com (http://www.clear.com/) is [so far] much better, both bandwidth and customer service.
For those interested in the numbers: Cricket bandwidth would often drop below dial-up speeds 50 k bits per second. On a really good day, bandwidth might spike for a few seconds to 1 M bits per second and sustain 500 k bits per second. That is just about enough to watch a YouTube video without pause. Clear on the other hand is typically 4 times faster for half the price. Enough said.