SDPlains Customer Agreement

CUSTOMER PRIVACY POLICY 

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. (“WRCTC”) is committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of our customers. As discussed below, we have strict policies governing access by employees and others to customer communications and information. We access customer accounts, records or reports for authorized business purposes only. We educate our employees about their obligation to safeguard customer information and communications, and we hold them accountable for their actions. In short, privacy is a priority for WRCTC in all aspects of our business.

This Customer Privacy Policy is divided into four sections: Section I: general principles that express WRCTC’s commitment to assuring strong and meaningful customer privacy protection; Section II: WRCTC’s protection of the confidentiality of Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI); Section III: WRCTC’s “Do Not Call” practices, which are designed to protect our customers from unwanted telemarketing; and Section IV: WRCTC’s contact information should you have any questions about this policy or WRCTC’s privacy practices more generally.

GENERAL PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

The following principles express WRCTC’s commitment to assuring strong and meaningful customer privacy protection, and are intended to guide WRCTC’s efforts to balance customer privacy with customer interest in receiving quality services. These principles apply to our use of “individual” customer information – that is, information about specific customers.  “Individual” customer information includes “personal information” – information particular to you, including your address, phone number, fax number and email address – and “non-personal information” that may include information such as your network traffic data, services and features used or call record details.  These policies are fully consistent with applicable laws and regulations governing privacy, including the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”). Individual customer information is distinct from “aggregated” customer information, which does not reveal a customer’s identity. Further, the examples provided below are intended to be illustrative, not all-inclusive.

  1. WRCTC Obtains and Uses Individual Customer Information for Business Purposes Only.

WRCTC obtains and uses customer information that helps us to provide our customers with quality telecommunications services. In addition to supporting the direct provision of service, this information may be used to protect customers, employees and property against fraud, theft or abuse; to conduct industry or consumer surveys; and to maintain good customer relations. Access to databases containing customer information is limited to employees who need that information to perform their jobs. These employees are required to follow strict rules when handling customer information, and are subject to disciplinary action if they fail to do so.

In order to better serve our customers, we may ask them questions to elicit additional information about their special needs and interests. For example, we may ask whether customers work at home, whether any members of the household have special needs, or whether teenagers reside in the household in order to determine whether customers may be interested in or might benefit from additional lines or services. In all cases, the information we gather is used to facilitate the provision of quality customer service. We do not share this information with third parties to market non-WRCTC services to our customers.

  1. WRCTC Collects Information from Customers in a Number of Different Ways.

WRCTC may collect information from you through communications such as via the web, or by phone, email or mail delivery, or through the services provided to you as the customer.

You may visit our site without divulging any personal information; however, there are areas of the website that might require personal information in order to contact WRCTC directly, specifically, when submitting an online service inquiry via our website at www.sdplains.com.

Information may also be collected in the following ways:

  • Browsing Our Site

-IP addresses may be collected for the purposes of system administration, to gather broad demographic information, and to monitor the level of activity on our site.

-Information may be collected regarding the referring URL, which browser you used to come to our site, and the pages of our site that you viewed during your visit and any search terms entered on our site.

-E-mails may be sent by the customer to WRCTC on this website.  WRCTC may retain the information in any e-mail that you send to us, such as your name, e-mail, address, or telephone number.

  • Broadband Internet Service

-WRCTC may monitor the network and take measurements of network performance and the performance of your Internet connection to improve the customer’s, or WRCTC’s, overall service levels.

-during communications with WRCTC for service support, we may also access information about your customer premise equipment such as computers and wireless modem devices or other device settings to provide customized technical support or to install specific applications or services for your use.

-WRCTC reserves the right to access broadband traffic from individual accounts for the purposes of general maintenance and management of the network, as well as upon request by law enforcement officials.

  • Information Collected on Our Websites

-We may collect data about visitors to our subscriber website, using some automated means such as Google Analytics, and reserve the right to use other methods such as cookies, clear GIFs, and passive automatic electronic collection. We may work with third-party companies to engage in such collection.

Log Files. Our log tracking may collect visitors’ IP addresses to analyze trends, administer our website, track visitor movement, and gather broad demographic information to help determine the type of information visitors are interested in seeing on our website. This tracking only collects IP addresses and not personally identifiable information. Visitors are not personally identifiable within our log files. WRCTC only uses this information for internal purposes and does not share this information with non-affiliated companies or institutions.

Cookies. A “Cookie” is a piece of information that is sent from a WRCTC web server to a visitor’s browser and stored on the visitor’s hard drive. WRCTC uses Cookies when a Customer or visitor orders a product or registers for a specific program. The Cookie stores information that allows WRCTC’s website to remember a Customer or visitor the next time he or she visits it. Cookies also allow us to tailor our website to better match Customers’ or other visitors’ interests and preferences. The applicable party may choose to disable Cookies by changing his or her browser settings; however, such party may not be able to access some of the information or features on our website after doing so.

  1. Customer Information Collected for Network Management

WRCTC 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.

WRCTC 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.

WRCTC 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.

  1. WRCTC Informs Customers Regarding How Information Is Used

WRCTC uses customer information in a transparent fashion, and discloses to customers the types of information WRCTC obtains about them how and when that information is used, when that information might be disclosed, the stringent measures we employ to protect that information, and ways that customers can restrict the use or disclosure of that information. This Privacy Policy is available on our website at http://www.sdplains.com and from WRCTC service representatives.

  1. WRCTC Gives Customers Opportunities To Control Access to Information.

WRCTC is committed to providing customers with opportunities to control how WRCTC uses customer information about them. For example, customers may inform us of which telephone listings they want to include in our directories and in directory assistance and may also choose to have a non-published number, or a non-listed number, or to exclude your address from your listing. Customers in areas where Caller ID services are available have the ability to block the display of their phone numbers and names. (Note that Caller ID blocking may not prevent the transmission of your phone number when you dial certain business numbers, including 911, or 800, 888, 877, and 900 numbers.) Further, customers can express a preference not to be called for marketing purposes (please see Section III, below, for more information on WRCTC’s “Do Not Call” policy). Customers may also opt out of our direct mailings and other service marketing programs. (Please see Section II, below, for WRCTC’s policy on the use of “Customer Proprietary Network Information”).  A customer may indicate a change in such preferences at any time by contacting WRCTC customer service.

We do use individual customer information internally for planning purposes – so that we can, for example, develop, test and market new products and services that meet the needs of our customers. Ordinarily, such information is combined into aggregations that do not include individual customer identities. Under certain circumstances, we are required by law to disclose the aggregated information to other companies, but in such cases customer identities are not included.

  1. WRCTC Enables Customers To Control How WRCTC Discloses Individual Information.

Ordinarily, WRCTC will only share individual customer information with persons or entities outside the company to assist us in the provision of services to which the customer subscribes, or as required by law or to protect the safety of customers, employees or property. We do not use third-party marketers, nor do we share access to individual customer information derived from the provision of WRCTC telecommunications services with other companies interested in marketing other services to our customers – and we would not do so without the consent of the customer. WRCTC is committed to ensuring that customer information is not used without the knowledge and permission of our customers.

