Terms of Service and Network Management Practices The bandwidth you purchase (your service package or nominal bandwidth) is the MAXIMUM bandwidth available to you. Unless you have purchased a Committed Bandwidth service that specifically guarantees a fixed bandwidth, such as a T-1 circuit, it is not a guaranteed bandwidth. Sierra Communications, Inc. will make its best effort to transmit your data in a timely fashion, however, Sierra Communications, Inc. does not guarantee you that you will be able to use your entire nominal bandwidth at any given time. This is referred to as “best effort” service. Sierra Communications, Inc. strives to make your total nominal bandwidth available for you to use within our network. Sierra Communications, Inc. cannot control bandwidth availability, congestion, or service quality on those parts of the Internet beyond our network.
When other customers use our network, you may not be able to use your maximum nominal bandwidth because all customers share total bandwidth capacity at some points on our network and on the Internet. If the bandwidth demand of all customers at that network location exceeds the bandwidth capacity provided, you may not be able to use your entire nominal bandwidth. All services other than Committed Bandwidth services are “shared services” used by many customers.
We size our Internet services by the bandwidth of all our customers, including your service, based on “best engineering practices”. Service is provided equally to all customers, and every customer's data has an equal chance to be served.
On a downstream basis (Internet to customer), service is provided equally to all customers, Internet services, protocols, and sources or destinations on the Internet such as websites, email servers, etc.
Sierra Communications Inc. does not practice directly or indirectly any prioritization of traffic that favors some traffic over other traffic, whether it is to an affiliated company or to any other customer in exchange for consideration, money, or otherwise.
Due to limited bandwidth capacity on an upstream basis (customer to Internet), service is provided equally to all customers, protocols, and sources or destinations on the Internet such as websites, e-mail servers, etc. Service is not prioritized by customer or source or destination on the Internet. No services, protocols, or legal sources and destinations on the Internet are blocked under any circumstances, other than for reasonable network management, or for reasons stated in this disclosure below. Any effects on service may only be noticeable in times of significant congestion.
Sierra Communications Inc. does not, other than for reasonable network management, throttle, degrade or impair access to lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, user, or use of a non-harmful device.
SIERRA COMMUNICATIONS, INC. may block any service, protocol, source, or destination that SIERRA COMMUNICATIONS, INC. determines to be illegal or a threat to life, property, or national security, or if ordered to block or otherwise modify your data by law enforcement agencies.
At this time, Sierra Communications, Inc. does not implement network management techniques when congestion occurs, however, in times of congestion on Sierra Communications, Inc. network, Sierra Communications, Inc. may, at its sole discretion, implement reasonable network management techniques to protect the services of all of Sierra Communications, Inc. customers so that each customer has adequate service quality. Sierra Communications, Inc. will not implement network management if degradation of service is caused by congestion on portions of the Internet outside of Sierra Communications, Inc. network.
There are no restrictions on types of devices you may connect to Sierra Communications, Inc. network other than that they must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for use in the US telecommunications network. You may not connect any equipment to Sierra Communications, Inc. network that is not approved by the FCC. Most commercially available equipment such as modems, routers, and PCs are approved. All equipment approved by the FCC will have a label stating that it is approved and what the type of the approval is. This information is also found in the user’s manual or printed instructions that are provided with the equipment and may be found online at the manufacturer’s website. You should read this label whenever you buy any equipment you wish to connect to Sierra Communications, Inc. network. If you have questions about any particular equipment, please call us at 575-278-2101.
Sierra Communications, Inc. Internet access service is designed to function with accepted industry standard interface software such as provided by Microsoft, Apple, and others. If you use a type of software not widely used in the worldwide Internet, you may experience some problems with compatibility between your software and Sierra Communications, Inc. Internet access service. If you have any questions, please call us at 575-278-2101, and we will try to help you resolve this problem. It is the customer's responsibility to assure that their software and operating interfaces conform to industry accepted specifications.
Sierra Communications, Inc. uses the latest industry-best-practices to maintain integrity and security of its network. This may include security protections that interfere with some types of customer traffic. If you believe your services are being disrupted by our security systems, please contact us at 575-278-2101.
Sierra Communications, Inc. provides a level of protection for your computers from spam, viruses, and other malicious or unwanted items. While Sierra Communications, Inc. strives to provide the best protection possible for your computer, we make no guarantees that we can prevent all malicious or unwanted items from accessing your computer. It is the customer’s responsibility to protect their computers and other devices from unwanted or harmful items. It is very strongly recommended that you provide your own virus and malware protection, spam filtering, and firewall software.
There are additional considerations regarding Internet security related to Sierra Communications, Inc. Internet access service. Please review the Terms and Conditions portion of your service agreement.
Sierra Communications, Inc. offers the following Internet access services. Pricing may be obtained by calling 575-278-2101.
| Best Effort Services | Maximum Downstream | Maximum Upstream |
|---|---|---|
| ADSL | 25MB | 3MB |
| Wireless | 10MB | 3MB |
| Wireless | 25MB | 5MB |
| Ethernet 25MB | 25MB | 3MB |
The Best Effort services above may be suitable for real-time applications if the customer has purchased adequate bandwidth for that service. Disruption during times of congestion, if any, will be minimized if you purchase adequate bandwidth for the services you wish to use. However, since there are occasionally conditions of extreme congestion at various points in the Internet, including Sierra Communications, Inc’s. network. Sierra Communications, Inc. does not guarantee that your service will never be degraded.
Note that bandwidth requirements will differ by real-time application. For example, video such as that offered by various services such as YouTube may require somewhat less total bandwidth than entertainment quality streaming video. Bandwidth requirements may also differ among providers.
Sierra Communications, Inc.. inspects packets of data you send or receive over our network to allow us to route and, where applicable, prioritize data. We inspect only the packet headers which tell us where to send your data and the type of data.
Sierra Communications, Inc.. does not examine the content of your data, i.e.: the data which you send or receive, such as the from and to e-mail addresses of your e-mail, which web sites you visit, the sources of your video, or the contents of files you send or receive.
Sierra Communications, Inc. does not sell or reveal your data to any third parties.
SIERRA COMMUNICATIONS, INC. may provide any of your data, both on an active, real time basis and stored data such as your billing records, to law enforcement under appropriate legal orders if law enforcement requests your information in matters dealing with illegal acts or a threat to life, property, or national security.
If you have any complaints, questions or comments regarding our network management policies or practices, please contact us at 575-278-2101.
