Pine Telephone Company, Inc., Pine Cellular Phones,
Pine-net, Broken Bow TV Cable, Pine Rural Cable is committed to adhering to the
principles contained in the Federal Communications Commission Internet Policy
Statement: 05-151 and 10-201
Acceptable Use Policy and Service Agreement
for Internet Access Services Provided by
Pine Telephone Company, Inc. Pine Cellular Phones, Pine-net, Broken Bow TV Cable, Pine Rural Cable
THIS AGREEMENT, made and entered as
of the date of on-line connection, by and between Pine Telephone Company, Inc.
dba, Pine, Pine Cellular Phones,
Pine-net, Broken Bow TV Cable, Pine Rural Cable ("PINE"), and
the Internet access subscriber, ("Customer"), upon the following
terms and conditions ("Agreement"), including any attachments and documents
incorporated herein by reference.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Definitions
The following definitions shall
apply to this Agreement:
1. "Customer" and
"Customers" shall refer to the Customer named below. To subscribe to PINEÕs
Internet access services the Customer must be at least 18 years old.
2. The "Service" means any
and all Internet access services and Internet related services provided by PINE.
3. The "Effective Date" is
when the Agreement is accepted by PINE and hook-up of the Service has occurred which is when the Service is available for
Customer's use, regardless of the status of Customer's equipment.
BILLING
All invoicing to customer for Service provided shall be done either
electronically or by mail. Payment is due upon receipt of invoice per due date
listed. If the Customer's payment is returned to PINE, unpaid due to
insufficient funds or any other reason, the Customer will be immediately in
default and subject to a return check charge of $25.00 plus all past due
balances. If the Customer defaults, the customer agrees to pay PINE its
reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees and collection agency fees
incurred in enforcing its rights under this Agreement.
If any Customer is in default more
than three (3) times, PINE reserves the right to request the entire Service fee
or any terms of Service to be paid in advance before Service is reconnected.
Payments received after the due date herein may incur a late payment charge of
the lesser of 1.5% per month or the highest rate permitted by law of the unpaid
balance for each month or fraction thereof that such balance shall remain
unpaid.
Rights and Obligations of the
Customer
Customer shall, at its own expense,
undertake all necessary preparations required to comply with PINE's
installation and maintenance instructions.
Customer warrants that he/she is at
least 18 years of age.
Customer may not use the Service in
a manner that violates any applicable local, state, federal or international
law, order or regulation. Additionally, Customer may not use the Service to:
Conduct, participate in, or
otherwise facilitate pyramid or other illegal soliciting schemes.
Take part in any fraudulent
activities, including impersonating any person or entity or forging anyone
else's digital or manual signature.
Invade another person's privacy,
stalk, harass, or otherwise violate the rights of others.
Post, transmit, or disseminate
content that is threatening, abusive, libelous, slanderous, and defamatory,
incites hatred, or is otherwise offensive or objectionable.
Restrict, inhibit, or otherwise
interfere with the ability of any other person to use or enjoy the equipment or
the Service, including, without limitation, by posting or transmitting any
information or software which contains a virus, lock, key, bomb, worm, Trojan
horse, cancelbot, or other harmful feature.
Collect or store personal data about
other users.
Use an IP address not assigned to
you.
Violate any other PINE policy or
guideline.
Resell or redistribute the Service
to any third party via any means including but not limited to wireless
technology.
Customer may not use the Service to
harm or attempt to harm a minor, including, but not limited to, by hosting,
possessing, disseminating, or transmitting material that is unlawful, including
child pornography or obscene material.
Customer shall be responsible for
maintaining its own equipment that interfaces with the Service.
Customer assumes total
responsibility and risk for customer's use of the Service and other Internet
related Services.
Customer is solely responsible for
any information that is published on the web or other Internet services.
Customer must ensure that the recipient of the content is appropriate and must
take appropriate precautions to prevent minors from receiving inappropriate
content. PINE reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information
or materials from the Service, in whole or in part, that it, in PINE's sole
discretion, deems to be offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable.
The Service is designed for personal
use of the Internet and may not be used for commercial purposes. Customer may
not resell or otherwise charge others to use the residential Service. Customer
agrees not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider, or
for any other business enterprise, including, without
limitation, virtual private network usage, IP address translation, or similar
facilities intended to provide additional access.
Customer may not operate, or allow
others to operate, servers of any type or any other device, equipment, and/or
software providing server-like functionality in connection with the Service,
unless expressly authorized by PINE.
Customer is responsible for any
misuse of the Service that occurs through his/her account. Customer must
therefore take steps to ensure that others do not gain unauthorized access or
misuse the Service.