However, there are exceptions to our general practice. For example, unless you request otherwise, we may share certain non-sensitive information with our affiliated companies with whom we have established business relationships.  In addition, if WRCTC enters into a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, a customer’s personally identifiable information will, in most instances, be transferred as a part of the transaction, subject to required notices to affected customers. In addition, we may, where permitted by law, provide information to credit bureaus, or provide information and/or sell receivables to collection agencies, to obtain payment for WRCTC billed products and services. We are also required by law to provide billing name and address information to a customer’s long distance carrier and other telephone companies to allow them to bill for telecommunications services. (By law, customers with non-published or unlisted service have the right not to have their billing name and address disclosed when they make a calling card call or accept a collect or third party call. However, if they do restrict disclosure, they will be unable to make calling card calls or accept collect and third party calls.) Similarly, we are required to provide directory publishers with subscriber listing information – name, address and phone number, and for yellow page advertisers, primary advertising classification – for purposes of publishing and delivering directories. In addition, under certain circumstances, we may share customer information with other carriers or with law enforcement, for example, to prevent and investigate fraud or other unlawful use of communications services.

  1. All WRCTC Employees Are Responsible For Safeguarding Customer Communications and Information.

WRCTC takes reasonable precautions to protect your personal information against unauthorized access.  WRCTC requires WRCTC personnel to be aware of and protect the privacy of all forms of customer communications as well as individual customer records. WRCTC makes clear that employees who fail to comply with its privacy policies will face disciplinary action, which can include dismissal. All employees are trained regarding their responsibilities to safeguard customer privacy. We strive to ensure that information we have about our customers is accurate, secure and confidential, and to ensure that our employees comply with our privacy policy.

We never tamper with, intrude upon or disclose the existence or contents of any communication or transmission, except as required by law or the proper management of our network. Access to databases containing customer information is limited to employees who need it to perform their jobs – and they follow strict guidelines when handling that information. We use safeguards to increase data accuracy and to identify and authenticate the sources of customer information. We use locks and physical security measures, sign-on and password control procedures, and internal auditing techniques to protect against unauthorized use of terminals and entry into our data systems. WRCTC requires that records be safeguarded from loss, theft, unauthorized disclosure, and accidental destruction.

In addition, sensitive, confidential, or proprietary records are protected and maintained in a secure environment. It is our policy to destroy records containing sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information in a secure manner. Hard copy confidential, proprietary, or sensitive documents are made unreadable before disposition or recycling, and electronic media must be destroyed using methods that prevent access to information stored in that type of media. Just as employees would report stolen property, missing records and suspicious incidents involving records are referred to WRCTC Management. We encourage our employees to be proactive in implementing and enforcing WRCTC’s privacy policies. If employees become aware of practices that raise privacy or security concerns, they are required to report them to their supervisors.

WRCTC’s regulatory personnel is responsible for ensuring that all WRCTC business units and their employees comply with privacy laws and regulations. WRCTC also requires any consultants, suppliers and contractors that may come into contact with customer proprietary information to observe these privacy rules with respect to any of our customers’ individual customer information. They must abide by these principles when conducting work for us, and they will be held accountable for their actions.

  1. WRCTC Takes Special Care to Protect the Safety and Privacy of Young People Using Its Services.

 WRCTC does not knowingly collect information about children. WRCTC believes that children should get their parents’ consent before giving out any personal information.  WRCTC encourages parents and legal guardians to participate in their child’s experience using WRCTC’s services.  Children should always ask a parent for permission before sending personal information to WRCTC.

  1. WRCTC Complies with All Applicable Privacy Laws and Regulations Wherever WRCTC Does Business.

Customer and policymaker perceptions of privacy have changed over time and will continue to do so. Changes in technology can also alter what is appropriate in protecting privacy. Laws may change accordingly. We regularly examine – and update as necessary –WRCTC’s privacy policies and internal procedures to ensure compliance with applicable law and evolving technology. WRCTC also will monitor customer needs and expectations. WRCTC will work with policymakers and consumers to ensure that we continue to safeguard privacy, giving customers choices, flexibility and control. WRCTC considers privacy laws and regulations to be the minimum standards to which we will adhere in protecting privacy. In addition to complying with the law, WRCTC will adhere to its internal privacy policies and procedures wherever we do business.

  1. WRCTC Gives an Authorized Gov’t Agency Access to Customer Information Only Upon Valid Request

WRCTC may release customer information in response to requests from governmental agencies, including law enforcement and national security agencies, in accordance with federal statutory requirements or pursuant to court order. Before releasing any customer information, WRCTC will ensure that the underlying governmental request satisfies all procedural and substantive legal requirements and is otherwise proper. For example, WRCTC will ensure that any court orders are valid, properly issued, and legally enforceable. Except as required by law or with the approval of the customer, WRCTC will not release any customer information in response to subpoenas or similar requests issued by private parties. Further, WRCTC will be diligent in authenticating the validity of any “governmental” request to ensure that the request actually originates from an authorized government agency.

  1. WRCTC Uses Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) In Accordance with the Law

Customers count on WRCTC to respect and protect the privacy of information we obtain in the normal course of providing telecommunications services to our customers. WRCTC is committed to protecting the privacy of all customer information, and in particular the privacy of customer proprietary network information (or CPNI).

A) Definition of “Customer Proprietary Network Information.”

The term “customer proprietary network information” is defined by federal statute to mean: (i) information that relates to the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location, and amount of use of a telecommunications service subscribed to by any customer of a telecommunications carrier, and that is made available to the carrier by the customer solely by virtue of the carrier-customer relationship; and (ii) information contained in the bills pertaining to telephone exchange service or telephone toll service received by a customer of a carrier.

B) Use of Customer Proprietary Network Information.

Under federal law, you have the right to, and we have the duty to protect, the confidentiality of your CPNI. However, we may use CPNI without your consent, in a manner consistent with applicable law, to: (i) initiate, render, bill, and collect for our services; (ii) market services among the categories of service to which you already subscribe; (iii) provide inside wiring installation, maintenance, and repair services; (iv) provide maintenance and technical support for our services; (v) protect our rights and property, and protect users of our services and other carriers from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of, or subscription to, these services; and (vi) provide any inbound telemarketing, referral, or administrative services for the duration of a customer-initiated call.

Further, after providing you with the required notice and opportunity to “opt out,” we may use your CPNI, in a manner consistent with applicable law, to market additional communications-related services to you and conduct surveys in order to improve our service offerings.

WRCTC will not use your CPNI for purposes other than those described above unless we first obtain your express “opt in” consent. For example, without such consent we will not use CPNI to market services not provided by WRCTC, and will not share your CPNI with third parties (subject to the limitations discussed below).

C) Limits on the disclosure of CPNI outside WRCTC.

