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The new iPad has many people breaking open their wallets to get one. While LTE is a new feature, the majority of traffic from the new iPad is coming from WiFi vs. LTE. Not really a big deal or a surprise, but what about those poor people that are using LTE, what is happening to them with that ‘blazingly fast’ wireless connection. Many of those users are starting to get their bills from the carriers for the LTE service, and many of them do not have unlimited data service. What does this mean? It means that once they hit that 3 or 5 GB limit for the month, they will be paying somewhere around $10 per GB. Still not a big deal right? Well think about this; one of the other new features of the new iPad is that really ‘beautiful’ display and with that new display comes larger program sizes. How much larger? About 3 times larger on average, some of the applications are over 1.5 GB in size. Now imagine that you just downloaded that app across the fast LTE connection, and a few other apps too, then watch a movie on that really nice screen with a fast connection. Now that you are past the 3 or 5 GB that you had for the month, what do you do? Quit checking your email, posting to Google + or Facebook (really you are still on Facebook?), or surfing the web in general, until the next month or face the higher bill.

Not many people asked about this or even thought about it when they signed up. Now they can stop using LTE since they are not under contract, but they just payed extra for LTE that they would not be able to use. Talk about a catch 22…

I think I will stick with my current tablet thank you very much.

Verizon announced that they are having an issue with their ’4G’ LTE and 3G handoff. What is the issue? When you roam from the LTE service to the 3G service you will loose your connection for up to 2 minutes. While they say that they are working on a fix, why didn’t they test for this before they launched? It is not really a show stopper, but gives me pause that someone missed this during testing and begs the question; what else did they miss?

2 minutes is a long time to loose your connection. Say goodbye to your streaming video, surfing, video conference, streaming audio, etc. Not such a big deal when you are walking, but we have enough issues with people using their phones while driving to add trying to restart your connection is a problem.

True, they don’t have phones yet. All you can use with the LTE service is a USB dongle, so only the laptop users are having issues. I am sure that they will find a solution before the phones hit the market, but still what a let down.

Have you seen the Clear ads? Well, you might not have if they haven’t launched in you area. Some of the ads are good, others not so much but they all have a common theme; 4G mobile internet is really here.

I have the service and can honestly say that I am rather happy with what has been built. I have used the service in multiple markets and while it is not perfect (like any wireless service) it does what is says (for the most part). Yes, you can stream video. Yes, you can check email. Yes, you can share it with your friends (with a WiFi adapter). No it’s not perfect. There are only so many sites available in any particular market, and while Clearwire has an aggressive build out plan, for some that is not enough.  You will loose connectivity at some point in time, and for that people will try to complain.

Look at it from this point of view though; this is the first nation-wide WiMAX market build in the US. Will it have problems, of course. Look at the cell networks of not so long ago that dropped your call every few seconds, they were horrible but we wanted them anyway (and paid premium prices for it). So now this new system has hit the streets, and it’s time for the critics to come out to play.

The service is a good alternative for those whom have nothing else or need mobility. How I would love to take my cable connection with me everywhere I go, but that is not feasible. The alternative is Clear (pardon the pun). I have streamed movies from Netflix, worked remotely, and even checked my email. So I am happy with the service.

As a final note; The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author alone, and do not convey the views and/or opinions of the Clearwire Corporation, Clear, or any of it partners.