Understanding Your Big River Communications High Speed Internet Access Services

As your local High Speed Internet provider, it is important to Big River Communications that we provide you with details about our network and the services you subscribe to. We are committed to providing Internet services that support innovation, investment, job creation, economic growth, competition and free expression. In some cases, high-speed bandwidth and network resources require management to facilitate delivery of these services. This information regarding our network management practices and the performance and commercial terms of our High Speed Internet access services will help you make informed choices regarding the purchase and use of our services, in accordance with the Rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This document is intended to be informational and does not replace or alter the legal terms and conditions of our Service Agreement.

This information describes policies currently in place. We continue to evaluate our network practices to ensure the best Internet service possible. This information is subject to change and will be updated accordingly.

Network Management

Big River Communications has deployed network congestion management techniques to our Internet access network to improve network capacity to benefit the greatest number of customers. Bandwidth allocated to streaming video, flash video and peer-to-peer file sharing applications may be managed to reduce network congestion.

This Internet Network Policy was put in place to prioritize Real-time Telephone, general Internet traffic over streaming applications and then to prioritize streaming applications over bulk download applications at the aggregate level on Big River’s Network. No one traffic type gets insufficient bandwidth. In addition data cached for streaming applications is managed to control the volume of data cached and not transmitting data for videos that are terminated or not viewed by end user. For wireless Internet access customers, the effect of wireless network management processes is improved wireless network performance for all wireless customers.  Streaming video will be limited to standard definition viewing. Peer-to-Peer file transfer application speed will be limited to 1.5Mb.

Big River Communications does not block any lawful content, applications or services and does not discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic. Big River Communications does not block or manage any specific protocols or protocol ports. Port blocks or preventive action may be used temporarily following notice to a customer who has violated the terms of service. Voice traffic may be prioritized to improve quality. Big River does not otherwise target specific types of traffic based on technology, application or provider, modify protocol fields in ways not prescribed by the protocol standard, or otherwise inhibit or favor certain applications or classes of applications.

Residential customers are prohibited from operating a web server, FTP server, file server or game server or running any other server applications or providing network or host services to others.

Big River Communications does not engage in any “deep packet inspection” or other inspection of content for non-diagnostic purposes, such as providing customers with specific advertising or recommendations based on use of the Internet.

Service Speeds

High Speed Internet services are available in tiers that offer customers a variety of upload and download speeds. To view our Internet packages including speeds, pricing and bandwidth usage, please click HERE.

Please note that any Internet tiers or packages are described as offering “up to” certain speeds.

While Big River Communications designs its network to achieve the stated speeds for each of the service tiers offered, the company does not guarantee that customers will always experience those speeds. Speeds at peak times may be lower than the advertised speeds due to many factors, including a high volume of data intensive simultaneous downloads and streaming video. Peak hours are everyday between 3pm to 11:30pm. Peak hours may vary on Saturday and Sunday.

The following variables may also affect actual speeds experienced by a customer:

• The performance of a customer’s computer, including its age, processing capability, its operating system, the number of applications running simultaneously, and the presence of any adware or viruses.
• The type of connection between a customer’s computer and modem. For example, WIFI connections may be slower than direct connections into a router or modem. WIFI connections also may be subject to greater fluctuations, interference and congestion.
• The distance packets travel (round trip time of packets) between a customer’s computer and its final destination on the Internet, including the number and quality of the networks of various operators in the transmission path. The Internet is a “network of networks.” A customer’s connection may traverse the networks of multiple providers before reaching its destination, and the limitations of those networks will most likely affect the overall speed of that Internet connection.
• If a large number of visitors are accessing a site or particular destination at the same time, a customer’s connection to that site will be affected if the site or destination does not have sufficient capacity to serve all visitors efficiently. Congestion also occurs when customers served by the same facilities simultaneously request high volumes of data, such as during peak usage hours in the evening.
• Gating of speeds or access by the website or destination. In order to control traffic or performance, many websites limit the speeds at which a visitor can download from their site.
• Specific to Big River Communications’ wireless service, average speeds may vary based on location within the wireless footprint and the level of traffic occurring on the network in that area. In weaker signal areas an antenna is required for phone service and is optional to obtain improved high-speed Internet performance. Customers can conduct a speed test HERE.

Questions concerning performance or speeds should be addressed to technical support by calling 1-855-Big-River.

Usage Allotments

Some of our Internet service tiers includes specified quantities of data that may be uploaded/downloaded in one monthly billing cycle. If the quantity of bandwidth is exceeded, then a charge per GB will be applied to customer’s account.