Customer may not use the Service to
breach or attempt to breach the security of another user or attempt to gain
access to any other person's computer, software, or data without the knowledge
and consent of such person. The equipment and the Service may not be used in
any 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 Customer, logging into or making use of a server or account you
are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other
networks or computers for any reason. Use or distribution of tools designed for
compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools,
packet sniffers or network probing tools, are prohibited.
Customer is solely responsible for
the security of any device connected to the Service, including any data stored
on that device. PINE recommends that you take appropriate security precautions
for any systems connected to the Service.
Customer may not disrupt the Service
in any manner. Nor shall Customer interfere with computer networking or
telecommunications services to any user, host or network, including, without limitation,
denial of service attacks, flooding of a network, overloading a service,
improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges or attempts to
"crash" a host.
Software or other content downloaded
from the Service may contain viruses and it is Customer's sole responsibility
to take appropriate precautions to protect your computer from damage to its
software, files and data. Customer is prohibited from posting, transmitting or
disseminating any information or software that contains a virus, Trojan horse,
worm or other harmful program or that generates levels of traffic sufficient to
impede others' ability to send or retrieve information. Prohibited conduct of
this type includes denial of service attacks or similarly disruptive
transmissions, as well as transmissions containing other harmful or malicious
features.
Customer may not use the Service to
send unsolicited bulk or commercial e-mail messages ("spam"). Any
unsolicited e-mail must also not direct the recipient to any web site or other
resource that uses the Service. The Service may not be used to collect
responses from unsolicited e-mail sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or
e-mail services that violates this Policy or the acceptable use policy of any
other Internet service provider. In addition, "mail bombing," the
sending of numerous copies of the same or substantially similar messages or
very large messages or files with the intent to disrupt a server or account, is
prohibited.
Customer must comply with the
current bandwidth, data storage and other limitations on the Service. Customer
must ensure that your activities do not improperly restrict, inhibit, or
degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole
judgment of PINE) an unusually large burden on the network itself. In addition,
you must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit,
disrupt, degrade or impede PINE's ability to deliver the Service and monitor
the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services. PINE may
terminate, suspend, or require you to upgrade the Service and pay additional
fees if PINE, in its sole discretion, determines that that you are using
excessive bandwidth.
You understand and agree that the
cancellation of this agreement is your sole right and remedy with respect to
any dispute with PINE. This includes, but is not limited to any dispute related
to, or arising out of:
▪ Any
term of this agreement or PINE's enforcement or application of this agreement;
▪ Any
policy or practice of PINE or enforcement or application of its policies;
▪ Your ability to access
and/or use PINE's Internet services, or the amount or type of fees, surcharges,
applicable taxes, billing methods, or any change to the fees, applicable taxes,
surcharges, or billing methods.
Equipment or Software
1. PINE shall not be responsible for
the installation, operation or maintenance of equipment or software unless
contracted by the Customer through PINE, nor shall PINE be responsible for the
transmission or reception of information by equipment or software not installed
by PINE.
2. Customer shall be responsible for
the use and compatibility of all equipment or software not installed by PINE.
Rights and Obligations of PINE;
Disclaimer of Warranties
1. PINE shall operate and maintain
the Service. Customer acknowledges that Service is subject to transmission
limitations caused by atmospheric, topographical and any other like conditions.
Additionally, Service may be temporarily refused, limited, interrupted or
curtailed due to governmental regulations or orders, system capacity
limitations, limitations imposed by an underlying communications carrier, or
because equipment modifications, upgrades, repairs, or reallocations or other
similar activities necessary or proper for the operation or improvement of PINE's
Service.
2. Customer understands that neither
PINE nor any of its affiliates operates or controls the Internet in any way,
and that all merchandise, information and services offered or made available or
accessible on the Internet are offered or made available or accessible by third
parties who are not affiliated with PINE or its affiliates. Neither PINE nor
its affiliates make any express or implied warranties, representations or
endorsements whatsoever (including without limitation warranties of title of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose) with regard to any
merchandise, information or service provided through the Internet, and it shall
not be liable for any costs or damage arising either directly or indirectly
from any such transaction. It is solely Customer's responsibility to evaluate
the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of all opinions, advice, services,
and other information, and the quality and merchantability of all merchandise,
provided thought the Service or on the Internet generally.
3. Customer understands and
expressly acknowledges that the Internet contains unedited materials, some of
which are sexually explicit or may be offensive to some people. Customers
access such material at customer's own risk. Customer acknowledges that PINE is
not liable to customer for any claims, loss, damages or costs which may result
from such materials accessed on the Internet through the Service.
4. Customer acknowledges that the
Service and Internet systems use public access facilities to transmit voice and
data communications and that this Service may not be completely private. Thus PINE
is not liable to customer for any claims, loss, damages or costs
which may result from lack of privacy on the Service.
