Clearwire signal?

[classic cartoon fan]

I wish dial-up was gone for me.
Anyway there is this new company called Clearwire and they just came to the Dayton area this summer. I called them up and they said we couldn't get it bc we are out of range. The guy said the tower is around 11 miles from our address.

Is there any way that we could pick up that signal? We live in a 2 story house and the land here is really flat. Any time any of us need to be online for a long period of time we tie up the phone line, plus the internet can be really really slow.

It would be great if someone could help me out.
Travis

 

[Stargazer]

You can get wi-fi signals 20+ miles away but in most cases it needs to be line of sight (LOS). Near line of sight (NLOS) requires you to be very close to the access point (AP) or 900 mhz CPE at your end if they have a 900 mhz AP. That is more expensive. Even if you do have LOS at your place to their AP then you will need a higher gain antenna/radio on your end to pickup the signal. If you had GPS coordinates of your location and where their AP is then a plot can be done with a Radio Mobile software program to see if you are able to receive the signal or not. Some people have to put up a tower to accomplish this. Another thing about distance that many do not understand is freznel zone and allowing for the curviature of the earth. Because the earth is round it causes the CPE hardware on your end to have to be up higher just to compensate for that and the freznel zone which is the way the wavelengths travel even if there is no blockage between you and the AP. The earth itself will block it even if your on flat land. If you draw a circle and go slightly below the top of the signal and draw a straight line from one end to the other that is an example of the little bulge at the top which is earth blocking the signal. If they are high up on a tower then that may not be an issue.

 

[classic cartoon fan]

Thanks for the info.
We also have a tower that probably goes about 15 feet above the roof of the house, maybe more. Would that help out any?

 

[Jhon69]

Thanks for the info.
We also have a tower that probably goes about 15 feet above the roof of the house, maybe more. Would that help out any?

What Clearwire uses is a Modem that is inside the home.What you need to check out is do you have a local computer company that uses an outside antenna to hook up to the internet?.That would be your best bet but if your like my area it would be more expensive than Clearwire.Don't get me wrong Clearwire is expensive too.For the best speeds your best bet is cable internet but it's even more expensive.

Have you checked into AT&T High Speed Internet?.Their prices are the cheapest and if your close to the hub you can get some great speeds.But nothing beats the speeds of cable internet.I have had Clearwire almost 2 years and just recently AT&T High Speed Internet has just became available
to my area so I plan to give them a try in October.

If you live too far out in the Boonies then you might look into Satellite Internet it's expensive and the speeds are nothing to shout about compared
to the other 3 but it does beat dial up.Good Luck!


P.S. Even though cable is available in my area cable internet is not.If it was I would definately be on cable internet.For the price no for the speed yes.

 

[classic cartoon fan]

I checked into At&T sometime before and they weren't offering it in our area. So I'll check with them later and see what happens. I just haven't had any luck with anything.

 

[Jhon69]

I checked into At&T sometime before and they weren't offering it in our area. So I'll check with them later and see what happens. I just haven't had any luck with anything.

You could also check into Verizon Internet also.It very possible that Clearwire will gradually expand in your area so keep tabs on them.
I feel your pain we had to put up with dialup for years.So hang in here and
keep checking the services for expansion,hopefully it won't be too much longer for you to be able to access high speed internet.Good Luck!