TriCounty Telecom, (“TriCounty” or “Company”) provides this Policy in order to disclose its network management practices in accordance with the FCC’s Open Internet Rules and the requirements of the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program. Additional Information about TriCounty’s other policies and practices concerning broadband service are also available under the Support section of our website.
TriCounty manages its network to ensure that all of its customers experience a safe and secure broadband Internet environment that is fast, reliable and affordable. TriCounty wants its customers to indulge in all the Internet has to offer, whether it is social networking, streaming videos and music, or communicating through email and videoconferencing.
TriCounty manages its network for a number of reasons, including optimization, as well as congestion- and security-protocol-management. Such practices are consistent with reasonable network management actions and are intended to improve the overall performance for customers.
TriCounty’s Network Management Practices
TriCounty uses various tools and industry standard techniques to manage its network and deliver fast, secure and reliable Internet service. Such management tools and practices include the following:
- Managing Congestion
- Network Security
- Monitoring Schedule
- Network Management Technology
- network graphing solutions;
- -latency measurement software; and
- bandwidth and performance measurement platforms
- Service Descriptions
- Network Performance
- Specialized Services
- Device Attachment Rules
- Other Notices
TriCounty monitors the connections on its network in the aggregate to determine the rate of utilization. TriCounty manages its network to provide the most economical service with the highest quality. TriCounty adds capacity to its network before utilization has reached full capacity. TriCounty engineers the local facilities to fully meet the customer’s traffic requirements. TriCounty may increase capacity by adding coax nodes, upgrading to fiber to the home (FTTH), adding transport, adding Internet aggregation routers and bandwidth, as needed.
On TriCounty’s network, all customers have access to all legal services, applications and content online and, in the unlikely 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 occur on TriCounty’s network.
Customers using conduct that abuses or threatens the TriCounty network or which violates the company’s Acceptable Use Policy, Internet Service Terms and Conditions, or the Internet Service Agreement will be asked to stop any such use immediately. Failure to respond or to cease any such conduct could result in service suspension or termination.
TriCounty’s network and congestion management practices are ‘application-agnostic’, based on current network conditions, and are not implemented on the basis of customer online activities, protocols or applications. TriCounty’s network management practices do not relate to any particular customer’s aggregate monthly data usage. TriCounty does not prioritize or discriminate against any applications or protocols except for specialized networks.
TriCounty 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 providing resources to its customers for identifying and reporting such threats as spam, viruses, firewall issues, and phishing schemes. TriCounty also deploys spam filters in order to divert spam from an online customer’s email inbox while allowing the customer to control which emails are identified as spam. Spam is quarantined in a separate file that the Customer may access. Email in such file will be automatically deleted if not accessed in 30 days. TriCounty also offers home security software service to customers for a fee.
As its normal practice, TriCounty does not block any protocols, content or traffic for purposes of network management; however, the company may block or limit such traffic as spam, viruses, malware, or denial of service attacks to protect network integrity and the security of our customers. TriCounty filters ports to reduce the spread of computer-related viruses and to protect your computer from intruder access. If TriCounty suspects traffic originated by its customers is virus related, TriCounty will contact the suspected party. If there is no response, the customer’s service will be suspended until the issue can be resolved.
TriCounty does not currently engage in any application-specific behaviors in its network, except as maybe listed in the Specialized Service section of this policy.
TriCounty has deployed software that continuously monitors the network for performance and provides performance reports . In the backbone network, alarms or alerts are generated if the performance is degraded. In addition, traffic is analyzed and trended to insure peak performance. TriCounty adds capacity to relieve congestion when thresholds are met. TriCounty also uses industry standard software tools to 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, TriCounty provides notification to the customer via email or phone. If a violation of TriCounty’s policies has occurred and such violation is not remedied, TriCounty will seek to suspend or terminate the customer’s service.
TriCounty employs a variety of industry-standard tools, applications and devices to monitor, secure and maintain its network, including the following:
TriCounty offers broadband service over ADSL, FTTH facilities and leased transport. TriCounty offers DSL speeds ranging from 256 Kbps to 3 M . DSL Service offerings are detailed in the services section of the website [http://www.gotricounty.biz/internet-dsl.php]. Fixed wireless broadband is offered at 1.5 M. Wireless service offering can be found at http://www.gotricounty.biz/internet-wirelessbroadband.php
All of TriCounty’s broadband service tiers above 1.5 M are capable of supporting real time applications.
TriCounty broadband services are best effort performance. TriCounty 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 issues that are caused by TriCounty’s network. TriCounty measures availability, latency, and aggregate utilization on the network and strives to meet internal service level targets in its network. However, the customer’s performance is also affected by the particular website being accessed, capacity in the public internet beyond the TriCounty network and the customer’s computer, inside wiring, wireless router, and other customer equipment.
Customers can test their actual speeds using the speed test found on the company website http://speedtest.gotricounty.com. TriCounty is in the process of developing additional systems/processes that will allow Tri County to measure the performance of the TriCounty controlled network compared to advertized speeds. Once these systems are developed, TriCounty will disclose the results on its website.
TriCounty will start to provide Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services to end users using virtual private network architecture in the first quarter of 2012. This service, also known as a Specialized Service, is separated from the company’s best effort Internet services on the local network. Specialized Service traffic is shared and prioritized higher than best effort broadband traffic in the network core. TriCounty will add capacity to support both specialized service and best effort services if congestion is detected.
Customer will need a Network Interface Card (NIC) installed in the PC or a USB port in order to use the DSL Modem/Router. DSL Modem/Routers are available for purchase from TriCounty Telecom but the customer may supply their own device. If the customer is supplying its own DSL modem, the equipment must support Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) technology in order to utilize the broadband service. In addition, all customer equipment attached to the broadband service should meet standards for consumer electronics and not harm the network.
If TriCounty discovers a customer device is harmful to its network, TriCounty has the right to request that the customer remove such device.
In addition to this Network Management Policy, patrons may also find other notices at http://www.gotricounty.biz/support.php as follows:
For questions, complaints or requests for additional information, please contact TriCounty Telecom at 252-964-8000 or questions@gotricounty.biz.
