Clear Launches 4G in NYC, and Five Other Markets, Phones Coming in Mid-December

While Verizon is promising to bring it’s 4G to several markets by the end of the year, Clear has many cities lit up already, recently adding the biggest US city to it’s network.

Yesterday at Bryant Park, Clear held a ceremonial cutting of a threaded ethernet cable to signal the launch of it’s New York City store and 4G coverage in the city. The coverage means that Sprint phones like the Evo 4G and the Epic 4G will now work in the city. The coverage bleeds over into New Jersey, extending as far as New Brunswick.

For those outside of New York City, Clear and Sprint have brought 4G to five other cities today. Those cities are: Hartford, CT; New Haven, CT; New Brunswick, NJ; Trenton, NJ; and Tampa, FL. It’s still a small step, but not an insignificant one. {BGR}

With the rollout comes greatly improved speeds, which Clear claims can go as high as 20 Mbps burst downloads, usually topping off at around 10 Mbps down. The speeds Clear was showing in Bryant Park were about 4.77 Mbps down, and .5 Mbps up, which is still better than you’re likely to find with a 3G connection.

Along with the news of the 4G network being lit up, a representative of Clear let slip that the company would be launching it’s own smartphones around mid-December. There’s no pricing or official announcements of the phones, but we were told to expect the Evo 4G and the Epic 4G phones. The phones already use Clear’s network for 4G on Sprint, so it will be interesting to see what a Clear-branded phone would be like.