As a general rule, WRCTC does not use third-party marketers and will not disclose your CPNI to third party contractors without your explicit “opt in” consent. This means that our records of the services you buy and the calls you make generally will remain private if you choose to keep them so, since we will not ordinarily disclose this information to outside parties without your permission. However, we will release customer information without involving you if disclosure is required by law, or necessary to protect the safety of customers, employees or property. For example: When you dial 911, information about your location may be transmitted automatically to a public safety agency.

Certain information about your long distance calls may be transmitted to your long distance company for billing purposes. We are also required by law to give competitive local exchange carriers access to customer databases for purposes of serving their customers, to exchange credit information with other carriers, and to provide listings (other than certain non-published and non-listed information) to directory publishers.

We will disclose information as necessary to comply with law enforcement statutes, such as to comply with valid, properly issued, and legally-enforceable subpoenas, warrants and court orders.

We may, where permitted by law, share CPNI with third parties where necessary to provide the services to which you subscribe, to protect our rights or property, and to protect users of our services and other carriers from fraudulent, abusive or unlawful use of services.

We may, where permitted by law, provide CPNI to third parties such as credit bureaus, or sell receivables to collection agencies, to obtain payment for WRCTC billed products and services.

D) Authentication to prevent unauthorized access to CPNI.

WRCTC is committed to ensuring that only properly authorized individuals are able to access CPNI for legitimate purposes. This includes ensuring that any request by a “customer” to access CPNI is valid and properly authenticated, in accordance with applicable law and industry best practices. In general, our internal policies and procedures are designed to ensure that CPNI is not released to unauthorized individuals.

Further, if a “customer” calls us to access “call detail records” (which include the number called, the number from which a call was placed, and the time, location, or duration of any call), we will not release those records unless (i) during the call, the customer provides a pre-established password; (ii) the information is sent to the customer’s address of record; or (iii) after the call, we call the customer’s telephone number of record to provide the requested information. If a “customer” attempts to access CPNI through our website, we will only provide such access if the customer has first established a password and back-up authentication mechanism for the relevant account, in a manner that does not rely on readily-available biographical or account information. If a “customer” attempts to access CPNI by visiting a retail location in person, we will only provide such access if the “customer” presents valid photo identification matching the name of record on the account. (Note that different procedures may apply to certain business customers served by a dedicated account representative where the underlying service agreement addresses CPNI protection and authentication.) We also will notify you at your address of record if anyone changes the access authorization or authentication information associated with your account.

E) Notice of unauthorized access to CPNI.

As a company, we are vigilant in our efforts to protect your CPNI. However, should we become aware that your CPNI has been accessed without proper authority, we will take swift action to fully document and address such unauthorized access and provide appropriate notice. In particular, we will follow the appropriate procedures per our CPNI Compliance Policy.

  1. WRCTC’s “Opt-Out” List

Any WRCTC customer can express a preference not to be called by us for marketing purposes, and WRCTC will respect such preference. A customer that does not wish to receive sales calls from WRCTC specifically may ask to be placed on our company-specific “Opt-Out” list. We will note the customer’s request immediately, although it may take up to 30 days for the customer’s telephone number to be removed from any active lists or sales programs that are currently underway.

Any customer can ask to be put on our “Opt-Out” list by contacting WRCTC’s customer service department.  All customers should call 605-244-5213. The requesting customer should provide, at a minimum, the telephone number that is the subject of the request, although inclusion of the customer’s name and address is also useful. If a customer is served by multiple telephone numbers, the customer should tell us all numbers that should be placed on the “Opt-Out” list.

All customers will remain on our “Opt-Out” until the customer asks to be removed from the list by contacting our customer service department. If a customer’s telephone number ever changes, the customer must give us updated information in order for the “Opt-Out” status to remain in effect.

Notwithstanding the fact that a customer’s telephone number is on our “Opt-Out” list, we may still contact that customer with respect to surveys, billing, and other service-related matters. Further, the customer should understand that being on our “Opt-Out” list will not prevent calls from other companies unaffiliated with WRCTC.

FURTHER INFORMATION

While we have made significant efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.  Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure and we will not be held liable should a third party illegally obtain your personal information via Internet transmission.

WRCTC reserves the right to change, modify or update this Privacy Policy at any time without notice. In the event of any modification, we will post the changes in this Privacy Policy so that you will always know what information we are gathering and how we might use that information. However if such changes are material, we will either announce the change on the home page of the site or take such other action as we deem appropriate under the circumstances. Accordingly, you should periodically visit this page to determine the current Privacy Policy to which you are bound.

If you have any questions or comments concerning this Customer Privacy Policy, or if you believe that the Company has not adhered to its privacy policy, please contact WRCTC’s customer service department.  You may contact WRCTC via regular mail at:

WRCTC
Customer Service Supervisor
PO Box 39
Bison, SD  57620

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY FOR BROADBAND SERVICES

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. has adopted this Acceptable Use AUP (“AUP”) to outline the acceptable use of West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s Broadband Service. This AUP applies to the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s services that provide or include access to the Internet, including hosting services, or are provided over the Internet or wireless data networks (collectively, “Broadband Service”)

You, the customer, must comply with this AUP.  Your failure to do so could result in the suspension or termination of your Broadband Service subscription.  If you do not agree to comply with this AUP, you must immediately stop all use of the Broadband Service and notify West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. so that we can close your account.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may revise this AUP from time to time and will have the latest version posted on its website.  West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. will use reasonable efforts to make customers aware of any changes to this AUP, which may include sending e-mail announcements or posting additional information on the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. website.  Revised versions of this AUP are effective immediately upon posting. Accordingly, customers of the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Broadband Service should read any West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. announcements they receive and regularly visit the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. web site and review this AUP to ensure that their activities conform to the most recent version. You can send questions regarding this AUP to, and report violations of it to West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc., Manager of Telecom Operations.

I. Prohibited Uses and Activities

In general, this AUP prohibits uses and activities involving the Broadband Service that are illegal, infringe the rights of others, or interfere with or diminish the use and enjoyment of the Broadband Service by others.

     A. Network and Usage Restrictions

 No user of the Broadband Service, Customer Equipment, or the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Equipment may, individually or in combination with another: 

  1. restrict, inhibit, or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to use or enjoy the Broadband Service (except for safety and security functions such as parental controls, for example), including, without limitation, posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a worm, virus, or other harmful feature, or generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others’ ability to use, send, or retrieve information;
  2. restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or otherwise disrupt performance of the Broadband Service or cause a performance degradation, regardless of intent, purpose or knowledge, to the Broadband Service or any West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. (or West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. supplier) host, server, backbone network, node or service
  3. resell the Broadband Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Broadband Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly.
  4. connect the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Equipment to any computer outside of your Premises.
  5. interfere with computer networking or telecommunications service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service, improper seizing and abusing operator privileges, and attempts to “crash” a host
  6. accessing and using the Broadband Service with anything other than a dynamic Internet Protocol (“IP”) address that adheres to the dynamic host configuration protocol (“DHCP”). You may not configure the Broadband Service or any related equipment to access or use a static IP address or use any protocol other than DHCP unless expressly permitted to do so by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.
  7. use the Broadband Service to transmit, distribute, or store material (a) in violation of any applicable law, (b) in a manner that will infringe the copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others.

