WATCH Communications
Network Management Policies and Practices Disclosure
This Network Management Policy and Practices Disclosure is provided pursuant to the Federal Communications Commission’s “Open Internet Rules” found at Part 8 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The policies and practices of WATCH Communications (“WATCH,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) regarding network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms are provided here so that current customers, prospective customers, third-party content providers and other interested parties can make informed choices regarding the broadband Internet access services offered by WATCH Communications and the extent to which its network management practices may affect those services.
A. Network Management Practices
In the interest of providing the best online experience possible for all of our internet access customers WATCH Communications utilizes reasonable network management practices tailored to achieve legitimate network management purposes. Because bandwidth is a limited resource for broadband Internet service providers, it is essential that WATCH Communications reasonably manages its network to ensure proper use and enjoyment of the internet by all of its customers. By engaging in reasonable and responsible network management, WATCH Communications prevents its customers from being subjected to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks that threaten to degrade the internet service experience. WATCH Communications network management practices, as set forth below, are consistent with industry standards.
WATCH Communications will not unjustly or unreasonably prevent or interfere with competition among content, applications, service, or device providers. We use various tools and industry-standard techniques to manage our communications network and deliver fast, secure, and reliable internet access services. We believe in complete transparency and provide the following disclosures about our network management policies and practices:
1. Blocking: WATCH Communications does not block or discriminate against lawful content, subject to reasonable network management as described below.
2. Throttling: WATCH Communications does not throttle, impair, or degrade lawful internet traffic based on content, application, service, user, or use of a non-harmful device, subject to reasonable network management as described below.
3. Affiliated Prioritization: WATCH Communications does not directly or indirectly favor some internet traffic or applications over others, including through the use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, or resource reservation, to benefit any of WATCH’s affiliates, defined as an entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with WATCH.
4. Paid Prioritization: WATCH Communications does not directly or indirectly favor or prioritize any internet traffic applications over others in exchange for paid or in-kind consideration intended to benefit particular content, applications, services, or access devices.
5. Congestion Management: Congestion of the WATCH Communications network is rare but does occur. When it occurs, our internet subscribers may experience decreased speeds/performance, but bandwidth is allocated fairly and in an “application agnostic” way (without regard to protocol, application, or the service the subscriber chooses to access through their internet access service). Our typical frequency of congestion is estimated at two percent or less.
6. Application Specific Behavior: WATCH Communications does not make use of any application-specific network management practices. We do not favor, modify, inhibit, rate control or block any specific protocols, protocol ports or fields, or any applications or classes of applications, while reserving the right to block ports as necessary to protect the network and its users.
7. Device Attachment Rules: Customers must use PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) to authenticate point-to-point connections between devices on the network. WATCH Communications does not specifically limit device types for attachment to its network, but does not guarantee the functionality of third-party devices for such access. In order for a device to be approved for use on the WATCH Communications network, the device must conform to publicly available industry standards and not be harmful to the Company’s network.
8. Network Security: WATCH Communications offers its customers unrestricted access to lawful content, services and applications available on the internet. We take various industry-standard measures to safeguard our network and the broader internet from harm or disruption, including protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) attacks, phishing, spoofing, and other forms of unwanted or harmful online content and activities. In those instances where through our network management practices we identify online content as harmful or unwanted, the content may be prevented from reaching customers, or customers may be given an option to identify or inspect flagged content first to determine if it is harmful or unwanted. Our goal is to ensure the network’s reliability and availability by countering any malicious traffic that could compromise it. WATCH Communications reserves the right to take any action deemed necessary, including suspending or terminating service to subscribers who engage in activities that violate our Internet Service Terms of Agreement or Acceptable Use Policies/Practices which can be found at www.watchcomm.net/acceptable-use-policy.
