Clear is here (in Portland, anyway), but with its arrival comes a lot of questions about the brand it's replacing: remember XOHM?
Part of the deal that created the new Clearwire company called for XOHM to be phased out and replaced by the Clear brand, but as we know, big mergers can take time (remember how long it took for Sprint to incorporate Nextel's billing system into theirs?) and for now, XOHM continues to exist in Baltimore. Customers can still sign up for XOHM service on their website and if you do so, you will receive a XOHM-branded modem.
Obviously, the XOHM service is not going to expand to any future cities - any expansions will be under the Clear brand - and eventually XOHM customers in Baltimore will be shifted to Clearwire and XOHM.com will fall to the wayside. But what about all the customers that already have XOHM? Are they going to have trouble when Clear takes over? Will their modems still work? If a XOHM user took his or her modem to Portland, would it work on the Clear network - and vice versa?
XOHM.com has a section of frequently asked questions pertaining to the Clearwire merger, but actual answers are hard to come by - XOHM's answers are understandably aimed to make customers (existing and potential) comfortable with the merger. We went on a quest to find out how existing XOHM users will REALLY fare when Clear takes over and after a bit of digging with both XOHM and Clear, we came up with the following information:
- Right now, XOHM modems will NOT work on the Clear network, and vice versa. If you take your ZTE tu25 USB Modem to Portland, you will NOT be able to get Clear.
- When Clear takes over in Baltimore, XOHM modems will NOT automatically work! According to a Clear rep, they are hoping to provide firmware updates for the available XOHM modems at that time - you would have to install a new firmware version before being able to access Clear.
- If they are UNABLE to create new firmware that would allow XOHM users to use their existing modems when Clear takes over, they will provide an upgrade to a Clear modem free of charge.
- XOHM users who have signed up for the "$50/month for Life" plan will be allowed to keep that plan when Clear takes over, even though Clear does not offer that same plan.
- NO ONE seems to know just when this takeover will occur. One estimate placed it at about four months, there is NO indication that that is an accurate guess.
By all accounts, Clearwire is doing their best to keep things simple for XOHM users and the CEO has repeatedly stated that in the future XOHM and Clear users will be able to roam on each other's networks without a problem. However, it doesn't sound like this can be accomplished without - at the minimum - a firmware upgrade.
Discuss the future of XOHM - and its relationship with Clear! - on the 4G Forums
