Clearwire has introduced a pc card for it’s expedience network! The card itself is nothing new or fancy, but the speeds in which you connect are just tremendous. I got one the other day and it took less than five minutes to install the software, add the hardware, and get going on the Internet.
There are several websites where you can test the speed of your connection but I tend to use www.speedtest.net because I like their user interface. Simple, easy, and nice to look at. Any ways, I decided to test the speed of the pc card and it clocked in at 1.7 mbps! Of course I was pretty close to a Clearwire tower, but still……it’s pretty fast!
One way I like to test the network is to check out espn.com…the site is just loaded with streaming videos, pod-casts, and huge graphics. For those of you who don’t know what latency means in terms of Internet connections, it’s basically the amount of time it takes a packet to travel from source to destination. Together, latency and bandwidth define the speed and capacity of a network.
Clearwire provides Internet service in many markets in the United States and just partnered up with Sprint to expand their Wi-Max technology. Sprint is calling their Wi-Max service Zohm (zoam) and is starting to ramp up with their service on the east coast. Clearwire can be found in smaller markets such as my home town Boise, Idaho! Shout out, yay.
Go test drive this thing! Currently, the pc cards are only available in certain markets such as Maui and Boise. The pricing of the pc card started at $125 after instant and mail in rebates, but looks like they are going to move to a lease option similar to their home modem lease option. It will be $6.99 a month to lease the modem and cost $59.99 a month for the service! This is in line with the other options out there from the wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint, but without voice hogging up bandwidth.
One thing that I don’t like about the pc card is that it only comes in the pcmcia format which is heading out the door making newer laptops not compatible with the card. Most laptops now ship with Express II slots which allows faster data transfers and comes in a smaller package. I assume Clearwire will come out with the newer cards sooner or later though.
[...] launches PC Cards Nationally. 17 10 2007 I know I have written about the Clearwire PC cards before, but it was when they were only available in certain markets. I was fortunate enough to be able [...]