Telephone Electronics Corporation (“TEC” or “Company”) provides this Network Transparency Statement in accordance with the FCC’s Restore Internet Freedom Rules to ensure that you have sufficient information to make informed choices about the purchase of broadband services. Information about TEC’s other policies and practices concerning broadband are available at www.tec.com (“TEC Website”).
TEC engages in network management practices that are tailored and appropriate for achieving optimization on the network considering the network architecture and technology of its broadband Internet access service. TEC’s goal is to ensure that all its customers experience a safe and secure broadband Internet environment that is fast, reliable and affordable. TEC strives to offer customers all opportunities of the Internet, whether it is social networking, streaming videos and music, or communicating through email and videoconferencing.
TEC’s network management includes congestion-and security-protocol-management. However, TEC customers generally will not be impacted by the protocols and practices that TEC uses to manage its network.
A. TEC’s Network Transparency Disclosures
TEC uses various tools and industry standard techniques to manage its network and deliver fast, secure and reliable Internet service. TEC believes in full transparency and provides the following disclosures about its network management practices:
Blocking:TEC does not block or discriminate against lawful content.
Throttling:TEC does not throttle, impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic.
Affiliated Prioritization:TEC does not prioritize Internet traffic and has no plans to do so.
Paid Prioritization:TEC has never engaged in paid prioritization. We don’t prioritize Internet for consideration to benefit content, applications, services or devices. TEC does not plan to enter into paid prioritization deals to create fast lanes.
Congestion Management:TEC 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, TEC will take the appropriate measures to relieve congestion.
On TEC’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 TEC’s network.
Customers using conduct that abuses or threatens the TEC 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. A failure to respond or to cease any such conduct could result in service suspension or termination.
TEC’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. TEC’s network management practices do not relate to any particular customer’s aggregate monthly data usage.
TEC monitors its network on a continuous basis to determine utilization on its network. TEC 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, TEC provides notification to the customer via email or phone. If a violation of TEC’s policies has occurred and such violation is not remedied, TEC will seek to suspend or terminate that customer’s service.
Application-Specific Behavior:Except as may be provided elsewhere herein, TEC does not currently engage in any application-specific behaviors on its network. Customers may use any lawful applications with TEC.
Device Attachment Rules:For best results, DSL modems, wireless modems, or other proprietary network gateways used on the TEC broadband network should be provided by TEC. 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 TEC’s network or impair the service of other customers. TEC 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 TEC’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:TEC knows the importance of securing its network and customers from network threats and annoyances. TEC uses a managed Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) architecture that “locks down” the CPE, thereby protecting the consumers from exposure. The company promotes the security of its network and patrons by protections from such threats as spam, viruses, firewall issues, and phishing schemes. TEC also deploys common carrier firewalling at the Internet gateway.
As its normal practice, TEC does not block any content or traffic. TEC does block the following remote-sourced protocols for purposes of network management and security: TCP/UDP 41 – Graphics, TCP/UDP 43 – Who Is, TCP/UDP 44 – MPM FLAGS Protocol, TCP/UDP 53 – DNS, TCP/UDP 55 – ISI Graphics Language, TCP/UDP 58 – XNS Mail, TCP/UDP 59 – Private file service, TCP/UDP 60 – Unassigned, TCP/UDP 77 – Private RJE services, TCP/UDP 135 – DCE endpoint resolution, TCP/UDP 137-139 – NETBIOS, UDP 160 – SNMP, UDP 161 – SNMPTRAP, TCP/UDP 445 – Microsoft-DS, TCP/UDP 593 – HTTP RPC Ep Map, UDP 1900 – UPnP/SSDP, UDP 3544 – Teredo, TCP 4444 – NV Video, UDP 5431 – UPnP/PARK AGENT, TCP/UDP 7998 – USI Content Push Service, and UDP 8998 – Reserved. Upon written request TEC will unblock specific protocols for individual customers. TEC may also block or limit such traffic as spam, viruses, malware, or denial of service attacks to protect network integrity and the security of our customers.
B. Network Performance
Service DescriptionsTEC deploys Internet access to its subscribers through hardwired broadband access via Ethernet, DSL and Fiber facilities.
Network PerformanceTEC makes every effort to support advertised speeds and will dispatch technicians to customer sites to perform speed tests as needed to troubleshoot and resolve speed and application performance caused by TEC’ network. TEC 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 distant 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 TEC’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, the customer’s service performance may be affected by the inside wiring on premise. Accordingly, you, the customer, must consider the capabilities of your own equipment when choosing a TEC broadband service. Your computers and/or wireless or other networks in your homes or offices may need an upgrade to take full advantage of the chosen TEC broadband plan.
For the wireless service, TEC measures Bit Error Rate (BER) and the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) parameters for transmission rates, latency, and traffic every 15 min. For DSL, Fiber and T1 service, TEC measures traffic every 5 min. All services are best effort.
TEC tests each service for actual and expected access speeds at the time of network installation to demonstrate that the service can support the advertised speed. Customers may also test their actual speeds using the speed test located at Internet Acceptable Use Policy on TEC’ website and may request assistance by calling our business office at 866.371.4716 or by email at www.tec.com/contact.
TEC conducts internal testing and in the coming months will be participating in the FCC’s Broadband Testing Methods as those requirements become effective.
Impact of Non-BIAS Data ServicesThe FCC has defined 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.
Real time services, such as Non-BIAS services, include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol (IP) video services, command optimal bandwidth. As Non-BIAS traffic is combined with general Internet traffic on TEC’s network, broadband customers could experience service delays, although very unlikely, if there is an occurrence of congestion on TEC’s network. In any such event, the Non-BIAS traffic is given priority over general Internet traffic.
TEC provides Voice-over-the-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) to its customers. The VoIP traffic uses private RFC 1918 addresses, dedicated paths for VoIP and QoS on the routers/switches it touches. The QoS priority is based on the source and destination IP. Where VoIP traffic is combined with best effort Internet traffic and QoS priority is employed, the network could endure marginal delays if there are instances of bandwidth contention, although very unlikely.
C. Commercial Terms
Pricing and additional service information may be found here.
In addition to this Network Transparency Statement, patrons may also find links to the following on the TEC Website:
For questions, complaints or requests for additional information, please contact TEC at:
Business Office at 866-371-4716
Email at www.tec.com/contact