B. Network Performance
WATCH’s broadband access service is primarily a fixed wireless service (“Service”). Generally, given the nature of fixed wireless services, certain circumstances may affect the speed and quality of the Service, including but not limited to foliage, line-of-sight obstructions, the distance between a Customer’s premises and the transmission point, as well as the Customer’s connection of multiple devices to the WATCH Networks. Although we have engineered the WATCH Networks to provide consistent high-speed data services, some network management for these scenarios is required, because very heavy data usage by even a few customers at times and places of competing network demands can affect the performance of all Customers.
Network Speeds: WATCH offers a standard range of wireless download speeds to residential and small business/home office Subscribers varying from 1.5 Mbps to 400 Mbps, fiber download speeds from 100Mbps to 1Gbps, and to commercial Customers up to 1 Gbps. The WATCH Networks are designed to support these speeds to help ensure that every Customer receives the speeds to which they have subscribed. WATCH, however, cannot guarantee speeds at all times, as there are many factors and conditions beyond WATCH’s control that can affect Internet performance. Some of these external factors and conditions are:
Performance of Subscriber computer and/or router
Type of connection to Subscriber’s own equipment (i.e., Wi-Fi)
Congestion of websites and services on Internet
Website or service limiting speeds on the Internet
Internet and equipment performance outside of the WATCH Networks
Weather conditions
The advertised speed of internet service is the maximum speed achievable with the technology utilized for the broadband service offering subscribed to. WATCH Communications 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 that may be caused by its network. We measure availability, latency, and aggregate utilization on the network and strive to meet our internal service level targets. Based on internal testing using platform specific test protocols, the mean upload and download speeds are typically the advertised speed plus or minus ten percent. This internal testing also indicates a mean round trip latency of 30miliseconds (ms) to local ports. It is important for to note, however, that 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 some factors beyond WATCH Communications control, including for example: the speed of the connection from a distant web server to the internet; congestion on intermediate transport networks, the limitations of your computer or other electronic devices, fixed or wireless accessing the internet; or your wireless router/WiFi equipment. In addition, your internet service performance may be adversely impacted by the inside wiring at your premises. Accordingly, you, the customer, must consider the capabilities of your own equipment when choosing and using our broadband internet service. The computers, wireless devices, or other networks in your homes or offices may need an upgrade to take full advantage of your chosen WATCH Communications broadband plan. WATCH Communications does test each service for actual and expected access speeds at the time of network installation to demonstrate that the service can support the advertised speed.
Acceptable Use: As set forth in the Service Agreements, all of WATCH’s service offerings are subject to the WATCH Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which we may from time to time establish or revise. The AUP is available here: www.watchcomm.net/acceptable-use-policy/
C. Commercial Terms Pricing
In order to meet the usage and budgetary needs of all of our customers, WATCH Communications offers a good selection of broadband internet access plan options. To see the company’s current promotions and pricing on broadband Internet access service, please visit our website at www.watchcomm.net or call 1-800-589-3837 to speak with a customer service representative. WATCH Communications fixed wireless internet service is priced on a flat-fee basis (plus taxes). The Watch Express and ViaSat offerings may include a usage-based fee for services.
We will assess the following fees related to our Service, where applicable.
Security Deposit: Varies depending on Credit check
Installation Fee:
Standard Install up at 15 feet (if property permits): $99.99.
Standard Install 15-30 Feet with Pushup: $249.99
Standard Install Required Tower: TBD based on location.
