If you use Google and lookup Clearwire you will distressingly find many accounts of how if you get your account right away after they open a market: all is roses with 5 LEDs. Then after they sell a few more accounts you have 4 LEDs. Then they sell a bunch of accounts, you have 2-3 LEDs, speed goes up and down. They sell a few more and you’re down to 1-2 LEDs and start getting brief drop outs. Then they sell those last few accounts you’ve got 1 LED and every so often it loses the network and you get the running LED pattern. Then you start getting dropped for up to an hour at a time.

For example, right now I’m on the HSDPA because the Clearwire is down.

I’m slowly bumping up my monthly Cingular usage to see if the reports of them not caring are true. The fact they told my Mom to drop her Comcast and get a $60 account gave me heart. But then he’s a sales weenie.

I’m thinking to get the Clearwire service as soon as it becomes available in South Florida. It’s clear to me that WiMax is the way to go! Scotty, do you think that I should cancel my DSL once I get Clearwire WiMax? you scared me with those drops out that you are talking about.

I’m surprised too given that with a simple adaptor an ExpressCard plugs into a PCMCIA slot.

I’ve been using Clearwire since last November and find it to be slightly faster than Cingular’s HSDPA but has occasional periods where it drops out completely (even though its sitting right there on your desk and not moving around.) Recently I’ve been using my XU870 to compensate during these outages.

At $37 for all you can eat 1.5Mbps it is certainly less expensive than Cingular’s HSDPA. But when I head to SFO next month for WWDC there will be no Clearwire coverage there.