5. The Service is provided on an
"as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any
kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of
title, non-infringement or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for
a particular purpose. PINE does not warrant that the Service will be
uninterrupted or error free or that any information, software or other material
accessible on the Service is free of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or other
harmful components.
6. Customer acknowledges and agrees
that under no circumstances shall PINE, its affiliates or its contractors be
liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential
damages that result in any way from Customer's use of or inability to use the
Service or to access the Internet or any part thereof, or Customer's reliance
on or use of information obtained from the Service, or that result from
mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays
in operation, or transmission or any failure of performance.
7. PINE has no obligation to monitor
the Service. However, Customer agrees that PINE has the right to monitory the
Service electronically from time to time and to disclose any information
necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or other governmental request, to
operate the Service properly or to protect itself or its subscribers and/or
Customers.
8. Notwithstanding any of the
foregoing representations and terms of this Agreement, PINE reserves the right
to terminate Service immediately and without notice to Customer in order to
maintain system integrity or to comply with any law, regulation, court order or
other governmental request.
9. Transmission of any material in
violation of any United States or state law or regulation is strictly
prohibited. This includes, but it not limited to copyrighted material,
threatening or obscene material, or material protected by trade secret. To the
extent any material is utilized by Customer, Customer agrees to indemnify and
hold harmless PINE, its officers, agents and employees from any claims and
damages resulting from Customers use of the Service which
may damage the Customer or any other party.
Indemnity
Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold PINE and its affiliates harmless
from any and all liabilities, costs and expenses, including reasonable
attorney's fees, related to or arising from:
1. Any violation of this Agreement
by Customer;
2. The use of the Service or
Internet related Services or the placement or transmission of any messages,
information, software or other material on the Service by Customer;
3. Negligent acts or omissions of
Customer's officers, employees, agents or contractors in connection with the
construction, installation, maintenance, presence, use or removal of systems,
channels, or terminal equipment or software not provided by PINE, which are
connected or are to be connected to the Service;
4. Claims for infringement of
patents arising from the use of the equipment and software, apparatus and
systems not provided by PINE in connection with the Service.
NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND
LIMITATIONS ON DATA CONSUMPTION
PINE manages its network with one goal: to deliver the best
possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers. High-speed
bandwidth and network resources are not unlimited. Managing the network is
essential as PINE
works to promote the use and enjoyment of the Internet by all of its customers.
The company uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent
with industry standards.
The
Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only. Therefore, PINE reserves the right to suspend or
terminate Service accounts where data consumption is not characteristic of a
typical residential user. PINE reserves the right to establish a
monthly data consumption threshold per customer, should future requirements
arise.
NETWORK TRANSPARENCY
Network Management
Practices
PINE provides quality Internet services through proactive
network management practices. The network is monitored utilizing real-time
evaluation including fault isolation and root-cause analysis. The information
is integrated into an automated system with automated call-out and escalation
procedures.
Uplink
utilization is trended using monthly reporting. Uplink capacity is added
proactively as required.
SPAM
filtering for e-mail services is provided via the web portal interface. If POP3
or IMAP services are used via customer supplied
software, SPAM filtering must be provided by the customer machine, if required.
SPAM may contain harmful information, links, and attachments. The customer assumes ALL risks
associated with the use of ANY e-mail or ANY other service, application, or web
use.
Network
congestion rarely occurs in the network due to applied engineering practices.
Pre-defined concentration ratios are adhered to throughout the network.
Inter-network and Intra-network ratios are evolving as the nature of traffic
and customer habitÕs change. Planning and network upgrades insure network
concentration points are updated ahead of the growth curve in most cases. The
primary cause of network congestion results from a hardware or software
malfunction or failure. The customer may experience mild network congestion
during peak usage times.
Since
network security is paramount, PINE has ensured that its network is as secure as possible. The
very nature of the ÒOPENÓ Internet provides ample opportunity for security
threats and breaches.
For
this reason, PINE
recommends that every customer utilize a firewall for each computer. In
addition, the customer should keep current with all operating system upgrades
and patches to ensure protection against the looming threats. A reputable
anti-virus program is also recommended for each customer computer. Again, PINE is not responsible for ANY damage to
hardware or software regardless of the customersÕ adherence to the recommended
practices. The prior are Òbest practicesÓ for the
industry and are provided as recommendations only.
Network Blocking
PINE is in complete compliance with FCC order 10-201. That being
said, in no way will PINE participate in the practice of blocking ports,
applications, or any other lawful content. Subscriber blocking is reserved for
the following:
Unlawful
activity, non-adherence to reasonable usage, spamming, non-payment, Infected
with a virus or bot net, affecting network performance for other customers,
anything that degrades or may be harmful to the network or other customers.