Transfer of Account Ownership Change: $35.00 one-time fee
Equipment Rental/Lease Fee: $0.00
Equipment Purchase Fee: $0.00
Equipment Repair/Replacement Fee: $10.00 ($5 EMP and $5 Router)
Late Fee: 5% of balance or minimum of $5.00 per month
Cancellation Fee: $0.00 requires 30-day notice
Early Termination Fee: Customer billed out to end of their service month
Reconnection Fee for Terminated Service Due to Non-Payment: $29.00
Collections Customer Returning to Service: Fees based on collection
Service Change Fee: $0.00 with Equipment Maintenance Plan (EMP)
ACH Overdrawn Check Fee: $30.00
US Postal/Paper Bill Fee: $3.00
CAN-SPAM Damage Resolution Fees: Varies depending on damage
Spectrum Access Fee: $5.40
Relocation Fee: $0.00 with Equipment Maintenance Plan (EMP) for a necessary equipment move; $75.00 without EMP
Point-to-Point Fees: Varies depending on equipment:
Legacy Equipment - $99.99 Install $9.00 monthly
Ericsson Equipment $149.99 Install $10.00 monthly
Tarana Equipment $249.99 Install $15.00 monthly
A current description of the fees for additional network-related services can be found at https://watchcomm.net/data-center/.
Customer services include:
Colocation
Web Hosting
WiFi
MSP Services
Virtual Services
Data Recovery and Backup
Connectivity
Home and Business Security
D. Privacy Policy
WATCH Communications 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 access service users. The Company does, however, reserve the right to monitor bandwidth, usage, data transmissions and content for purposes of protecting the integrity of its communications network and its internet access service through reasonable network management practices.
WATCH Communications may collect equipment information to identify the equipment customer is using on the network, including but not limited to: equipment type; serial number; settings; configuration; and software. The Company 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; URLs; data transmission rates; latencies; location information; security characteristics;, and information about the amount of bandwidth and other network resources customer is using in connection with uploading, downloading or streaming data to and from the internet. This collection of or monitoring of network traffic, activity, performance information, and/or equipment information by the Company is done solely for reasonable network management purposes. Similarly, the Company does not distribute information on end user network activity and/or traffic information to any third party entities for any non-network management purpose.
WATCH Communications is of course required to comply with relevant federal and state laws, regulations, judicial orders, and governmental requests for information, relating to information covered under this Privacy Policy, as well as other categories of information. Accordingly, any such information may be disclosed to other entities if the Company determines, in its sole discretion, that the disclosure is required by law or is necessary to protect its interests or the interests of its customers. The Company may also find it necessary to disclose any such information as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of company assets or transition of service to another service provider.
Disclaimers
The FCC’s Internet Freedom “Transparency” rule provisions found at 47 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) section 8.1, as adopted, and this Privacy Policy are also not intended to affect, alter or otherwise supersede the legal status of joint efforts by broadband internet access service providers like WATCH Communications and other service providers that are designed to curtail copyright infringement in response to information shared by copyright holders and/or their agents that is timely, effective, and is designed to accommodate the legitimate interests of service providers, copyright holders, and internet access end users. Furthermore, neither the FCC’s Internet Freedom Transparency rules nor this Privacy Policy are intended to prohibit or prevent the Company from engaging in reasonable efforts to address the transfer of unlawful content or unlawful transfers of content over its communications network. For additional information, please review activities that violate our Internet Service Terms of Agreement or Acceptable Use Policies/Practices which can be found at www.watchcomm.net/acceptable-use-policy.
E. Contact Us
End users with questions, concerns or complaints regarding this Network Management and Privacy Policy are encouraged to contact WATCH Communications for more information or explanation.
WATCH Communications
3225 W. Elm Street
Lima, OH 45805
Residential: 800-589-3837
Commercial: 800-589-3836
Tech Support: 1-888-821-7879
If you believe that WATCH Communications is acting in violation of the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom rules, you may file either an informal or formal complaint with the FCC. More information can be found at http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
F. Additional Disclaimers
This Open Internet Policy does not affect, alter or otherwise supersede the legal status of cooperative efforts by WATCH that are designed to curtail copyright or trademark infringement in response to information provided by rights holders in a manner that is timely, effective, and accommodates the legitimate interests of the company, rights holders, our Customers and other end users. Furthermore, this Open Internet Policy does not prohibit us from making reasonable efforts to address the transfer of unlawful content or unlawful transfers of content. For additional information, please review the Service Agreement and Privacy Policy.