     B. Conduct and Information Restrictions

No user of the Broadband Service, Customer Equipment, or the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Equipment may, individually or in combination with another:

  1. avoid incurring charges for or otherwise being required to pay for usage of the Broadband Service
  2. invade another person’s privacy, stalk, harass, or otherwise violate the rights of other persons
  3. undertake or accomplish any unlawful purpose. This includes, but is not limited to, posting, storing, transmitting or disseminating information, data or material which is libelous, obscene, unlawful, threatening or defamatory, or which infringes the intellectual property rights of any person or entity, or which in any way constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, or otherwise violate any local, state, federal, or non-U.S. law, order, or regulation;
  4. post, store, send, transmit, or disseminate any information or material which a reasonable person could deem to be unlawful
  5. upload, post, publish, transmit, reproduce, create derivative works of, or distribute in any way information, software or other material obtained through the Broadband Service or otherwise that is protected by copyright or other proprietary right, without obtaining any required permission of the owner
  6. collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their consent
  7. transmit unsolicited bulk or commercial messages commonly known as “spam;”
  8. send voluminous copies of the same or substantially similar messages, empty messages, or messages which contain no substantive content, or send very large messages or files that disrupts a server, account, blog, newsgroup, chat, or similar service
  9. initiate, perpetuate, or in any way participate in any pyramid or other illegal scheme
  10. participate in the collection of voluminous amounts of e-mail addresses, screen names, or other identifiers of others (without their prior consent), a practice sometimes known as spidering or harvesting, or participate in the use of software (including “spyware”) designed to facilitate this activity
  11. collect responses from unsolicited bulk messages
  12. falsify, alter, or remove message headers
  13. falsify references to West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. or its network, by name or another identifier, in messages
  14. impersonate any person or entity, engage in sender address falsification, forge anyone else’s digital or manual signature, or perform any other similar fraudulent activity (for example, “phishing”)
  15. violate the rules, regulations, terms of service, or policies applicable to any network, server, computer database, service, application, system, or Web site that you access or use

     C. Technical Restrictions

No user of the Broadband Service, Customer Equipment, or the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Equipment may, individually or in combination with another:

 

  1. use the Internet service or facilities for webhosting, e-mail hosting, or other unusually high-bandwidth consumption unless you have made special subscription arrangements with West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. and the usage does not otherwise violate law or regulation;
  2. access any other person’s computer or computer system, network, software, or data without his or her knowledge and consent; breach the security of another user or system; or attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other hosts, networks, or accounts without express permission to do so
  1. use or distribute tools or devices designed or used for compromising security or whose use is otherwise unauthorized, such as password guessing programs, decoders, password gatherers, keystroke loggers, analyzers, cracking tools, packet sniffers, encryption circumvention devices, or Trojan Horse programs. Unauthorized port scanning is strictly prohibited
  2. copy, distribute, or sublicense any proprietary software provided in connection with the Broadband Service by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. or any third party.
  3. distribute programs that make unauthorized changes to software (cracks)
  4. use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network (“Premises LAN”), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail, Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers
  5. use or run programs from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises LAN
  6. service, alter, modify, or tamper with the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Equipment or Broadband Service or permit any other person to do the same who is not authorized by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.

II. Customer Conduct and Features of the Broadband Service

     A. Customer Obligations

 In addition to being responsible for your own compliance with this AUP, you are also responsible for any use or misuse of the Broadband Service that violates this AUP, even if it was committed by a friend, family member, or guest with access to your Broadband Service account. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others do not use your account to gain unauthorized access to the Broadband Service by, for example, strictly maintaining the confidentiality of your Broadband Service login and password. In all cases, you are solely responsible for the security of any device you choose to connect to the Broadband Service, including any data stored or shared on that device.  It is also your responsibility to secure the Customer Equipment and any other Premises equipment or programs not provided by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. that connects to the Broadband Service from external threats such as viruses, spam, bot nets, and other methods of intrusion.

     B. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s Rights

 West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. reserves the right to refuse to transmit or post, and to remove or block, any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be in violation of this AUP, or otherwise harmful to West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s network or customers using the Broadband Service, regardless of whether this material or its dissemination is lawful so long as it violates this AUP.  Neither West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. nor any of its affiliates, suppliers, or agents have any obligation to monitor transmissions or postings (including, but not limited to, e-mail, file transfer, blog, newsgroup, and instant message transmissions) made on the Broadband Service. However, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. and its affiliates, suppliers, and agents have the right to monitor these transmissions and postings from time to time for violations of this AUP, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy, or the Customer Agreement, and to disclose, block, or remove them in accordance with this AUP, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy, the Customer Agreement, or applicable law.

      C. Service Restrictions

All West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s network and system services are provided according to scheduled fees for each type of service.  You agree to use such services in accordance with the terms set forth below.

  1. Email and Web-Hosting Services

(i) Unsolicited Email Prohibited – You may not use West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.-hosted email addresses for the purpose of sending unsolicited email.  You may not use or cause to be used West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s equipment, network connectivity, or other resources to originate, deliver, relay or otherwise transmit unsolicited email messages.  You may not engage in any of the foregoing prohibited activities by using the service of any other provider, third-party agent, remailing service or address forwarding service, in such a way that West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s network addresses or West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.-hosted web or email services are in any way identified as being associated with the sending of unsolicited email.

(ii) Unauthorized use, or forging, of mail header information (e.g.  “spoofing”) is prohibited.

(iii) Fraudulent Activity Prohibited – You may not use the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. email and web-hosting services to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, services, or to advance any type of financial scam such as “pyramid schemes”, “Ponzi schemes”, or “chain letters.”  You may not use techniques to hide or obscure the source of any e-mail or other communications.

(iv) West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. reserves the right to suspend or delay delivery of email to Customer utilizing West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. email services and/or the virtual domain email if the volume of email being redirected, stored, or delivered on the Customer’s behalf is deemed excessive.  Excessive traffic is defined as any amount of email traffic that noticeably degrades performance on the server in question, in the sole discretion of West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.  Stored mail exceeding these limits may be transferred to a compressed file at West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’ discretion.  West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. will attempt to notify the account holder via the account contact information on record; however, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. reserves the right to delete the contents of such email boxes upon thirty (30) days after attempted notification.

 (v) The Broadband Service may not be used to communicate or distribute e-mail or other forms of communications in violation of Section I of this AUP. As described below in Section III of this AUP, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. uses reasonable network management tools and techniques to protect customers from receiving spam and from sending spam (often without their knowledge over an infected computer).

(vi) West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. is not responsible for deleting or forwarding any e-mail sent to the wrong e-mail address by you or by someone else trying to send an e-mail to you. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. is also not responsible for forwarding e-mail sent to any account that has been suspended or terminated. This e-mail will be returned to the sender, ignored, deleted, or stored temporarily at West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s sole discretion.

