K & M Telephone Company Network Management Policy

 

            Pursuant to the Federal Communications Commission’s enacted Open Internet Rules found in Part 8 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, K & M Telephone Company’s (hereafter “K&M”) policies regarding network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms are provided so that K&M’s current customers, prospective customers, third-party content providers and other interested parties can make informed choices regarding the broadband Internet access services offered by K&M, and the extent K&M’s network management practices may affect those services.

A. Description of DSL/Broadband/Internet Service

            K&M’s service of DSL or Broadband or Internet Service (hereafter “DSL”) is comprised of the following:
      1. Transport of data from the customer’s location to the Internet backbone and
      2. Content of the public Internet.

K&M purchases transport to and content from the Internet backbone terminating in Chambers, Nebraska. K&M then resells the content of the Internet as a shared service between K&M’s customers. K&M also provides transport of the Internet data from its switching offices to its customers. The extent individual customers use DSL may affect the online experience of other customers. Customer experience may also be affected by congestion on the Internet backbone, transport capacity, server loading on the far end, and the ability of customer equipment to process and display Internet traffic.

B. Network Management Practices
            In the interest of providing the best online experience possible for all of K&M’s customers, K&M utilizes reasonable network management practices tailored to achieve legitimate network management purposes. Because bandwidth is a limited resource for DSL users, it is essential that K&M reasonably manages its network to promote the use of the Internet by all of K&M’s customers.  By engaging in reasonable and responsible network management, K&M limits its customers from being subjected to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks that threaten to degrade service. We believe our network management practices are consistent with industry standards. 

        1. Congestion 
        K&M does not employ any congestion management tools, practices and/or software on individual customer traffic. However K&M does segregate segments of its network and may use tools to balance the traffic on segments.

        2. Application Specific Behavior
        K&M does not make use of any application specific network management practices.  K&M does not favor, modify, inhibit, rate control or block any specific protocols, or any applications or classes of applications. However K&M does deny traffic to an industry standard list of ports that are well known for the spread of viruses and for denial of service attacks. Please contact us if you need more information about port blocking.

        3. Device Attachment
         In order for a device to be used on the K&M’s network, the device must conform to publicly available industry standards and be non-harmful to K&M’s network.

        4. Use of Security
        K&M offers its customers unrestricted access to all of the lawful content, services, and applications available on the Internet.  K&M uses industry standard tools and generally accepted best practices and policies to help protect our customers from spam, phishing, and other unwanted or harmful online content and activities.  In the instances where these tools and policies identify online content as harmful or unwanted, the content may be prevented from reaching customers, or customers may be permitted to identify or inspect content to determine if it is harmful or unwanted. Email to K&M addresses pass through a spam and virus checking service called Postini. Customers may modify their individual Postini settings.

 

C. Performance Characteristics
             K&M offers DSL service via various technologies. Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (hereafter “ADSL”) serves our customers within about 3 miles of our switching offices. Synchronous Digital Subscriber Line (hereafter “SDSL”) serves our customers between about 3 and 8 miles of our switching offices. ADSL and SDSL are technologies that transmit data over traditional copper telephone cables. Fiber to the Home or Fiber Digital Subscirber Line (hereafter “FDSL”) uses fiber optic cable. FDSL serves our customer in the Amelia area. Speed is measured in megabits per second or Mbps.


            The advertised speed of K&M’s DSL service is the download speed setting specified in the transport equipment. Transport technologies differ in the way they set the speed of service to customers. Thus the advertised speed may not be attainable for customers depending on the type technology used. Speed to a computer will decrease if the customer uses their DSL for multiple computers. The capability of end user’s computer and router may affect performance. All our customers’ activity during peak usage periods and all connections to the far end point will affect speed. We provide the following plans:


            Based on our internal testing using www.speedtest.net we have produced a table of average (median) speeds to be expected by our customers. See this table at DSL Speed. Peak use time used is from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. The latency measurement used is a ‘ping’. The ping time in milliseconds is the time between a ping request being sent and a ping response being received.

