Clearwire to launch pay-as-you-go service?

By on Aug 27, 2010 at 9:31 PM
General August 27, 2010

A recent SEC filing seems to indicate that WiMax provider Clearwire is planning a new, pay-as-you-go cellular data service. The filing reads, Clearwire “plans to serve a new pay-as-you-go customer segment.” It’s unclear exactly what Clearwire has planned — if anything — but analysts speculate the move was prompted by MetroPCS’ impending entry into the pre-paid 4G market place. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has said that his company has considered offering pre-paid 4G data services, but has yet to make a move; Sprint is the majority owner of Clearwire. Clearwire’s network is resold by Best Buy, Comcast, Sprint, and Time Warner; it is unclear how this move will affect the services offered by those companies.

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19 Comments

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  • Mohammad

    ok. too many pay as you go.

  • fp hc hi

    Sucky 5 dolla

  • JM

    I am happy to see options that don’t require contractual obligations. I may only need their services for a month over the summer or while on vacation somewhere they cover.

  • pfoneguy

    Ummm… how about the upcoming WiMax embedded camera, video camera, laptop, netbook, etc… you would want a pay as you use option… wouldn’t you? Remeber WiMax chipsets are cheap to embed… no royalties to Qualcomm (LTE)…

    • gee

      qualcom has nothing to do with the invention lte.

  • Good Time Charlie

    Makes sense that Sprint being the majority owner would want to get into the pre-paid game here. They can play both ends of the game. Pre-Paide is a bigger market than alot of people might think and with this economy seeming to continually sink more and more people into the tank it’s a market thats only going to get bigger as folks try to shed financial commitments and try to cut back where ever they can.

    More choices and more competition means better deals for all. So I hope they are wildly successful!

  • valerie

    sprint has already been in the prepaid stream with Virgin wireless. If virgin had been more competitive on the rates the service would have been much more popular.

    • Mark

      Thats true.

      Plus what I saw as an observer from a couple of friends who used Virgin Mobile, their business practices were a little hazy. Double charging for some things and not adding things that were ordered.

    • MRCUR

      $40/month for UNLIMITED data isn’t competitive? Come on now.

  • Norm

    What does this have to do with Verizon and why is it a story?

    • JD

      I don’t believe it has anything to do with Verizon.

      If it did, you’d be charged an extra buck or two to see it.

  • http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com PrepaidWirelessGuy

    Something to keep in mind is that Clear already as a no contract, month-to-month offering. While these types of offers don’t work the same as classic prepaid, it’s really not that far off.

    I have to say that their website is awfully confusing. I spent a lot of time going through the plans to update the 4G offers on my site. While it’s all there, in my opinion the presentation og thr offers & bundles could be much improved.

    Offering classic prepaid plans will be wise. I’d gladly pay more for my hardware and avoid a contract. Particularly when people are hesitant to make the leap to a full on mobile broadband produce, not to mention that they don’t have a nationwide 4G network.

  • http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com PrepaidWirelessGuy

    Yikes…sorry for all of the typos! I hate that. I usually re-read, particularly when using my smartphone…sorry!

  • Joseph Singer

    Clear or Clearwire is a crÃ¥ppy service that is unreliable, has crÃ¥ppy customer service. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

    • OG Boy Genius

      You got that right!

      Clear is a perpetually money-losing business with all the problems that go with it and they’re majority owned by Sprint which now owns Virgin Mobile. Clear already redirects you to a “pay us” page when your bill is a few minutes past due ..and even on the month-to-month plan, if you then throwaway the USB dongle that you bought (not leased), they will keep billing you, claiming, even though they shut you off, you did not notify them you were canceling…going so far as to eventually charge a “suspend fee” and continuing to bill your card for additional months after that, indefinitely. That’s why their own sales people often advise using a prepaid VISA when signing up.

      The EVO and EPIC fans (all 300,000 of them) are going to be sorry as HSPA+ on AT&T/T-Mobile and LTE from Verizon become real.

  • Jim

    Would be nice to see a comparison for these services. Who has the best quality, price, coverage, etc.?

    • OG Boy Genius

      AT&T wins because they’re using all of that iPhone-money (love or hate it) to buy things like 7.2Mbps today and 21Mbps just by changing software in their towers tomorrow ( once their backhaul is ready ).

      vZ is slower today (just promises about when/where/how they’ll fix it while they layoff thousands).

      Sprint/Virgin is like Vz but Sprint also sells Clear rebranded as Sprint 4g. Clear also sells itself as a poor man’s home Internet service so the actual speed sucks and gets worse and worse as more sign up everyday. Sprint has bad service, Clear is even worse.

      T-Mobile is actually faster than AT&T even without HSDPA or HSPA+ because it has no iPhones, but their coverage is spotty because the US division of DT (which owns T-Mobile) is small.

      • OG Boy Genius

        Just my opinions..also, I should have said this is for USA only and iPhones on T-Mobile are frequency incompatible with it’s 3G service sob they don’t impact others. Bottom line..if you want high speed everywhere, your best bet is AT&T and wait a few years for LTE to go nationwide or carry Virgin as a backup and go with T-Mobile.

  • Ron P

    CLEAR does have room to develop this PrePaod offering. As someone stated, CLEAR is already a Non contractual Month to Month agreement, but I still would not want to call it Prepaid. When you look at how it actually works as it is, you will see a true Prepaid has room. As it sits, Clear debits your payment on a monthly basis from a Credit or Debit Card. It is automatic. If you wish to cancel or suspend, it requires 30 days notice. Also, if you want to suspend, you are also limited to a maximum of 60 days.

    So, the ability to just buy a 30 day allotment of 4G access is certainly appealing to many. In fact (HEY CLEAR!!) I would really like to see the ability to buy an amount of data, let us say 2.5 GB or 5GB and let it have an expiration a bit longer then 30 days, ssay 45 -60 m,aybe even 90. Not as profitable for them but will definitely be attractive to the masses. DATA is such a unique offering that it can have different uses / needs depending on the client. That would be great for many. 30 Days is just such a short period.

    Anyway, thats my thoughts on the matter!

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