Performance Characteristics
The
following technologies are utilized to deliver high speed internet
to PINE
customers. Each customer qualifies for only one of the appropriate
technologies. The network is in a revolving state of upgrade.
Service Description:
ADSL: Asymmetrical
Digital Subscriber Line provides high speed internet
allowing for faster download speeds and slower upload speeds. The nature of internet traffic typically melds well with this technology
as the consumer typically makes a request (small amount of data) and receives a
larger amount of information in return. The maximum amount of data provided
upstream is 1.5 Mb/s. ADSL is a rate adaptive technology, meaning that if your
line is not capable of 1.5 Mb/s up stream (or Down), it will get as close as it
can to the desired bandwidth. Some ADSL flavors are capable of downloads in
excess of 20 Mb/s.
Service Offerings:
Asymmetrical
Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
(A) 1.5
Mb/s Download and .384 Mb/s Upload
Expected
Latency 50 ms to PINE backbone router default gateway
Suitable
for most real-time applications
(B) 3
Mb/s Download and .768 Mb/s Upload
Expected
Latency 50 ms to PINE backbone router default gateway
Suitable
for most real-time applications
Service Description:
Fixed Broadband Wireless
(FBW): FBW varies
greatly depending on many factors; PINE deploys both licensed and unlicensed equipment to provide FBW
to its customers. The equipment utilized is engineered to provide a user
experience as outlined in the Service Offerings below.
Service Offerings:
Fixed
Broadband Wireless
(A) .768
Mb/s Download and .25 Mb/s Upload
Expected
Latency 100 ms to PINE backbone
router default gateway
Suitable
for some real-time applications
Pleasurable
experience while surfing the Internet
Service Description:
Mobile Broadband Wireless
(MBW): MBW varies
greatly depending on many factors; PINE deploys licensed MBW to its customers.
Service Description:
Cable Modem Service (CMS): CMS service varies depending on many
factors. PINE utilizes the DOCSYS
standard in its deployment of CMS. The equipment utilized is engineered to
provide a user experience as outlined in the Service Offerings below.
Service Offerings:
Cable
Modem Service (CMS): CMS
(A) 1.5
Mb/s Download and .384 Mb/s Upload
Expected
Latency 50 ms to PINE backbone router default gateway
Suitable
for most real-time applications
(B) 3
Mb/s Download and .768 Mb/s Upload
Expected
Latency 50 ms to PINE backbone router default gateway
Suitable
for most real-time applications
Commercial Terms
Monthly prices, usage-based
fees, and fees for early termination or additional network services are handled
on individual case basis.
Privacy
Network management practices rarely entail
individual specific inspection of network traffic. PINE
may retain personal customer information in its regular business records as
long as someone is a customer or until no longer needed for business or legal
purposes. This
information is not provided to third parties, or used by the carrier for
non-network management purposes.
Miscellaneous Terms and Provisions
1. This Agreement shall be governed
by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Oklahoma without
regards to its conflict of law provisions. Any cause of action Customer may
have with respect to the Service must be commenced within one (1) year after
the claim or cause of action arises or such claim or cause of action shall be
barred.
2. This Agreement constitutes the
entire Agreement between Customer and PINE with respect to the Service to be
provided. There may be additional terms and conditions if you use affiliate
services such as DSL.
3. Neither this Agreement nor
Customer's rights hereunder shall be assignable by Customer except with PINE's
prior written consent. The conditions hereof shall bind any permitted
successors and assigns of Customer.
4. If any part of this Agreement is
contrary to or prohibited by or deemed invalid under applicable laws and
regulations of any applicable jurisdiction, the remaining provisions and parts
thereof shall remain and be construed in full force and effect to the extent
permitted by law.
5. By reading these terms and
conditions, Customer states that is has proper authorization to contractually
and financially bind itself and any associates entity subscribing to the
Service.
6. The Internet and online world is
changing rapidly and as technology and PINE's business continue to evolve, PINE's
policies and this Internet Use Agreement may have to be updated or revised.
Since the terms of this agreement and PINE's policies may change you should
check the PINE website for the most current versions. For the same reasons, it
may be necessary for PINE to update and revise certain provisions of this
agreement. By accepting this agreement you agree that PINE may change the terms
of this agreement and that if PINE makes material changes or revisions to this
agreement, we will provide notice to you 30 days in advance. If you do not
agree to the changes proposed by PINE, or to any of the terms in this
agreement, your only remedy is to cancel this agreement pursuant to the terms
contained herein.
Pine
Telephone Company, Inc. is committed to providing the best online experience
possible for all of its customers.
If you have any questions regarding PineÕs Pricing, Monitoring and other
Network Practices, please contact a Pine Telephone Company representative at:
Pine Telephone Company,
Inc.
210 W.
2nd Street
Broken
Bow, OK 74728
580.584.3355
– Office