Clear 4G Home, Office, and On-the-Go Internet

When I bought my ZyWall USG router, I bought it specifically because it had load balancing and fail-over options for my internet connections. If my primary internet connection goes down, it’s no big deal because I have my secondary internet connection, which are both paid for in full each month. You may think I am crazy, but I cannot tell you the number of times that I have had outages that have cost me $1000+ in a single day. I’ve had many that have been worse.

For the cost of $25 a month, you can hook up a DSL line as a secondary connection to save your butt when you need it. Total cost for a year, $300. If it saves you one day, you’ve made your money back. If you had a worse catastrophe, it’s very easy to see where this backup internet solution provides a lot of benefits. This basically solved when the individual ISP’s are having issues or outages.

When the power goes out black, I can hook either my Cable and DSL modems up to a generator and in many cases, can still establish a connection. But if the grid is out on a much more global level, the internet could simply be wiped out.

The ZyWall USG router that I am using, you can also have a 3rd option, which is a 3G or USB connection to the internet. And this is where my backup internet connection is about to evolve to a completely new level. I’ve decided to go with a 4G Unlimited, with no cap, 4G WiMax internet connection through http://www.clear.com at $50 / month. As for the no cap, I’ll believe it when I see it. On my primary internet line, I noticed instances of bandwidth up to 150GB per month (home network), so we will see.

As for the 4G connections, in 2011 Washington DC got hooked up with 4G and when I gave it test drives, I was downloading faster than work and home networks, getting up to 54 Mbps. With my tethered phone, I can achieve similar speeds. So, what I am hoping is that my 4G connection through Clear, at $50 / month can provide even faster speeds than my primary. Faster latency, we will see about that. Remember, this is still a try-and-see ordeal.

It’s no contract, the device cost me $40, my phone is obviously getting it in the spots that I want. They are guaranteeing 6 – 8 Mbps in the areas I gave them, so I am really looking forward to the test. I have a feeling I’ll be getting closer to 35 – 50 Mbps over the WiMax 4G. And plus, you can take it with you! There is no real limit on where you can use it, just as long as there is a tower in sight.

Now I just have to see if my router can hook up to it. I am thinking it will not be able too, but we will see. There is almost no documentation on this today.