Acceptable Use Policy

North Boone Broadband: Acceptable Use Policy

To make the Acceptable Use Policy as easy to understand as possible, we have chosen a simple question and answer format:

Is the wireless network Shared?

YES! All "dial-up" and "broadband" internet services, work in a similar manner. All internet services work around a business model in which a service provider (North Boone Broadband, AOL, AT&T, or some other ISP) purchases and maintains one or more high-speed lines from the "internet backbone" and (the isp) pays to have those lines extended into a community. The ISP, then sells access to those high speed lines via modem, cable, DSL or wireless.

In all cases, the ISP sells more accounts than the number of high speed lines being brought into the community.  The business model calls for purchasing an expensive high-speed line and then reselling to many customers at a fraction of it's real cost.  This allows us to SHARE both the cost and the benefits of high speed internet.

What would it cost to have my own "T1" or dedicated line to the internet?

The exact cost varies depending on your location, but in general in our area, a T1 or dedicated high speed line into the internet costs between $1000 and $2000 per month. $1000+ per month is generally out of the budget for most small businesses and residents. That is why SHARING high speed costs via a community network like North Boone Broadband's wireless network is so important. We bring the high speed into town and then share the cost across dozens of homes and businesses, thus driving the individual cost down to a reasonable level.

What is Acceptable Usage?

It is each subscriber's responsibility to agree to fairly SHARE the bandwidth with all other local subscribers.  This system works well because different subscribers use the network at different times-of-day or week.  Further, most subscribers have fairly modest needs from the internet.  They use the internet to transfer email, browse web pages, connect-to-work, and occassionally download a program or a song. However, sometimes problems arise when one or more subscribers use a drastic amount of internet bandwidth.  Occassionally, a subscriber either inadvertantly or intentially will choose to download dozens of programs or hundreds of songs or maybe even a whole DVD movie from the internet. When this happens, that subscriber could bog-down the network and slow down all of the other local subscribers. (not to mention the fact that downloading copyrighted material is ILLEGAL!)

To ensure equitable Internet access for all North Boone Broadband subscribers, North Boone Broadband, Inc. maintains this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Acceptable Usage establishes an equitable balance in Internet access across the North Boone Broadband wireless service for all North Boone Broadband customers regardless of their frequency or traffic usage. To ensure this equity, abusive customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations.  North Boone Broadband's wireless network access is not guaranteed at a particular speed.

Acceptable transfer rates are relative to service level, but consistent monthly transfers over 5-10 gigabytes would certainly be subject to review and potential action. A gigabyte is a fairly large amount of information... it's equal to about 300 MP3 encoded songs, or about 125,000 average-sized web pages or 300,000 average-sized email messages!! If you are running file sharing softrware like Kazaa, iMesh, Morpheous, etc. the files uploaded to others on the Internet also consumes bandwidth and in some cases can be two to three times the amount you download. We prefer that users do not share their files since this does not benefit anyone on the North Boone Broadband network yet consumes available capacity.

Unfortunately, some people don't share the network fairly and some greatly exceed acceptable usage. For those accounts that abuse the AUP, our current policy is to slow down the account to a speed 128kb/sec or slower until the excessive downloading has been addressed.  If the subscriber continues to download beyond normal rates, they may be asked to upgrade their account or in a worst-case situation, they may be asked to leave the service altogether for the good of all of the other members of our wireless network.

In addition; North Boone Broadband reserves the right to deny and/or terminate service to any individual or organization which, in North Boone Broadband's opinion, is using or intends to use the service for an illegal or fraudulent purpose.

North Boone Broadband does not permit unsolicited commercial e-mail. Any such attempts may be aborted and the violators account may be terminated.