(vii) In the event that West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. believes in its sole discretion that any subscriber name, account name, or e-mail address (collectively, an “identifier”) on the Broadband Service may be used for, or is being used for, any misleading, fraudulent, or other improper or illegal purpose, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. (i) reserves the right to block access to and prevent the use of any of these identifiers and (ii) may at any time require any customer to change his or her identifier. In addition, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may at any time reserve any identifiers on the Broadband Service for West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s own purposes. In the event that a Broadband Service account is terminated for any reason, all e-mail associated with that account (and any secondary accounts) will be permanently deleted as well. 

  1. Instant, Video, and Audio Messages

Each user is responsible for the contents of his or her instant, video, and audio messages and the consequences of any of these messages. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the untimeliness, incorrect delivery, deletion, or failure to store these messages. In the event that a Broadband Service account is terminated for any reason, all instant, video, and audio messages associated with that account (and any secondary accounts) will be permanently deleted as well.

III. Network Management and Limitations on Data Consumption

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. manages its network with the goal of delivering a fast, safe and uncompromised broadband Internet experience to all its customers. But high-speed bandwidth and network resources are not unlimited. Managing the network is essential for the promotion of the best possible broadband Internet experience by all West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s customers. The company uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. tries to use tools and technologies that are minimally intrusive and, in its independent judgment guided by industry experience, among the best in class. Of course, the company’s network management practices will change and evolve along with the uses of the Internet and the challenges and threats on the Internet.

All broadband Internet service providers manage their networks.  Many of them use the same or similar tools as West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.  If West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. didn’t manage its network, its customers would be subject to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of service. By engaging in responsible network management, including enforcement of this AUP, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. can deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to all its customers.

     A. Network Management

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. uses various tools and techniques to manage its network, deliver the Broadband Service, and ensure compliance with this AUP and the Customer Agreement.  These tools and techniques are dynamic, like the network and its usage, and can and do change frequently.  West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s network management practices may include (i) identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer e-mail accounts, (ii) detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses or other harmful code or content, (iii) temporarily lowering the priority of traffic for users who are the top contributors to current network congestion, and (iv) using other tools and techniques West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may be required to implement in order to meet its goal of delivering the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers.

     B. Network Usage and Data Consumption Restrictions

You acknowledge that all the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Internet services are intended for periodic, active use of email, user newsgroups, transfers via FTP, Internet chat, Internet games, and browsing of the Internet.  You must comply with all current bandwidth, data storage, and other limitations on the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Internet services that have been established by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. suppliers.  You agree not to intentionally use the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Internet service on a standby or inactive basis to maintain a connection.  The excessive use or abuse of West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s network resources by one Customer may have a negative impact on all other Customers.  Accordingly, in addition to the Prohibited Uses and Activities provided in Section I, you may not use the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Internet service or take any action, directly or indirectly, that will result in excessive consumption or utilization of the system or network resources, or which may weaken network performance, as determined in West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s sole discretion.  Such prohibited actions include, but are not limited to: using the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Internet Services to host a web server site which attracts excessive traffic at your location, continuously uploading or downloading streaming video or audio, use net hosting, continuous FTP uploading or downloading, or acting in a manner that negatively effects other users’ ability to engage in real time exchanges and use of the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Internet Services.

Therefore, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. reserves the right to impose and enforce bandwidth usage thresholds based on individual broadband service plans limiting the amount of data you can upload and download within specific time periods.  West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. also reserves the right to suspend or terminate Broadband Service accounts where data consumption is not characteristic of a typical user of a similar Broadband Services account as determined by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. in its sole discretion.

Common activities that may cause excessive data consumption in violation of this AUP include, but are not limited to, numerous or continuous bulk transfers of files and other high-capacity traffic using (i) file transfer protocol (“FTP”), (ii) peer-to-peer applications, and (iii) newsgroups. You must also ensure that your use of the Broadband Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other person’s use of the Broadband Service, nor represent (as determined by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. in its sole discretion) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you must ensure that your use of the Broadband Service does not limit or interfere with West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s ability to deliver and monitor the Broadband Service or any part of its network.

If you use the Broadband Service in violation of the restrictions referenced above, that is a violation of this AUP. In these cases, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may, in its sole discretion, suspend or terminate your Broadband Service account or request that you subscribe to a higher tier of the Broadband Service if you wish to continue to use the Broadband Service at higher data consumption levels.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s determination of the data consumption for Broadband Service accounts is final.

IV. Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate your Broadband Service account and terminate the Customer Agreement if you violate the terms of this AUP or the Customer Agreement.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. does not routinely monitor the activity of individual Broadband Service accounts for violations of this AUP, except for determining aggregate data consumption in connection with the data consumption provisions of this AUP. However, in the company’s efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, it will respond appropriately if it becomes aware of inappropriate use of the Broadband Service. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. has no obligation to monitor the Broadband Service and/or the network. However, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. and its suppliers reserve the right at any time to monitor bandwidth, usage, transmissions, and content to, among other things, operate the Broadband Service; identify violations of this AUP; and/or protect the network, the Broadband Service and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. users.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. prefers to inform customers of inappropriate activities and give them a reasonable period in which to take corrective action. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. also prefers to have customers directly resolve any disputes or disagreements they may have with others, whether customers or not, without West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s intervention. However, if the Broadband Service is used in a way that West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. or its suppliers, in their sole discretion, believe violates this AUP, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. or its suppliers may take any responsive actions they deem appropriate under the circumstances with or without notice. These actions include, but are not limited to, temporary or permanent removal of content, cancellation of newsgroup posts, filtering of Internet transmissions, and the immediate suspension or termination of all or any portion of the Broadband Service (including but not limited to newsgroups). Neither West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. nor its affiliates, suppliers, or agents will have any liability for any of these responsive actions. These actions are not West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s exclusive remedies and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may take any other legal or technical actions it deems appropriate with or without notice.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. reserves the right to investigate suspected violations of this AUP, including the gathering of information from the user or users involved and the complaining party, if any, and examination of material on West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s servers and network. During an investigation, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may suspend the account or accounts involved and/or remove or block material that potentially violates this AUP. You expressly authorize and consent to West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. and its suppliers cooperating with (i) law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected legal violations, and (ii) and system administrators at other Internet service providers or other network or computing facilities to enforce this AUP. Upon termination of your Broadband Service account, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. is authorized to delete any files, programs, data, e-mail and other messages associated with your account (and any secondary accounts).

The failure of West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. or its suppliers to enforce this AUP, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of any right to do so at any time. You agree that if any portion of this AUP is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law as nearly as possible, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect.  You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. and its affiliates, suppliers, and agents against all claims and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) resulting from any violation of this AUP. Your indemnification will survive any termination of your services with West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.

