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Our goal is to ensure that each Xplornet customer receives fair and consistent access to the Internet. To do this, one policy that Xplornet has implemented is called Traffic Management. Traffic Management helps to ensure that as many of our customers as possible, receive consistent speeds based on the service packages that they have purchased. We have outlined below how Traffic Management works. What is a Traffic Management Policy? The Xplornet Traffic Management policy is based on usage limits.
These limits define the amount of data that you can send (upload)
and receive (download) within a specific period of time. Usage
limits vary by service package and technology (satellite and fixed
wireless). If you exceed these limits, you can still use the
Internet but we will temporarily reduce the speed that you can
download and upload for a period of time. What is Xplornet's Fixed Wireless Traffic Management Policy? The Traffic Management policy that applies to Xplornet fixed wireless Internet access service is based on the amount of data you can send (upload) and receive (download) in a given session. A session is the time it takes to complete an activity like downloading a web page, downloading a song or uploading a photo. You may burst up to the top package speed for a certain period of time. Once you reach the predefined usage limit, you will continue downloading or uploading at a sustained speed until the activity is completed. Each of our service packages has a usage limit. When you exceed the limit of your package, the download and upload speeds will be reduced to 20-40% of your package's top speed. This speed reduction is dependent on which package you have. Most basic Internet activities such as web browsing, text based email, online banking and social networking seldom trigger the Traffic Management policy. Some more intense Internet activities like downloading a song or streaming video may cause the Traffic Management policy to take effect. Examples Example #1 - Downloading software: You are on the Xpress package (top download speed is up to 3.0 Mbps) and you want to download the latest version of Adobe Reader which is 31 MB. The first 3.5 MB will download at the maximum rate capable with the customer's modem and the remaining 27.5 MB of the file will download at the sustained rate of 700 Kbps. Once the software has finished downloading, the Traffic Management policy will reset before a new session begins. Example #2 - Downloading a song: You are on the Zoom package (top download speed is up to 1.5 Mbps) and you want to download one 4 MB song. The first 1.5 MB will download at the maximum rate capable with the customer's modem and the remaining 2.5 MB will download at 600 Kbps. Once the song has finished downloading, the Traffic Management policy will reset before a new session begins. What is Xplornet's Satellite Traffic Management Policy? The Traffic Management policy that applies to Xplornet satellite Internet access service is based on the amount of data you can send (upload) and receive (download) over a specific period of time (hourly or over a 24-hour period). Each service package has a predefined usage limit. When you exceed the usage limit for your package, the download and upload speeds will be reduced to 5-10% of the top speed. This speed reduction is dependent on which package you have. The limit is designed such that, on average, a very low percentage of Xplornet customers (estimated to be less than 3%) will be impacted at any one time. Examples Hourly Example #1 - Downloading multiple songs: You are on the KaZoom package (top download speed is up to 1.0 Mbps) and you want to download fifteen 4 MB songs. The first 13 songs will download within the allowable download limit at regular speeds. While the 14th file is downloading, you will reach your hourly download limit of 55 MB. We will need to reduce your speed to approximately 10% of your package's top download speed for about 60 minutes. You can continue using your Internet connection at the reduced speed. Approximately 60 minutes later, your KaZoom package should return to the normal speed. 24-Hour Example #2 - Downloading multiple songs: You are on the Basic package (top download speed is up to 1.0 Mbps) and you want to download fifty 4 MB songs. Once you finish downloading the 50th song, you will reach your 24-hour download limit of 200 MB. We will need to reduce the download speed to approximately 5% of your package's top download speed for about 24 hours. You can continue using your Internet connection at the reduced speed. Approximately 24 hours later, your Basic package should return to the normal speed. Is there a time when the Traffic Management policy is relaxed on Satellite? Yes. During certain times of the day, there are lower amounts of network activity. This period is known as "off-peak period" and generally occurs from 4am to 7am EST. Because the network demand is reduced during this time period, the Traffic Management policy is relaxed. To take advantage of this off-peak period, you may want to schedule larger file transfers during this time using a download manager. Does Xplornet prioritize traffic on the network? Sometimes. During certain times of the day, there are higher amounts of network activity. This period of time is known as "peak period". During peak periods, certain traffic is time-critical, such as web browsing, email and streaming. These time-critical activities are given a higher priority to ensure that you can perform your task. Peer-to-peer traffic is very demanding on network resources and these files are typically not time-critical, because they are downloaded for later use. When peer-to-peer applications run on our network, and remain unchecked, it could result in your ability to perform time-critical tasks. Because of this, we de-prioritize peer-to-peer traffic during peak periods. Network Security & Global Events For the purpose of network security or to address unpredictable traffic events (e.g. traffic surges due to global events and failures on part of an ISP's network), we reserve the right to temporarily employ additional traffic management policies in order to protect network integrity. Why does Xplornet have a Traffic Management Policy? The high adoption rate of broadband Internet services and the use of innovative new services by Canadians have led to a steady growth in Internet traffic. The average growth of Internet traffic on Internet service providers' (ISPs) networks in Canada has been over 43% per year for the period from 2005 to 20081. Like other ISPs, Xplornet Internet Services has implemented a Traffic Management policy to try to respond to the impact of this growth on our networks and your experience. Xplornet research indicates that less than 10% of our customers generate over half of the total Xplornet Internet traffic, and certain types of applications can create undue congestion in the network resulting in a negative experience for all our customers. As a result, Xplornet's Traffic Management policy has been developed to help ensure that you have a fair and consistent access, and to address temporary network capacity constraints that may arise from excessive consumption of the network resources by any one application or customer. Will the policy change? As the Internet continuously evolves and the way you use your Internet connection is changing all the time. We will continue to evolve the best practices for providing a consistent customer experience and we may modify our policies or limits in the future. We will always let you know on our website if any changes will be made, although do not expect it to be very often.
1 Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-57, Review of Internet traffic management practices of Internet service providers, paragraph 5. |