Cancelling Clearwire

Eppie

Hi all,

I am currently trying to cancel my Clearwire subscription. I signed up to Clearwire about three months ago, and during that time the service was frustratingly poor. I was getting less than 200kb download speeds when I was signed up for 2mb. However I kept the service while I waited for Smart Broadband to be installed (which is a dream compared to Clearwire), because poor as the service was, it was better than nothing. The Clearwire people are telling me that since I signed a contract I have to pay a cancellation fee of €120. However, since they didn't provide the service they advertised, I am very reluctant to do so, to say the least.

Has anyone else been in this situation, or does anyone have any advice?

sparkthatbled

I'm seeking legal advice from a friend for a similar situation. It could be that law dictates any telecoms service which is not "as described" fofeits such rights and you are entitled to a full refund and free removal... I'll post in this thread again when i find out what rights there are in this situation... I've been getting download speeds around 20kbps!

jimmycrackcorm

Eppie wrote:

Hi all,

I was getting less than 200kb download speeds when I was signed up for 2mb.

It depends on how much less as 200kbs is to be expected for2mb speed.

gordonnet

the problem outlined above would be a sure breach of contract issue. cancell any direct debits with the bank and you wont be long getting their attention.! also regards the cancelation fee they are forcing you to cancel so they are trying to pull a fast one.

lukeUCD

i cancelled clearwire b4 the contract was up, basically told them i didnt get what they advertised, i think if u argue your case they will back down

patnil

Hi Eppie,

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you are getting nearly 2mbps in speed.

Your connection speed is measured in "bits". Your download speed on your pc is measured in "bytes".

There are 8 "bits" to 1 "byte".

To calculate your download speed on your pc, you must divide your connection speed by 8.
(e.g.
"megabits to kilobits"
2mbps = 2000kbps

"kilobits to kilobytes"
2000 / 8 = 250KB
)

See this website:
http://www.xo.com/products/smallgrowing/internet/dsl/kilobits.html

You should contact Clear Wire and ask them to explain the difference between KiloBits and KiloBytes

Later

Patrick

Cabaal

I think its best this is cleared up, if your downloading a file are you getting 200k/sec? If so then this is perfectly normal and although its not the max speed for a 2MB connection (max is 240k/sec) its perfectly exceptable as all providers sell their speeds of UPTO.

Even if all you were getting was 150k/sec their still fulfilling their part of the contract for a "upto" 2MB service.

antodeco

When dealing with download speed, you have to divide by the bits to byte ratio, and also the contention ratio.
As far as I know, a ISP only has to deliver the following:

For example:

1Mbps Serive = 125Kbps (download speed) / Contention Ratio = minimum legal requirement. So if, for example, a contention ratio is 10:1, the legal download speed requirement is only 12.5Kbps. Once you are getting at least this, the ISP is fulfilling their requirement.

IBB Ripwave is 512Kbps = 64Kbps / 48:1 = 1.4Kbps. (!!)

The above is AFAIK, and I will not commit to that!!!

dub45

Cabaal wrote:

I think its best this is cleared up, if your downloading a file are you getting 200k/sec? If so then this is perfectly normal and although its not the max speed for a 2MB connection (max is 240k/sec) its perfectly exceptable as all providers sell their speeds of UPTO.

Even if all you were getting was 150k/sec their still fulfilling their part of the contract for a "upto" 2MB service.

Interestingly enough though Clearwire do not say 'up to' have a look here:

http://www.clearwire.ie/cwi/index.php?cPath=1143

Cabaal

dub45 wrote:

Interestingly enough though Clearwire do not say 'up to' have a look here:

http://www.clearwire.ie/cwi/index.php?cPath=1143

Had a quick look through T&C's and couldn't find anything, also went about ordering 2MB and same result

Only mention of upto I could find was on the 1MB order page "Get online at speeds up to 25 times faster than dialup."
hmmm

Yggr of Asgard

The Contention Ratio with Clearwire seams to be 10:1 !

Source our trustworthy goverment)

So on ClearPerformer with 2Mbps I should get at least 25KB download stream at all times and 3.2 kb upstream?

Now if that calculation is correct (still brings up the question of false advertising as nowhere the content ratio is explained on either webpage or in ads) than my recent performance is still way below for anything else than pure http traffic. And in the evening http also does not meet that.

Maybe it's time to ask ComReg for their suggestions.

I just got Eircom (until I find something else) and I have 250 KB most of the times. Last night the latest TV episode of 205 MB downloaded in 18 minutes from the US, now on ClearWire it usualy took me over 3 hours.

Cabaal

In fairness no Cable or DSL provider will say you';ll always get your max download speed for your line, also their are many factors to keep in mind such as speed of the pipe from the server your downloading or the amount of peers connecting to a lesser amoount of seeds if your using bit torrent.

If a customer of any provider is paying for 2MB (max of 240k/sec) and all their getting is 200k/sec as a max download speed, the provider is doing nothing wrong and users need to understand this! The provider is not breaking the contract with the end user and they would be well within their rights to charge a cancelation fee, if the users is on ADSL it is very likely that changing providers will not improve this situation as your still going over the same bit of copper from the exchange.

As a general rule of thumb if your paying for 2MB but the max speed your getting is under 120k/sec then their is a issue...so your affectively talking half the speed before it actually becomes a issue.*

* Comparing this to BT's setup in the UK

Also imho the comments in relation to contention ratio and speeds is aload of crap and should be ignored, the less users on a connection eg 40:1 is better...compared to 50:1 (more users) and if anything means your connection will be less affected by other users overusing the connection. Generally speaking you'll notice that Business customer generlly have a better contention ratio then residential users for this reason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contention_ratio
* Competition by users of a system for use of the same facility at the same time. The term contention ratio applies specifically to the number of people connected to an ISP who share a set amount of bandwidth.

A contention Ratio, is the term used in broadband communication, to allocate bandwidth where there is more than one user. This is typically 50:1, for home user (that is to say that 50 people or lines will vie for the same bandwidth) and 20:1 for business users.

Basically its best to be sure what your argument is and how solid your argument is before you go wasting your ISP's or Comreg's tme on such a matter.

The_Goose

I barely get 70kb on a good night with my 2mb package, I m ringing tomorrow to cancel,
Reasons i m giving
1. Speeds are crap for the money i m paying
2. There was no mention of blocking P2P
3. Extremely poor customer service
4. They smell!!

eth0_

If clearwire start getting snotty and mentioning cancellation fees, just remind them that they're advertising a 'broadband' service, but what they're actually providing is merely an always-on, portable web browsing device, because there's not much else you can do seeing as they've blocked or crippled anything remotely useful.

Ludo

I cancelled my Clearwire sub last week after having them for 7 months, posted back the modem with a covering letter outlining my issues with the service. I cited the unadvertised blocking of certain traffic types which I was not informed of when signing up amongst other issues I had with them.

Rang them this morning to confirm that they have received the modem and that my account is now closed with no cancellation fees applied. On being told that my account had been closed with no outstanding amounts due, I immediately cancelled the direct debit just in case they try anything later.

Twas all very easy really with no hassle from them about a cancellation fee.