YOU AGREE TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD WEST RIVER COOPERATIVE TELEPHONE COMPANY, INC. HARMLESS FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITIES, COSTS AND EXPENSES, INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES, RELATED TO ANY VIOLATION OF THIS AUP BY YOU OR AUTHORIZED USERS OF YOUR ACCOUNT, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR THE INTERNET OR THE PLACEMENT OR TRANSMISSION OF ANY MESSAGE, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE OR OTHER MATERIALS ON THE INTERNET BY YOU OR USERS OF YOUR ACCOUNT. Your indemnification will survive any termination of your services with West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.

V. Redress and Governing Law

      a. Governing Law / Resolution of Disputes – Arbitration

Any dispute or claim between you, the Customer, and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. arising out of or relating to the service provided in connection with this AUP or the Customer Agreement shall be resolved by arbitration (“Arbitration”), unless otherwise specified in Customer’s individual Customer Agreement.  To the extent that there is a conflict regarding this Arbitration provision, the Customer’s individual Customer Agreement supersedes the Terms and Policies of the individual Services.

The arbitrator’s decision shall follow the plain meaning of the relevant documents and shall be final and binding. The parties agree that no arbitrator has the authority to: (i) award relief in excess of what the Customer Agreement provides; or (ii) award punitive or exemplary damages.  Judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrators may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.  All claims shall be arbitrated individually, and Customer will not bring, or join any class action of any kind in court or in arbitration or seek to consolidate or bring previously consolidated claims in Arbitration.  CUSTOMER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THIS ARBITRATION PROVISION CONSTITUTES A WAIVER OF ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

b. Governing Law / Resolution of Disputes – Governing Law

The Agreement and the relationship between you and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. shall be governed by the laws of the state of South Dakota without regard to its conflict of law provisions.  To the extent court action is initiated to enforce an arbitration award or for any other reason consistent with the Arbitration provision herein, you and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the state of South Dakota and waive any objection as to venue or inconvenient forum.  The failure of West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this AUP or the Customer Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.  If any provision of this AUP or the Customer Agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of this AUP or the Customer Agreement remain in full force and effect.  You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the service, this AUP or the Customer Agreement must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

VI. Copyright and Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Requirements

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. is committed to complying with U.S. copyright and related laws and requires all customers and users of the Service to comply with these laws.  Please refer to West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy for a description of customer obligations and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s enforcement and DMCA Agent contact information.

 

DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT POLICY

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. including one or more of its affiliates (“West RiverCooperative Telephone Company, Inc), is committed to complying with U.S. copyright and related laws, and requires all customers and users of the Service to comply with these laws. Accordingly, you may not store any material or content on, or disseminate and material or content over, the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of third party intellectual property rights, including rights granted by U.S. copyright law. Owners of copyrighted works who believe that their rights on U.S. copyright law have been infringed may take advantage of certain provisions of the DigitalMillennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) to report alleged infringements. It is West RiverCooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s policy in accordance with the DMCA and other applicable lawsto reserve the right to terminate the Service provided to any customer or user who is either found to infringe third party copyright or other intellectual property rights, including repeat infringers, or who West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. believes in its sole discretion is infringing these rights. West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. may terminate the Service at any time with or without notice for any affected customer or user.

Copyright owners may report alleged infringements of their work by sending West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s DMCA Designated Agent a notification of claimed infringement that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA. Upon West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s receipt of asatisfactory notice from a copyright holder or its authorized representative regarding an alleged violation of law by someone using an IP address identified as belonging to West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc., the following actions will be initiated:

1. West River Cooperative Telephone Company personnel will review the IP address to determine whether the IP address is in use by West River Cooperative Telephone Company or by one of its owners or affiliates. If the IP address has been assigned to an entity other than West River Cooperative Telephone Company the DMCA notice will be forwarded to that entity for review and any action or response.

2. If the IP address is assigned and used by West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. or one of its customers, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. personnel will attempt to identify the user. If the offender cannot be identified, the West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. Agent for West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s internet site will be notified so they can respondaccordingly to the copyright holder or its agent. If the offender is identified, West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. will take the following actions:

a. If the offender is an employee, the responsible supervisor will be notified and appropriate disciplinary action may be warranted. A copy of the violation will be filed by HR in the employee’spersonnel file.

b. If the offender is a customer, the customer will be notified by telephone and email of the offense. If it is a first time offense, the customer will be notified and advised that an alleged violation of copyright law has been received and that any further violations could affect thecustomer’s access to the internet. Notification of a second offense will result in the same action as the first offense. A third offense may result in notice that internet service will be restricted for ninety (90) days to limit the ability to violate the law. In the event that a customer is notified of alleged infringement four (4) or more times, regardless of whether the infringements are concurrent or sporadic, the customer is deemed to be a repeat infringer and West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. will proceed with throttling service speeds, suspending orterminate that customer’s Service account, unless instructed otherwise by federal law or copyrightholder.

If you believe that your work has been copied, stored, or transmitted in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please submit a notification pursuant to the DMCA by providing West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s DMCA Designated Agent (contact provided below) the following written information:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  2. Identification of the copyright work claimed to have been infringed;
  3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. to locate the material;
  4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and , if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
  5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  6.  A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. has filed with the United States Copyright Office the necessary designated agent information to facilitate notice of alleged online copyright infringement on our network. Our designated agent for notification of alleged copyright infringement and counter notification is:

Designation of Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement
FULL LEGAL NAME OF SERVICE PROVIDER: WEST RIVER COOPERATIVE TELEPHONE COMPANY, INC.

AGENT NAME AND TITLE, DESIGNEE TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF CLAIMED INFRINGEMENT:

ERIC KAHLER, MANGER OF TELECOM OPERATIONS

FULL ADDRESS OF DESIGNATED AGENT TO WHICH NOTIFICATION SHOULD BE SENT: PO BOX 39, 801 COLEMAN AVE, BISON, SD 57620

TELEPHONE NUMBER OF DESIGNATED AGENT: 605-244-5213

E-MAIL ADDRESS OF DESIGNATED AGENT: ekahler@wrctc.coop

You should be aware that complainants who make false claims or misrepresentations concerning copyright infringement may be liable for damages under the DMCA.

Counter-Notification in Response to Claim of Copyright Infringement

If an affected customer or user believes in good faith that the allegedly infringing work have been removed or blocked by mistake or misidentification, then that person may send a counter notification to West RiverCooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s designated agent at the address noted above. Upon West RiverCooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s receipt of a counter notification that satisfies the requirements of DMCA,West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. will provide a copy of the counter notification to the person whosent the original notification of claimed infringement and will follow the DMCA’s procedures with respect to areceived counter notification. This process will invoke a dispute between you and the complaining party. In all events, you expressly agree that West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. will not be a party to any disputes or lawsuits regarding alleged copyright infringement.

Your counter-notification must be in wringing and contain the following information:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of an authorized person;
  2. Identification of the material that was removed or access to which was disabled and the location at which material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
  1. A statement under penalty of perjury that the alleged infringer has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake of misidentification;
  2. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the federal district in which you are located and that you will accepts service of process from the complainant.

