Network Management Policy

Highland Telephone Cooperative and its subsidiary, Highland Communications (“We”, “Our”, “Us”) provide this Network Management Policy (“Policy”) in accordance with Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) requirements to disclose certain network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms. Additional information about our broadband policies and practices is available at https://highland.net/policies/ (“Website”).

Network Practices

We engage in network management practices that are tailored and appropriate for achieving optimization on our network considering the particular network architecture and technology of our broadband Internet access service. Our goal is to ensure that all our customers experience a safe and secure broadband Internet environment that is fast, reliable, and affordable. We want our customers to experience all the Internet offers, whether it is social networking, streaming videos, listening to music, or communicating through email and videoconferencing.

We manage our network using various tools and industry-standard techniques to ensure fast, secure, and reliable Internet service.

1. Blocking: We do not block or discriminate against lawful Internet content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.  We conduct only reasonable network management.
2. Throttling: We do not throttle, impair, or degrade lawful Internet traffic based on content, application, service, user, or use of a non-harmful device. We engage in only reasonable network management practices.
3. Affiliated Prioritization: We do not favor any Internet traffic over others, including through the use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, or resource reservation, to benefit an affiliate, and we have no plans to do so.
4. Paid Prioritization: We do not favor or prioritize any Internet traffic over others, and we do not prioritize Internet websites over others in exchange for any consideration to benefit any content, applications, services, or devices.

 

Network Management Practices

 

Our network management practices are intended to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible Internet access. We do not inspect traffic for any other purposes other than to keep track at the network level, where traffic flows ensuring that the network is adequate for the demands of customers. To achieve this goal, we employ network management techniques such as identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer email accounts, detecting malicious Internet traffic, and preventing the distribution of, or inadvertent access to, malware, phishing, viruses, or other harmful code or content.

1. Congestion Management

We continuously monitor bandwidth usage for indications of congestion and configure the network to normally avoid congestion. If we experience congestion within our network, we will redistribute or reroute traffic, as much as is possible, without regard to specific customers, applications, etc., to reduce the congestion.

We check 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, we provide notification to the customer.

Customer conduct that abuses or threatens our network or violates our Terms and Conditions or other policies will be asked to stop immediately. If a customer fails to respond or cease such conduct, we may suspend service or terminate the user’s account.

If we take any congestion management actions, the vast majority of our users’ Internet activities will be unaffected. Some customers may, however, experience more extended download or upload times or slower surf speeds. There are no usage limits to service.

2. Application-Specific Behavior

 

Except as may be provided elsewhere herein, we do not engage in any application-specific network management activities on our network. We do not inhibit or favor applications or classes of applications over our High-Speed Internet/broadband data network. All traffic is treated in a “protocol-agnostic” manner, which means management is not based on applications and is also content neutral. We do not block or rate-control specific protocols or protocol ports, modify protocol fields, or otherwise inhibit or favor certain applications or classes of applications.

3. Device Attachment Rules

We do not restrict the types of devices that our end-user customers may use and attach to our network, nor do we have any approval procedures for devices to connect to our network. 

For best results, modems, wireless modems, or other proprietary network gateways used on our broadband network should be provided by us. Customers may, however, attach their own devices to their modems, including wired or wireless routers, laptops, desktop computers, video game systems, televisions, or other network-enabled electronics equipment. Customers are responsible for ensuring that their equipment does not harm our network or impair other customers’ service. We are not responsible for the functionality or compatibility of any equipment provided by our customers. Customers are responsible for securing their own equipment to prevent third parties from unauthorized access to our broadband network and will be held responsible for the actions of such third parties who gain unauthorized access through unsecured customer equipment. If we discover a customer device is harmful to our network, we have the right to request that the customer remove such device.

4. Security

 

We have not adopted security measures that would monitor end-user real-time usage at this time. The responsibility would be that of the end user to monitor their usage and adopt safe practices that they feel necessary to protect any unauthorized access to their personal files and information. We do, however, engage in internal security measures to monitor aggregate Internet usage to avoid any possible degradation of our IP network and performance.  We may block ports that are known to be used for DDOS/DOS, viruses, and other malicious activities or to intercept user information for the customer’s protection. We also block emails deemed to be SPAM or that are detected to contain a virus or other malicious code both into and out of our network.

These tools and practices may change from time to time to keep up with changing network technologies and new and innovative ways our customers use the network.

