The following Louisa
Communications disclosures are in reference to the FCC Open Internet Rules.
Service Offerings
Louisa Communications
via the Louisa Communications brand
directly offers broadband ISP services in its markets. Please visit the Louisa Communications website to check availability,
speed options and pricing.
Performance
Louisa
Communications offers a speed test site to any user or customer. It can be
accessed here: speedtest.louisacomm.net.
These tests are heavily
dependent on a customer's home network configuration, modem, and computers, and
therefore do not reflect the performance of the Louisa Communications network only.
Your Internet Service Speeds
Louisa Communications provides
residential and commercial customers with a variety of high speed Internet
plans from which to choose, ranging from our initial tier (with download speeds
up to 256 kilobits per second ("Mbps"), and upload speeds up to 128
kilobits per second ("kbps")) to our top tier (with download speeds
up to 3 Mbps, and upload speeds to 1.5 Mbps). Louisa Communications provisions its
customers' modems and engineers its network to ensure that its customers can
enjoy the speeds to which they subscribe. However, Louisa Communications
does not guarantee that a customer will actually achieve those speeds at all
times. Without purchasing an expensive, dedicated Internet connection, no
Internet Service Provider ("ISP") can guarantee a particular speed at
all times to a customer. Louisa Communications advertises
its speeds as "up to" a specific level based on the tier of service
to which a customer subscribes.
The "actual" speed that a customer
will experience while using the Internet depends upon a variety of conditions,
many of which are beyond the control of an ISP such as Louisa Communications. These conditions include:
1.
Performance of a customer's computer, including its age,
processing capability, its operating system, the number of applications
running simultaneously, and the presence of any adware and viruses.
2.
Type of connection between a customer's computer and modem. For example, wireless
connections may be slower than direct connections into a router or modem.
Wireless connections also may be subject to greater fluctuations, interference
and congestion. Louisa Communications
does not recommend wireless modem connections for use with its higher speed
tiers as many wireless connections do not perform at the speeds delivered by
these tiers.
3.
The distance packets travel (round trip time of packets) between a customer's
computer and its final destination on the Internet, including the number and
quality of the networks of various operators in the transmission path. The
Internet is a "network of networks." A customer's connection may
traverse the networks of multiple providers before reaching its destination,
and the limitations of those networks will most likely affect the overall speed
of that Internet connection.
4.
Congestion or high usage levels at the website or
destination.
If a large number of visitors are accessing a site or particular destination at
the same time, your connection will be affected if the site or destination does
not have sufficient capacity to serve all of the visitors efficiently.
5.
Gating of speeds or access by the website or destination. In order to control
traffic or performance, many websites limit the speeds at which a visitor can
download from their site. Those limitations will carry through to a customer's
connection.
6.
The performance of the modem you have installed. Modem performance may
degrade over time, and certain modems are not capable of handling higher
speeds.
This is the reason that Louisa Communications, like all other ISPs,
advertises speeds as "up to" a particular level, and does not
guarantee them.
There are other speed tests that measure
Internet performance. We have provided links to a few of these sites below for
your reference. Please note, however, that all speed tests have biases and
flaws. Each of these tests measures limited aspects of an ISP's speed and therefore
must be seen as a guide rather than definitive measurements of performance.
·
http://www.netins.net/speed.htm
·
http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu
·
http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/
Latency
Latency is another
measurement of Internet performance. Latency is the time delay in transmitting
or receiving packets on a network. Latency is primarily a function of the
distance between two points of transmission, but also can be affected by the
quality of the network or networks used in transmission. Latency is typically
measured in milliseconds, and generally has no significant impact on typical
everyday Internet usage. As latency varies based on any number of factors, most
importantly the distance between a customer's computer and the ultimate
Internet destination (as well as the number and variety of networks your
packets cross), it is not possible to provide customers with a single figure
that will define latency as part of a user experience.
Congestion Management
Louisa Communications
does not implement any congestion management techniques. Louisa Communications operates our network to
accommodate the necessary traffic requirements. In the event of congestion, all
traffic is classified as best effort.
Our congestion management approach will change over time, as we
continue to study and enhance our practices and as new technologies emerge. In
the meantime, we will continue to invest in our network in accordance with our
normal course of business operations, which includes installing technology that
will increase the speed and capacity of our services.
Content, Applications,
Service and Device Providers
As
a full service Internet Service Provider, Louisa
Communications delivers a variety of Internet-based applications. These
include:
Louisa Communications
does not discriminate any customer traffic. Louisa
Communications utilizes the network management techniques that are equal
and standard across all user applications. We do not modify our network to make
our directly served applications perform better than applications a user would
access over the general Internet. For example, Louisa
Communications does not manipulate our network to perform better for
customers accessing Louisa Communications
email servers versus Louisa Communications
customers accessing Google’s gmail.
Louisa
Communications blocks outbound email connections except for those terminating
to our mail server and any customers with static IP’s that request that port open and provided
the customer does not use it to send spam. This includes port 25 to google’s email servers.
The
network management practices employed by Louisa
Communications do not differ between our directly offered applications
to those general applications offered over the Internet.
Security Measures
In
the event of Denial of Service (DoS), Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, spoofing or other malicious
traffic, Louisa Communications will
implement inbound and outbound filtering on specific hosts. These actions will
be performed to ensure reliability and availability of the Louisa Communications Network. These actions
will not be utilized for normal Internet applications and traffic.
Louisa
Communications has provided this privacy
statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy. The
following policy discloses our information gathering and dissemination
practices for Louisa Communications.
Louisa
Communications is the sole owner of the
information collected on its website.
Louisa
Communications does not collect personal
information such as names, e-mail addresses, postal addresses, or telephone
numbers. Since we do not collect any personal information on this Web site, we
do not share any personal information with any third parties nor do we use any
personal information for any purposes.
As noted above, we
do not collect any personal information on this Web site. We do, however, collect
and store information about your Internet connection when you visit our Web
site to read or download information, such as reports, news, etc. We use this
information to track Web site use, measure site traffic, and improve site
navigation and information. We collect information that identifies:
·
The name of the
domain you access the Internet with.
·
The type of web
browsing software you use to view our site.
·
The date and time
of your access.
·
The platform you
are using (i.e. Windows, Macintosh or Unix).
This information
is never sold, given or disclosed to third parties. This information is used
internally to administer our web site, provide better services to the public,
and provide aggregate traffic statistics to Louisa Communications staff. No
personal information is collected.
Additionally, this
site contains links to other sites. Louisa
Communications is not responsible for the
privacy practices or the content of such Web sites unless operated directly by Louisa Communications. We encourage you to note when
you leave our website and read the privacy statements of each website that
collects personally identifiable information.
By using this
service, you agree that you have read, understand and will abide, and be bound,
by the terms of this Web Site Privacy and Policies ("Terms"). If you
do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Louisa Communications web site. These Terms shall be governed in all respects in accordance
with the laws of the State of
Louisa
Communications reserves the right to
change, modify or update this statement at any time without notice.
If you have any
questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your
dealings with Louisa Communications, you may contact us at the following:
Louisa Communications
Morning Sun,
Phone: 319-868-7636
Fax: 319-868-4297