        The latency and speeds achieved with K&M’s Internet service offering make K&M’s Internet service suitable for real-time applications. Voice over Internet Protocol should work via all our DSL rates. Gaming and streaming video should work via our DSL rates of 1.5 Mbps and 3 Mbps.

D. Commercial Terms

1. Pricing
          In order to meet the usage and budgetary needs of our customers, K&M offers a selection of broadband Internet access plan options. To see K&M’s current pricing on DSL service, please visit www.kmtel.net/internet.htm  or call the business office 402-482-5220. 
 

2. Early Termination Fees
           If a customer enters into a service agreement with K&M for DSL service for a defined service term, and customer desires to terminate the service agreement prior to the expiration of that term, K&M may charge a reasonable early termination fee if such fee is clearly indicated in the service agreement. K&M’s early termination fee is $95.00.

3. Usage Based Fees
           K&M’s DSL service is priced on a flat-fee basis (plus applicable taxes).  K&M does not charge end users a usage-based fee for Internet service.
 

 E. Privacy Policy
           K&M affords full access to all lawful content, services and applications available on the Internet and does not routinely monitor, inspect or store the network activity and traffic of its Internet service users.  However, K&M reserves the right to monitor bandwidth, usage, transmissions and content for purposes of protecting the integrity of the network and K&M’s DSL service through reasonable network management practices.

            K&M may collect equipment information to identify the equipment a customer is using on the network, including, but not limited to: equipment type, serial number, settings, configuration and software.  K&M may also collect performance information to examine the operation of the equipment, services and applications the customer may use on the network, including, but not limited to: IP addresses, MAC addresses, URLs, data transmission rates and latencies, location information, security characteristics, and information about the amount of bandwidth and other network resources customer is using in connections with uploading, downloading or streaming data to and from the Internet.

            Network traffic, activity, performance information, and equipment information monitored or collected by K&M is done so for the sole purpose of reasonable network management purposes.
            K&M is required to comply with relevant laws, regulations and judicial orders. Information covered under this Privacy Policy, as well as other categories of information, may be disclosed to third parties if K&M determines, in its sole discretion, that such a disclosure is necessary or required.  K&M may also disclose this information if, in its sole discretion, such a disclosure is necessary or required to protect our interests or the interests of our customers.   K&M may also disclose this information in connection with the sale of our business.
            K&M’s network management practices as discussed herein are intended solely to provide the best online experience possible for all of K&M’s customers by safeguarding our network and its users from spam, viruses, phishing, and other unwanted or harmful online content and activities.  K&M’s network management practices are not intended, nor implemented, to block consumers from accessing the content and applications of their choice, deprive consumers of their entitlement to competition, or discriminate against or in favor of certain network traffic.  End users with questions, concerns or complaints regarding K&M’s network management practices are encouraged to contact us for issue resolution.

 

F. Contact Us
             If you have any questions regarding K&M’s Network Management Practices Policy or would like to file a complaint with K&M regarding its network management practices, please contact us at:

K & M Telephone Company
PO Box 187
Chambers NE 68725
Phone 402-482-5220, FAX 402-482-5700
Email: kmaccts@kmtel.net   Web: www.kmtel.net

 G. Reporting a Violation
            If you believe that K&M is in violation of the FCC’s Open Internet Rules, please contact us. You may file either an informal or formal complaint with the FCC at http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

 H. Additional Disclaimers
            The Open Internet Rules, as adopted, and K&M’s Network Management Practices Policy are not intended to affect, alter or otherwise supersede the legal status of cooperative efforts by broadband Internet access service providers and other service providers that are designed to curtail infringement in response to information provided by rights holders in a manner that is timely, effective, and accommodates the legitimate interests of providers, rights holders, and end users.
            Furthermore, the Open Internet Rules, as adopted, and K&M’s Network Management Practices Policy do not prohibit K&M from making reasonable efforts to address the transfer of unlawful content or unlawful transfers of content. For additional information, please review K&M’s Acceptable Internet Use Policy/Subscriber Agreement at K&M AUP.