Performance Characteristics

 

1. Service Description

We offer Internet service over Fiber-to-the-Home (“FTTH”). Information about our different service offerings can be found at https://highland.net/our-services/broadband/. Our service is provided as a “best effort” service, and we provision services to meet the maximum speeds as advertised. All of our Internet service offerings can be used for real-time applications.  However, the performance of those applications may improve at higher transmission speeds.

2. Network Performance

The FCC requires that we disclose information regarding the expected and actual speed and latency of our Internet access service offerings. Latency measures the average time it takes for a data packet to travel from one point on a network to another. It is typically measured by round-trip time utilizing milliseconds. While latency generally does not significantly impact day-to-day Internet usage, certain applications, such as high-definition multiplayer online games, may be particularly affected by it.

Our advertised speeds are estimates that we target to achieve for our customers. We cannot guarantee that a customer will achieve those speeds at all times. The actual speeds achieved by customers may vary based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (a) the performance and capabilities of the customer’s computer; (b) the connection between a customer’s computer and service demarcation, such as the use of wireless routers; (c) variances in network usage; (d) the distance a packet of information must travel from the customer’s computer to its final destination on the Internet; (e) congestion or variable performance at a particular website or destination; or (f) performance characteristics of transmissions over the Internet that are outside of our control. Accordingly, customers should consider the capabilities of their own equipment when choosing broadband service. Customers may need to upgrade their computers and other networks in their homes or offices to take full advantage of the chosen broadband plan.

There are a number of available tools online that customers may utilize to measure Internet performance. Please note that all speed tests have biases and flaws and should be considered a guide rather than a conclusive measurement of performance.

The following table shows our internal testing results.

 

Residential and Business Speeds

           

Advertised Download/Upload Speed (Mbps)	Technology	Typical Median Download/Upload Speed (Mbps)	Typical Median Latency (ms)
BB300 Res		300 Mbps/303 Mbps	3.2 ms
BB 500 Res		500 Mbps/504 Mbps	2.8 ms
BB Gig Res		1022 Mbps/1223 Mbps	1 ms
BB 500 Bus		500 Mbps/504 Mbps	2.8 ms
BB Gig Bus		1022 Mbps/1223 Mbps	1 ms

Advertised Download/Upload Speed (Mbps)	Technology	Typical Median Download/Upload Speed (Mbps)	Typical Median Latency (ms)
BB300 Res		300 Mbps/303 Mbps	3.2 ms
BB 500 Res		500 Mbps/504 Mbps	2.8 ms
BB Gig Res		1022 Mbps/1223 Mbps	1 ms
BB300 Bus		300 Mbps/303 Mbps	3.2 ms
BB 500 Bus		500 Mbps/504 Mbps	2.8 ms
BB Gig Bus		1022 Mbps/1223 Mbps	1 ms

3. Impact of Non-BIAS Data Services

The FCC defines Non-Broadband Internet Access Services (“Non-BIAS”) to include services offered by broadband providers that share capacity with Broadband Internet Access Services (“BIAS”) (previously known as “Specialized Services”) also offered by the provider over the last-mile facilities. At this time, we are not offering any non-BIAS data services such as VOIP and PWE3. These services are provided over the same broadband connection as the high‐speed Internet connection but utilize network management to isolate the capacity used by these services from that used by broadband Internet access services. We do not change the priority of any other Internet-based service either negatively or positively.

Commercial Terms

 

1. Pricing

 

We offer multiple levels of internet service, all with no monthly data cap. The current pricing and other terms and conditions of the various tiers, including fees associated with early termination or additional network services, can be found at https://highland.net/our-services/broadband/, by calling our office at 423-346-4050, or at Broadband-Facts-Labels-Highland-CLEC CSV or Broadband-Facts-Labels-Highland-ILEC CSV . Prices do not include applicable federal, state, or local taxes and regulatory fees. Prices and packages are subject to change.

2. Privacy Policies

 

We value the privacy of our internet service customers. Like most companies, we collect certain information about our customers and use it to provide our services. We collect information when our customers interact with us, when our customers use our internet service, and when our customers visit our website. This information is used to deliver, provide, and repair our services and establish and maintain customer records and billing accounts. We protect the information we have about our customers and require those we share it with to protect it. We do not sell, license, or share information that individually identifies our customers with others without your consent, except as necessary when working with vendors and partners for business purposes and when necessary for them to do work on our behalf. Additional details about our Privacy Policy can be found at https://highland.net/privacy-policy-2/.

3. Redress Options

 

We strive to provide excellent customer service and resolve any issues promptly. If you have questions, complaints, or need additional information, please call 423-346-4050 or 800-555-1212 between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. For after-hours assistance, call 423-628-2121 or email us at highland@highland.net.