Benton County Cable (“BCC” or “Company”) provides this Network Transparency Statement in accordance with the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Rules to ensure that you have sufficient information to make informed choices about the purchase of broadband services. Information about BCC’s other policies and practices concerning broadband are available at www.BentonCable.com (“Benton County Cable Website”).
BCC engages in network management practices that are tailored and appropriate for achieving optimization on the network considering the particular network architecture and technology of its broadband Internet access service. BCC’s goal is to ensure that all of its customers experience a safe and secure broadband Internet environment that is fast, reliable and affordable. BCC wants its customers to indulge in all that the Internet has to offer, whether it is social networking, streaming videos and music, to communicating through email and videoconferencing.
BCC will not unjustly or unreasonably prevent or interfere with competition among Content, Applications, Service, or Device Providers.
BCC’s network management includes congestion- and security-protocol-management and customers generally will not be impacted by the protocols and practices that BCC uses to manage its network.
- Benton County Cable’s Network Transparency Disclosures
BCC uses various tools and industry standard techniques to manage its network and deliver fast, secure and reliable Internet service. BCC believes in full transparency and provides the following disclosures about its network management practices:
- Blocking: BCC does not block or discriminate against lawful content.
- Throttling: BCC does not throttle, impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic.
- Affiliated Prioritization: BCC does not prioritize Internet traffic and has no plans to do so.
- Paid Prioritization: BCC has never engaged in paid prioritization. We don’t prioritize Internet for consideration to benefit particular content, applications, services or devices. BCC does not have plans to enter into paid prioritization deals to create fast lanes.
- Congestion Management: BCC monitors the connections on its network in the aggregate on a continuous basis to determine the rate of utilization. If congestion emerges on the network, BCC will take the appropriate measures to relieve congestion.
On BCC’s network, all customers have access to all legal services, applications and content online and, in the event of congestion, most Internet activities will be unaffected. Some customers, however, may experience longer download or upload times, or slower surf speeds on the web if instances of congestion do occur on BCC’s network.
Customers using conduct that abuses or threatens the BCC network will be asked to stop any such use immediately. A failure to respond or to cease any such conduct could result in service suspension or termination.
BCC’s network and congestion management practices are ‘application-agnostic’, based on current network conditions, and are not implemented on the basis of customers’ online activities, protocols or applications. BCC’s network management practices do not relate to any particular customer’s aggregate monthly data usage.
BCC also checks for abnormal traffic flows, network security breaches, malware, loss, and damage to the network. If a breach is detected or high volume users are brought to light by complaint, BCC provides notification to the customer via email or phone. If a violation of BCC’s policies has occurred and such violation is not remedied, BCC will seek to suspend or terminate that customer’s service.
- Application-Specific Behavior: Except as may be provided elsewhere herein, BCC does not currently engage in any application-specific behaviors on its network. Customers may use any lawful applications with BCC.
- Device Attachment Rules: For best results, wireless modems or other proprietary network gateways used on the BCC broadband network should be provided by BCC. Customers may attach devices of their choosing to their modems, including wired or wireless routers, laptops, desktop computers, video game systems, televisions, or other network-enabled electronics equipment. However, customers are responsible for ensuring that their equipment does not harm BCC’s network or impair the service of other customers. BCC is not responsible for the functionality or compatibility of any equipment provided by its customers. Customers are responsible for securing their own equipment to prevent unauthorized access to BCC’s broadband network by third parties and will be held responsible for the actions of such third parties who gain unauthorized access through unsecured customer equipment.
- Network Security: BCC knows the importance of securing its network and customers from network threats and annoyances. The company promotes the security of its network and patrons by protections from such threats as spam, viruses, firewall issues, and phishing schemes. BCC also deploys spam filters in order to divert spam from an online customer’s email inbox into a quarantine file while allowing the customer to control which emails are identified as spam. Customers may access the spam files through the email. Spam files are automatically deleted if not accessed within 30 days.
As its normal practice, BCC does not block any protocols, content or traffic for purposes of network management.
- Network Performance
- Service Descriptions
BCC deploys hardwired broadband Internet access to its subscribers via hybrid fiber coax system and fiber to the premise depending upon location.
- Network Performance
BCC makes every effort to support advertised speeds and will dispatch repair technicians to customer sites to perform speed tests as needed to troubleshoot and resolve speed and application performance caused by BCC’s network. BCC measures availability, latency, and aggregate utilization on the network and strives to meet internal service level targets.
However, the bandwidth speed at which a particular website or other Internet resources may be downloaded, or the speed at which your customer information may be uploaded to a distant website or Internet location is affected by factors beyond BCC’s control, including the speed of the connection from a distant web server to the Internet, congestion on intermediate networks, and/or limitations on your own computer equipment, including a wireless router. In addition, your service performance may be affected by the inside wiring at your premise. Accordingly, you, the customer, must consider the capabilities of your own equipment when choosing a BCC broadband service. Your computers and/or wireless or other networks in your homes or offices may need an upgrade in order to take full advantage of the chosen BCC broadband plan.
For the wireless service, BCC measures Bit Error Rate (BER) and the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) parameters for transmission rates, latency, and traffic every 5 min. For fiber and coax/fiber service, BCC measures traffic every 5 min. All services are best effort.
BCC tests each service for actual and expected access speeds at the time of network installation to demonstrate that the service is capable of supporting the advertised speed. Anyone may request assistance by calling our business office at 731-584-7100 or info@bentoncable.com.
3. Impact of Non-BIAS Data Services: Benton County is not currently offering any non-BIAS data services.
The FCC has defined two types of broadband services: Broadband Internet Access Service (“BIAS”) and Non-Broadband Internet Access Service (“Non-BIAS”) service. BIAS is a mass-market retail service by wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all, or substantially all, Internet endpoints. Non-BIAS services include services offering connectivity to one or a small number of Internet endpoints for a particular device (i.e. heart monitors) or don’t provide access to the internet at all. Non-BIAS (previously known as “Specialized Services”) may share capacity with BIAS over the last-mile facilities. If both are offered, they may compete for bandwidth in the last mile.
C. Commercial Terms
Pricing and additional service information may be found here.
For questions, complaints or requests for additional information, please contact Benton County at 731-584-7100 or info@bentoncable.com.