Review on 📶 4G Wireless Hotspot - CLEAR Spot Voyager IFM-910CW by Troy Early

I bought this item by mistake. I've just been through annoying connection issues with Skype over Comcast Cable Internet for a week. Afternoons/evenings always seemed to be the worst, and I wondered if Comcast's network configuration (where I share bandwidth with my neighbors) might be contributing to the problem. Yes, I know the same thing happens with cell phone towers, but when I received a postcard from Clear advertising their 4G service for $34.95 (and up) on the adorable spot Voyager, I couldn't resist. I found a good price on the Voyager here at Revain and with a few clicks it was ready for me for less than $50. Cute! It arrived in record time and I quickly unpacked it and followed the quick start guide. The moment Voyager tried to "call home" to set up my account, they hung up. I've tried several times with the same result and ended up using my Comcast connection to set up an account using the browser on my laptop. I can see how this bug might put off less determined users, but it wasn't a big issue for me. I quickly realized that the $34.95 starting price was for a much lower speed, so opted for the $49.95 premium plan. I placed the Voyager on the couch by the window, plugged it into its USB power bank, and commanded my Macbook Pro to connect to the Wi-Fi signal. The signal was strong and I quickly accessed the Voyager admin menu to reconfigure the network name, security and put the Skype port first. I was impressed with the fully functional device management page and amazed that everything was available on such a tiny device. Isn't science wonderful? Very important speed tests followed. I tried Java and Flash based tests and found that both types are almost identical in their results. So I used Speedtest.net for all my tests. With a secure lock on my nearest cell tower (literally about 1/4 mile from my house) I got 6-8 Mbps and 1 Mbps consistently. The highest test I saw was 10/1.5 Mbps. I found that the "peak" of the test was always around 1Mbps. Not bad. Then I tried to test all my applications with Voyager. Firefox, Netflix, Skype, Pandora worked great. I've had some great Skype sessions with my brother in Minneapolis where the images, both coming and going, were crystal clear. My VPN on my employer's network also worked great. I took the device to work and found that I only have 2-3 4G connection points in my office building and of course slower speeds. But they still worked at 3-5 Mbps down and 0.5 Mbps down. Again not bad. The only downside to the device is that its Wi-Fi signal is weaker than the Airport Extreme, which I connected to my Comcast modem. But of course, this thing was designed to be portable and was no doubt expected to come very close to the devices that would use it. So again, that's not bad. I'll be monitoring Voyager's speed over the next 30 days to see if I'm experiencing the throttling that other users have reported. Of course if that happens it's a deal breaker for me and I will cancel my plan with Clear. However, if that doesn't happen, I'll have to consider whether Voyager could be my only internet source for my home. Stay tuned for the latest updates!