You should be aware that substantial penalties under U.S. law apply for a false counter-notice filed in response to a notice of copyright infringement.

What is network management?

Network management is the reasonable and nondiscriminatory enforcement of network usage policies and the management of bandwidth use and capacity.  Network management includes congestion- and security-protocol-management.  While maintaining its network, WRCTC is also promoting the dynamic benefits of an open and accessible Internet.   So, the broadband experience of WRCTC’s customers will generally not be impacted by the industry-standard network management techniques used by WRCTC.

Which parts of the network does WRCTC manage?

WRCTC manages only the portion of the network that begins on the outside of the customer’s home up to the point where the internet traffic is handed off to the public network.  WRCTC does not control the equipment inside the customer premise such as routers, computers, application software, and inside wire, which can affect the performance of the broadband service.  WRCTC also does not control the operation of specific websites that may slow down during busy periods or the overall performance of the public internet.

Why does WRCTC manage its network?

WRCTC manages its network in order to provide the ultimate broadband Internet service to its customers.   WRCTC acknowledges that bandwidth and network resources are not infinite and must be reasonably confined.  In order to bring you the best possible broadband Internet experience,  WRCTC enforces network management policies that limit network congestion and delay while ensuring that all Internet content is treated equally and is not unlawfully blocked or degraded.  WRCTC’s network management practices are intended to protect the network, and WRCTC’ customers, from network congestion, threats to the network, security attacks, viruses and spam.  WRCTC manages its network in a way that is transparent and nondiscriminatory.

How does WRCTC manage its network?

WRCTC has policies in place to ensure that customers are able to access the lawful Internet content of their choice, run the Internet applications of their choice and to promote the continued development of the Internet. WRCTC’s network management practices are nondiscriminatory, application-neutral, and minimally intrusive.  WRCTC will use one or more of the following industry standard techniques to manage its network.  This list is not exhaustive:

  1. Monitoring the network to identify congestion, security breaches, malware, or damage to the network;
  2. Rerouting Internet traffic to relieve congestion;
  3. Port Filtering;
  4. Additions or upgrades to increase network capacity;
  5. Enforcement of Acceptable Use Policy, Customer Agreement, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy against customers abusing the network;
  6. Using security protocols to ensure authentication of customers;
  7. Providing resources to customer’s for identifying and reporting spam, viruses, firewall issues, and phishing schemes;
  8. Filtering spam;
  9. Preventing viruses from harming the network; and
  10. Thwarting denial of service attacks

Network management practices are a necessity to guard against harmful threats to the network such as network congestion, security attacks, excessive spam, and viruses.  Reasonable network management practices ensure that you will have the best possible broadband Internet experience.

Will WRCTC’ network management impact my online experience?

WRCTC uses reasonable network management tools and practices that are minimally intrusive to its customers and are consistent with industry standards.  In accordance with WRCTC’s policies, Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy, and the Customer Agreement, customers have agreed to comply with all current bandwidth, and other limitations on WRCTC’ Broadband Internet services.  Thus, WRCTC’s tools and practices will generally impact only users that have violated the terms of WRCTC’ AUP or DMCA policy. Users are also more likely to experience an impact on online experience during peak periods where congestion is prevalent.

What can I expect if I am in violation of WRCTC’s policies, Terms and Conditions of Service, the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy, or Customer Agreement?

If you, the customer, are in violation of any of the foregoing, the impact to your online experience will include, but will not necessarily be limited to, any one or all of the following:

  1. notification by WRCTC that you are in violation of the company’s policies, terms and conditions or agreement and given a reasonable timeframe in which to take corrective action;
  2. removal or blockage of material that has resulted in the violation including, but not limited to, illegal content;
  3. suspension or delay of the delivery of email if deemed excessive;
  4. suspension or termination of your Broadband Internet service account;

Customers could also experience longer download or upload times or slower web surfing.

Will I be suspended from the network if I use certain applications?

Unless noted otherwise in WRCTC’s Network Transparency Statement, WRCTC does not discriminate between applications.  WRCTC’s network management practices are primarily application-agnostic.  Thus, WRCTC generally will not manage its network congestion or security protocols based on applications being used by its customers on the WRCTC’s broadband Internet service.  WRCTC’s network management is based on current network conditions and the aggregate amount of bandwidth being used by customers.

How will I know if my account is suspended because of a violation of WRCTC’s policies, AUP, DMCA, or Customer Agreement?

Generally, you will have received a notification from WRCTC that you have committed a violation and would have been given a period of time during which to take corrective action.  If, however, your violation persists, you will discover that you are unable to access the Internet through WRCTC’s Broadband Internet service.  You will be unable to surf the web or conduct online activities.

What should I do if my account is suspended?

If your account is suspended, you should contact WRCTC and follow WRCTC’s instructions for reinstating service.

West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. (“West River Coop” or “Company”) provides this Network Transparency Statement in accordance with the FCC’s Restore Internet Freedom Rules to ensure that you have sufficient information to make informed choices about the purchase of broadband services.  Information about West River Coop’s other policies and practices concerning broadband are available at http://www.sdplains.com (“West River Coop Website”).

West River Coop engages in network management practices that are tailored and appropriate for achieving optimization on the network considering the particular network architecture and technology of its broadband Internet access service.  West River Coop’s goal is to ensure that all of its customers experience a safe and secure broadband Internet environment that is fast, reliable, and affordable.  West River Coop wants its customers to indulge in all that the Internet has to offer, whether it is social networking, streaming videos, and music, to communicating through email and videoconferencing.

West River Coop will not unjustly or unreasonably prevent or interfere with competition among Content, Applications, Service, or Device Providers.

West River Coop’s network management includes congestion- and security-protocol-management and customers generally will not be impacted by the protocols and practices that West River Coop uses to manage its network.

West River Coop provides spam filtering with each customer’s “sdplains.com” email address. Details of this service are listed on West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc.’s website. West River Coop will not ask you for your password in an unsolicited telephone call or email. If you believe your password has been compromised, you should immediately change your password to prevent the unauthorized use of it.

A. West River Coop’s Network Transparency Disclosures

West River Coop uses various tools and industry standard techniques to manage its network and deliver fast, secure and reliable Internet service.  West River Coop believes in full transparency and provides the following disclosures about its network management practices:

  1. Blocking: West River Coop does not block or discriminate against lawful content.
  2. Throttling: West River Coop does not throttle, impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic.
  3. Affiliated Prioritization: West River Coop does not prioritize Internet traffic and has no plans to do so.
  4. Paid Prioritization: West River Coop has never engaged in paid prioritization. We don’t prioritize Internet for consideration to benefit particular content, applications, services or devices. West River Coop does not have plans to enter into paid prioritization deals to create fast lanes.
  5. Congestion Management: West River Coop monitors the connections on its network in the aggregate on a continuous basis to determine the rate of utilization. If congestion emerges on the network, West River Coop will take the appropriate measures to relieve congestion.

