Main Street Broadband, LLC [“Provider,” “we” or “our”] provides the following disclosure statement regarding our network management practices, the performance and commercial terms of our broadband Internet access service.  This disclosure is provided to all 1) customers to make informed choices regarding their use of our services and 2) to content, application, service and device providers who may use the statement to develop, market and maintain Internet offerings.

Our Service and Performance

We use a variety of technologies to deliver broadband Internet access service to customers including the use the WiMax and Wi-Fi wireless technical standards.  Based on internal testing, a user’s expected and actual access speed and latency will vary based on network conditions, congestion, other users on the network, the number of devices attached to an access point and other factors.  Maximum speeds will be limited by these factors as well and in accordance with our congestion management practices as described below. Our advertised speeds represent the maximum obtainable speeds, not guaranteed throughput, and we provide no warranty that the service will operate uninterrupted, error free or at any minimum speed.  We provide service on a best efforts basis, and we offer speed test services on the network.  Our network is engineered so that utilization of any core piece of the network is below 80% of capacity.

Congestion Management Practices

Providing quality broadband service requires that we take steps to provide reasonable management of our network(s). Subject to reasonable network management, we do not block lawful content, applications, services or non-harmful devices, nor do we unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic over a consumer’s broadband Internet access, again subject to our reasonable network management. The purposes for such management are to optimize the network and to help ensure that network capacity is available for all users on a fair basis, particularly in light of the unique network management challenges associated with delivery of wireless broadband service.

We have in place practices that may be used to reduce or eliminate congestion on our networks.  Multiple users share upstream and downstream bandwidth on our networks. Some users place a disproportionate demand on this bandwidth and on the capabilities of our network, thus potentially degrading the experience of other users.

At present, we have use a variety of platforms to monitor and manage our network traffic.  Our congestion management techniques are triggered on a portion of our networks when a user’s bandwidth usage is within the top 5% of all users’ traffic on our networks. Typically on our networks these practices would occur on a dynamic basis, with traffic from the top 5% users reduced for a limited period until congestion is alleviated.  These practices focus on aggregate usage rather than any specific types of traffic.  In many cases, the end user’s experience is unaffected, although in some instances customers may experience longer times to upload/download files and lags in their service.

We do not address application-specific behavior in our network practices. For example, we do not block, rate control or modify specific protocols or protocol ports.  Because voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) requires low latency to work effectively, we prioritize VoIP services to help enhance the customer’s quality of service. Our service is suitable for real-time applications, although our VoIP service does affect the performance of, and last-mile capacity for our customers’ broadband Internet access service.

With the exception of modems, which we provide to all of our customers, we have no restrictions on the types of devices and any approval procedures for devices to connect to our network.  Installation by customers of devices that fail to meet our minimum standards is discouraged, however, and we limit our support to customers who use such devices.  For example, we would address issues related to signal strength delivered to the customer’s premises, but we would not warrant that the customer’s configure would allow the customer to successfully use or install the service.

With respect to the security of our network, we engage in practices used to facilitate such security, such as implementing a technical standard (802.16(e)) that allows providers to tightly control access to the network.  Systems used to enforce the rules are protected by strong security passwords, placement of equipment only in secure buildings and ensuring that VPN access is required to access secure areas of the network.  We, however, cannot and do not guarantee that our service is secure, and customers are responsible for the security of their customer equipment, equipment we provide to customers and any other equipment used in connection with the service.  Our Terms of Use also prohibit hacking, denial of service attacks, spamming and other activities that could damage, disable, or directly or indirectly interfere with or disrupt our networks.

Commercial Terms

Information about our pricing terms is available here: http://www.mainstreetbb.com/residential.html (residential customers, where pricing plans start at $29.99) and http://www.mainstreetbb.com/business.html (business customers, where we tailor our business packages to the needs of customers and offer custom pricing for these services.  At present, we have no usage-based fees for our services, but we reserve the right to adopt usage-based fees in the future. In the event of termination after the customer has received his/her equipment or had his/her equipment professionally installed, any applicable fees and charges will accrue through the date of termination but all prepaid monthly fees for Services which were to occur after the date of termination will be refunded less any outstanding amounts due MSB including, if applicable, an Early Termination Fee (up to $150) and CPE Modem Fee ($250 assessed when a customer leases a modem from us and fails to return the modem in good working order upon cancelation or termination of the service). After the termination of the initial term, the agreement continues on a month-to-month basis until terminated or superseded. We have fees for additional network services such as VoIP, static IP addresses, equipment rental fees, mobility services and email.

To a limited extent, our service involves the inspection of network traffic. Some of the usage numbers provided by our vendor are user specific and some are content specific, and this inspection is designed to ensure that we are making effective use of our network components in providing services.  This limited inspection allows us to identify problems and to help maintain network integrity.  The information is stored for a limited period to help us diagnose issues on the network.  Anticipated usage also may affect how we construct rate plans and future service offerings.  We reserve the right to monitor any postings or transmissions made in connection with our service, and in our Terms of Use, customers agree that we have the right to monitor, use and disclose information from any customer’s postings and transmissions to third parties, including law enforcement.

If you have questions or complaints about our service, customers may contact our phone number or email address (http://www.mainstreetbb.com/contact.html for first-level support. We have a defined escalation process for issues that can’t be resolved at the first level, and we address network issues as they arise.  If necessary to restore service, we will dispatch a representative to the premises based on analyses from our Network Operations Center.

We reserve the right to make changes to our Open Internet policies. These changes will take effect when posted on our website. 

Last modified: November 20, 2011