NETWORK MANAGEMENT POLICY

              In the interest of providing the best online experience possible for all of our internet access customers WATCH Communications utilizes reasonable network management practices tailored to achieve legitimate network management purposes.  Because bandwidth is a limited resource for broadband Internet service providers, it is essential that WATCH Communications reasonably manages its network to ensure proper use and enjoyment of the internet by all of its customers.  By engaging in reasonable and responsible network management, WATCH Communications prevents its customers from being subjected to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks that threaten to degrade the internet service experience.  WATCH Communications network management practices, as set forth below, are consistent with industry standards.

              WATCH Communications will not unjustly or unreasonably prevent or interfere with competition among content, applications, service, or device providers.  We use various tools and industry-standard techniques to manage our communications network and deliver fast, secure, and reliable internet access services.  We believe in complete transparency and provide the following disclosures about our network management policies and practices:

1. Blocking: WATCH Communications does not block or discriminate against lawful content, subject to reasonable network management as described below.
2. Throttling: WATCH Communications does not throttle, impair, or degrade lawful internet traffic based on content, application, service, user, or use of a non-harmful device, subject to reasonable network management as described below.
3. Affiliated Prioritization: WATCH Communications does not directly or indirectly favor some internet traffic or applications over others, including through the use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, or resource reservation, to benefit any of WATCH’s affiliates, defined as an entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with WATCH.
4. Paid Prioritization: WATCH Communications does not directly or indirectly favor or prioritize any internet traffic applications over others in exchange for paid or in-kind consideration intended to benefit particular content, applications, services, or access devices.
5. Congestion Management: Congestion of the WATCH Communications network is rare but does occur. When it occurs, our internet subscribers may experience decreased speeds/performance, but bandwidth is allocated fairly and in an “application agnostic” way (without regard to protocol, application, or the service the subscriber chooses to access through their internet access service). Our typical frequency of congestion is estimated at two percent or less. 
6. Application Specific Behavior: WATCH Communications does not make use of any application-specific network management practices.  We do not favor, modify, inhibit, rate control or block any specific protocols, protocol ports or fields, or any applications or classes of applications, while reserving the right to block ports as necessary to protect the network and its users.
7. Device Attachment Rules: Customers must use PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) to authenticate point-to-point connections between devices on the network. WATCH Communications does not specifically limit device types for attachment to its network, but does not guarantee the functionality of third-party devices for such access.  In order for a device to be approved for use on the WATCH Communications network, the device must conform to publicly available industry standards and not be harmful to the Company’s network.
8. Network Security: WATCH Communications offers its customers unrestricted access to lawful content, services and applications available on the internet. We take various industry-standard measures to safeguard our network and the broader internet from harm or disruption, including protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) attacks, phishing, spoofing, and other forms of unwanted or harmful online content and activities. In those instances where through our network management practices we identify online content as harmful or unwanted, the content may be prevented from reaching customers, or customers may be given an option to identify or inspect flagged content first to determine if it is harmful or unwanted.  Our goal is to ensure the network’s reliability and availability by countering any malicious traffic that could compromise it.  WATCH Communications reserves the right to take any action deemed necessary, including suspending or terminating service to subscribers who engage in activities that violate our Internet Service Terms of Agreement or Acceptable Use Policies/Practices which can be found at www.watchcomm.net/acceptable-use-policy.