The FCC repealed these required disclosures December 14, 2017. We offer them voluntarily.
open internet principles
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) issued rules to preserve the internet as an open platform. These rules went into effect on November 20, 2011 and can be found HERE. All ISPs (internet service providers) are required to post information regarding various issues so that consumers, both residential and business, can make informed choices about choosing an Internet service provider. Here is information regarding our services in compliance with the FCC’s rules. These policies serve as a supplement to the existing terms of service.
The FCC’s rules focus on these primary issues:
• Transparency: Fixed and mobile broadband providers must disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and terms and conditions of their broadband services;
• No blocking: Fixed broadband providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; mobile broadband providers may not block lawful websites, or block applications that compete with their voice or video telephony services; and
• No unreasonable discrimination: Fixed broadband providers may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic.
• Reasonable network management: ISPs may engage in reasonable network management to maintain a high quality-of-service level for broadband internet access.
Network Practices
ISPs must disclose their network practices, specifically in the four general areas listed below. ISPs may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management. An ISP may not block consumers from accessing lawful websites, subject to reasonable network management; nor shall the ISP block applications that compete with the provider’s voice or video telephony services, subject to reasonable network management. ISPs may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic over a consumer’s broadband Internet access service, although, reasonable network management shall not constitute unreasonable discrimination.
The FCC’s rules state that a network management practice is reasonable, if it is appropriate and tailored to achieving a legitimate network management purpose, taking into account the particular network architecture and technology of the broadband internet access service.
Congestion Management: All broadband systems are necessarily shared ones. Typical constraints come primarily from capacity limitations of the central optical terminals. To a lesser extent, there are also capacity limitations of customer premise equipment and the overall capacity of local splitting stations. In order to ensure all our subscribers maximally share the bandwidth available to the system, we employ several techniques. These include limiting the number of subscribers assigned to any local splitting station, setting central optical terminal parameters to equitably share bandwidth when approaching saturation, and balancing the amount of bandwidth that is distributed to each local splitting station to be used by each component in the system.
There are a number of other congestion management techniques available to employ, such as limiting the total number of internet connections per user, limiting the total traffic transfer per user, barring certain types of traffic, and others. We do not employ any of those techniques, at this time.
As described in the next section, all types of lawful traffic are permitted on our system. We set central optical terminals so that, during times of especially high traffic, all subscribers’ throughput limits may be automatically adjusted (proportionally to their service plan speeds) to prevent any individual subscribers from dominating the usage. As soon as this automatic adjustment restores the capacity, the limiting is removed. This process can occur on a second-by-second basis. It can be imperceptible to the typical subscriber, unless the congestion is sustained. This sort of limiting occurs more frequently during the evening hours, when usage is typically at its highest.
We apply a similar system of automatic adjustment at the central station level, when total network usage exceeds the available bandwidth. This also is a largely imperceptible second-by-second process. We make every effort to purchase sufficient bandwidth to make this adjustment a rare occurrence.
We do not currently apply usage limits upon our subscribers. Occasionally, we discover a subscriber’s connection in continual, full use. We may contact such subscribers to determine if viruses or other malware are afflicting their systems. We sometimes counsel and assist individual subscribers in monitoring their family’s or organization’s excessive use of peer-to-peer applications or continual long-form video streaming. Continual use of our network is not considered reasonable use and is not permitted.
Application-Specific Behavior: We block no applications from our network. Some classes of application are favored over others. For example, time-sensitive, VoIP (voice over Internet protocol telephony) data is prioritized over video, web, and mail traffic. Though we permit peer-to-peer traffic, we give it a lower priority than video, web, and mail. Our own VoIP product is optimized by routes and quality, but we do not prioritize our own product over third-party VoIP products. We have no control over how well third parties choose their routes, etc. We do not block any ports, at this time.
Device Attachment Rules: Our optical network requires proprietary devices, ONUs (optical network units) which match those at the central optical terminals. Only these proprietary devices, which have met our technical standards and are provided by us, may be attached to the network. Our ONUs will not authenticate to our system without paid subscriptions. We offer wireless routers, analog telephone adapters, and other "downstream" devices. You may use devices of your own choosing to attach to our ONUs.
Any devices with ethernet connectivity may be attached to our network at the demarcation point of our customer premise equipment. This would include personal computers and routers.
Security: Utilizing the most advanced techniques, we encrypt all traffic at our central optical terminals and additionally in the core router at our network operations center.
Performance Characteristics
ISPs must disclose the following network performance characteristics:
Service Description: All of our current service is delivered via optical fiber technology utilizing the EPON (ethernet passive optical network) protocol.
All speeds listed on our subscription-plan pricing pages are maximums. Though subscribers can generally expect to experience these maximums, average speeds will generally be approximately 90% of these. Latency for all traffic is maintened below 60 ms for data and voice.
Our service is suitable for basic VoIP, virtual private networks, gaming, long-form audio streaming, long and short-form video streaming, and other real-time applications.
Impact of Specialized Services: We currently offer VoIP (voice over internet protocol) service to subscribers. Our high-quality VoIP service causes no negative impact on the rest of the system. Since our network is a shared one with finite capacity, long-form continuous streaming, particularly that of high bit-rate (HD, etc.) video, can bring it to saturation. Our optical system effectively supports video streaming in all forms.
Commercial Terms
ISPs must disclose the commercial terms of their broadband internet access services including the three categories listed below.
Pricing:
Our subscription plans, installation fees, equipment fees, seasonal plan, and payment terms are described on the following web pages:
HOME BROADBAND
Privacy Policies: On a continual basis, our core routers inspect the network traffic in order to prioritize traffic classes such as VoIP, as described above. This is an automatic process, which does not involve human monitoring. No browsing information is stored or shared unless we are ordered to do so with legitimate warrants from bona fide, law-enforcement agencies. No other third parties have access to our network traffic, and this traffic is not subject to any other management inspection.
Redress Options: We respond to all complaints and questions in a timely manner. A live, 24-hour, telephone-support system is in place, toll-free at 888-K-FIBER-7 (888-534-2377. Any issues not easily resolvable on the phone are promptly assigned to local personnel.
FCC Notice
If a customer believes that these open internet rules are not being met, the customer may file an informal complaint at the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC urges customers to submit any complaints via its website HERE. Customers may also file a formal complaint at the FCC using Part 76 of the Commission’s rules.