"Clear", super fast mobile Internet? - part 5

While we wait for the results here's a nice little picture of how 4G is supposed to work...



The results are in!

The iSpot is not the MUST HAVE iDevice accessory that Clear wants you to believe it is...

But...

Under certain circumstances It can be a extremely useful (and cost efficient) device.

First off let's cover the worst use of of an iSpot. If your only iDevice is a iPhone this is a terrible investment. Keep in mind that you STILL have to pay for a data plan just to have a iPhone with AT&T. Now I seriously doubt facetime and high quality YouTube videos is worth a additional 25 dollars a month. Clear should consider removing the iPhone in their advertisements, but then again there's one born every day, or minute, hour, ok I can't remember how often a sucker is born.

Next up, do not buy the ispot if your considering using it when you go out of town. This is a 4G only device and coverage is not everywhere. Check for coverage in the area where you live and work and plan your investment around that.

Ok the third one depends on your current cellphone. If you have a Palm Pre Plus, a Droid X, a Sprint Evo, or any other new phone that allows wifi tethering then the $99 dollar price tag for a ispot is pointless. Sure the ispot offers unlimited internet, but will you really be doing more than 2gb of downloading on a iPad or iPod touch? Consider this example:

Pandora Radio is one of the more popular iPhone apps that uses a ton of bandwidth. 60 minutes of nonstop music is approximately 38.9mb of bandwidth. That would give you a little over 2 full days of nonstop streaming music. Breaking that down, you could use Pandora a hour every day in addition to checking email and surfing the web with little to no fear of going over your monthly allowance. That's not bad...

Now granted, Netflix could probably be worse and downloading movies from iTunes would be completely out of the question, but how often will you be doing that? That's what I thought...

While in the subject of cellphones, wifi tethering on the Sprint Evo would surpass the iSpot by leaps and bounds. Both use the same 4G network but the Evo will switch to 3G when 4G is not available. Other 3G only phones still have a upper hand on the ispot simply because of greater 3G coverage. If you can make a phone call you'll probably be able to surf the web.

One last cellphone suggestion. If your ready to upgrade and purchase a new phone, the the 99 dollars you could spend on a iSpot could be easily used toward a phone that allows wifi tethering. That's one less device to keep track of.

Sooooo...

- If you are not in the market for a new phone (like me)
- Using a iPad or a iPod touch throughout the day while away from home in a area with Clear coverage (like me)
- you have more than one device that could benefit from the iSpot's unlimited Internet plan (*cough* MAC spoofing *cough*) (like me)
- and if you use more than 2gb surfing the net, streaming music, streaming netflix, of even using a remote desktop client, (like me)

then the iSpot could be for you...