On West River Coop’s network, all customers have access to all legal services, applications and content online and, in the event of congestion, most Internet activities will be unaffected.  Some customers, however, may experience longer download or upload times, or slower surf speeds on the web if instances of congestion do occur on West River Coop’s network.

Customers using conduct that abuses or threatens the West River Coop network or which violates the company’s Acceptable Use Policy, or the company’s Internet Policy will be asked to stop any such use immediately.   A failure to respond or to cease any such conduct could result in service suspension or termination.

Customers using conduct that abuses or threatens the company’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy will be subject to the actions within the company’s DCMA Policy.

West River Coop’s network and congestion management practices are ‘application-agnostic’, based on current network conditions, and are not implemented on the basis of customers’ online activities, protocols, or applications. West River Coop’s network management practices do not relate to any particular customer’s aggregate monthly data usage.

West River Coop monitors its network on a continuous basis to determine utilization on its network.  West River Coop also checks for abnormal traffic flows, malware, loss, and damage to the network. If a high volume users are brought to light by complaint, West River Coop provides notification to the customer via email or phone.  If a violation of West River Coop’s policies has occurred and such violation is not remedied, West River Coop will seek to suspend or terminate that customer’s service.

West River Coop monitors its connection to the internet to efficiently manage the performance of the network to ensure a sustainable quality broadband service is provided. Peak network usage is between 4 pm and 11 pm Monday – Friday and 10 am – 11 pm Saturday and Sunday.

Congestion due to malice will be remedied using any technique available, including protocol-aware filtering and rate-limiting, to control and limit the offending source. West River Coop may seek criminal charges against those who inflict network malice. West River Coop may also attempt to recover costs incurred from network malice.

  1. Application-Specific Behavior: Except as may be provided elsewhere herein, West River Coop does not currently engage in any application-specific behaviors on its network. Customers may use any lawful applications with West River Coop.
  2. Device Attachment Rules: Customers must use PPPoE for authentication of point to point connections between devices on the network. There is a limit of one (1) PPPoE session per account.  For best results, DSL modems, wireless modems, or other proprietary network gateways used on the West River Coop broadband network may be offered by West River Coop. Customers may attach devices of their choosing to their wired or wireless routers including laptops, desktop computers, video game systems, televisions, or other network-enabled electronics equipment. However, customers are responsible for ensuring that their equipment does not harm West River Coop’s network or impair the service of other West River Coop customers. West River Coop is not responsible for the functionality or compatibility of any equipment provided by its customers. Customers are responsible for securing their own equipment to prevent unauthorized access to West River Coop’s broadband network by third parties and will be held responsible for the actions of such third parties who gain unauthorized access through unsecured customer equipment.
  3. Network Security: West River Coop knows the importance of securing its network and customers from network threats and annoyances. The company promotes the security of its network and patrons by protections from such threats as spam, viruses, firewall issues, and phishing schemes.  West River Coop subscribes to DDOS protection from our upstream ISP.  In the event that we have a high level of ingress or egress traffic flows that could be causing a DDOS attack, our DDOS protection blocks the traffic from or to those IP addresses.As its normal practice, West River Coop does not block any protocols, content or traffic for purposes of network management, but West River Coop may block or limit such traffic as spam, viruses, malware, or denial of service attacks to protect network integrity and the security of our customers.

B. Network Performance

  1. Service Descriptions

West River Coop deploys Internet access to its subscribers through hardwired broadband access via FTTH and FITL applications and facilities.

  1. Network Performance

West River Coop 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 problems.  West River Coop measures availability, latency, and aggregate utilization on the network and strives to meet internal service level targets.

However, the 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 factors beyond West River Coop’s control, including the speed of the connection from a distant web server to the Internet, congestion on intermediate networks, and/or limitations on your own private network, such as computer equipment or wireless routers.  In addition, your service performance may be affected by the inside wiring at your premise.  Accordingly, you, the customer, must consider the capabilities of your own equipment when choosing a West River Coop broadband service. Your computers and/or wireless or other networks in your homes or offices may need an upgrade in order to take full advantage of the chosen West River Coop broadband plan.

West River Coop tests each service for actual and expected access speeds at the time of network installation to demonstrate that the service is capable of supporting the advertised speed.

Customers may also test their actual speeds using the speed test located at http://www.sdplains.com  on West River Coop’s website and may request assistance by calling our business office at 605-244-5213 or by email at westriver@sdplains.com.

Based on the network information West River Coop receives from its monitoring efforts, West River Coop’s network is delivering data transmission rates advertised for the different high-speed Internet services. To be sure, West River Coop has implemented a program that consists of the periodic testing of its network by using an internet speed test in various parts of its network.  West River Coop has installed specific network monitoring equipment that monitors specific aggregation points across our network to help prevent points of congestion on the network. West River Coop reports the results of this speed and latency testing below. This result applies to both upload and download data rates, and applies for measurements made both at peak times and over a 24-hour period:

DOWNLOAD & UPLOAD SPEEDS, LATENCY

Download Speeds

ADVERTISED PERCENTAGE DIFFERENTIAL LATENCY
100 Mbps +2% 23ms
150 Mbps +1% 23ms
250 Mbps +1% 23ms


Upload Speeds

ADVERTISED PERCENTAGE DIFFERENTIAL LATENCY
100 Mbps +2% 23ms
150 Mbps +1% 23ms
250 Mbps +1% 23ms


Latency

SPEED TIER LATENCY (PEAK TIMES) LATENCY (OFF-PEAK TIMES)
100/100 Mbps 23ms 23ms
150/150 Mbps 23ms 23ms
250/250 Mbps 23ms 23ms
  1. Impact of Non-BIAS Data Services

The FCC has defined Non-Broadband Internet Access Services (Non-BIAS) to include services offered by broadband providers that share capacity with Broadband Internet Access Services (BIAS) (previously known as “Specialized Services”) also offered by the provider over the last-mile facilities.

West River Coop offers IP video service to end-users. Generally, this non-BIAS data service does not adversely affect the last-mile capacity available for the Company’s broadband Internet access services, or the performance of such services. Customers should note, however, that significantly heavier use of non-BIAS services (particularly IP video services) may impact the available capacity for and/or the performance of its broadband Internet access services. The Company will monitor this situation, and appreciates feedback from its customers.

C. Commercial Terms

Pricing and additional service information may be found here.

In order to meet the usage and budgetary needs of all of our customers, West River Coop 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 (What Speed Do I Need? – West River Cooperative Telephone Company (sdplains.com)), call 605-244-5213 to speak with a customer service representative.  West River Coop’s internet service is priced on a flat-fee basis (plus taxes).  The Company does not charge end users a usage-based fee for such services.

In addition to this Network Transparency Statement, patrons may also find links to the following on the West River Coop Website:

For questions, complaints or requests for additional information, please contact West River Cooperative Telephone Company, Inc. at:

Business Office at 605-244-5213

Email at westriver@sdplains.com