Broadband Network Management Information

Effective Date: April 1, 2024

EarthLink, LLC (“EarthLink,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) believes that reasonable network management practices are necessary for EarthLink to provide all our EarthLink customers, including broadband access customers, with award winning Internet services. EarthLink uses a variety of tools and methods to manage our network, including managing any network congestion, and promptly addressing security concerns. Our industry standard network management practices help us protect our network and our customers from harmful online activity (like spamming, viruses and phishing) and help ensure compliance with our Service Agreements, Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which are available at earthlink.net/tcs. The following includes information regarding the network management practices that EarthLink may employ and the performance characteristics of the Internet services we provide. The information is intended for current and prospective customers of our services. Nothing in this document changes your rights and obligations, or ours, under our terms of service associated with the applicable products, the AUP, or our Privacy Policy. This document and the information contained in it are provided for informational purposes only and may be changed at any time, without notice.

1. Network Management Practices: EarthLink continuously monitors its network with the goal of providing all our customers with full access to all the lawful activities, content, applications and services that our customers seek on the Internet. Like other networks that make up the Internet, EarthLink’s network is a shared network, which means that the transmission links and other network resources used to provide Internet services are shared among EarthLink’s customers, as well as among the various services offered by EarthLink. Temporary congestion may occur when a large number of customers in a concentrated area access the network at the same time or when some customers consume a very large amount of network capacity during busy periods, during peak usage times, or during planned network maintenance. When we find network congestion that may impact our customers’ use of our services, we work to alleviate the congestion by obtaining more capacity to support our customers.EarthLink does not favor certain websites or Internet applications by blocking or throttling lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, user, or use of nonharmful devices on its broadband Internet access services.In its provision of broadband Internet access services, EarthLink does not directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic in exchange for consideration from a third party or to benefit an affiliate, except to address the needs of emergency communications, law enforcement, public safety, or national security authorities, consistent with or as permitted by applicable law.EarthLink does not restrict our customers by protocol, application, ports or devices except to protect our network and our customers. EarthLink reserves the right, however, to employ network management practices to prevent congestion and certain harmful or illegal activity including, without limitation, the distribution of viruses or other malicious code (e.g., botnets) or the transfer of child pornography or other unlawful content (e.g., Digital Millennium Copyright Act/DMCA violations).

EarthLink uses various tools and methods to protect the security of our network and, in turn, our customers. We have implemented several network-based security tools designed to identify and block malicious activity. We monitor for unusual login, firewall and other specific malicious network activity on our network. To try to reduce the delivery of spam emails to our customers, we check inbound email against several third-party reputation services. In order to combat distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, EarthLink employs various practices which may include temporarily blocking certain incoming traffic into our network if we detect malicious activity or traffic volumes that exceed certain baseline metrics, or if the source of the traffic is potentially harmful to our customers or known to be associated with illegal behavior. We may block ports and Internet Protocol addresses and cancel or suspend customer accounts that are used to host malicious websites, send phishers or spam, launch malicious attacks, or attempt to steal customer information. In order to maintain the integrity of our network and our security programs, we do not disclose the specific details about our security tools and methods. EarthLink reserves the right both to modify these practices, as well as to employ other reasonable network management practices in its discretion and in accordance with law as may be necessary and effective to enable the optimum operation of its network to deliver its services.In addition, we offer our customers various security tools for the customers’ own use. Information on these security tools is available at earthlink.net/security-privacy.

2. Third Party Network Practices: In order to provide high speed Internet access service to our customers, we use the Internet access services of various third parties. We work with these third parties in an effort to provide our customers with robust services. These third parties may have network management practices of their own that differ from EarthLink’s practices. If you have any questions or would like information about the network management practices of any third party that helps EarthLink provide high speed Internet access to you, please contact us or go to the third party websites listed in Section 3 below. To contact EarthLink Customer Service via telephone or live chat go to earthlink.net/about-us/contact.

3. Performance Characteristics: EarthLink offers its customers many mass market Internet access service options, each of which may have a different service capability speed. EarthLink services and plans range from speed tiers of up to 3 megabits per second (“Mbps”) to up to 1 gigabit per second (“Gbps”). But not all speed tiers are available in every geographic areas. Customers should call 866-618-0264 to check availability. Like all other ISPs, EarthLink advertises its speeds as “up to” a specific level based on the tier of service to which a customer subscribes. The “actual” speed a customer experiences may vary based on a number of factors and conditions. As described above, EarthLink provides high speed Internet access service, in part, by using the DSL and fiber Internet access services of various third parties. The performance of EarthLink’s high-speed Internet access services, including the speed and latency of these services, depends on the performance of these third party networks and on many factors outside the control of EarthLink and its third party providers. Such factors may include the quality of your home network and inside wiring, the type of connection between a customer’s Internet connected device and modem, the number and types of devices being used, and simultaneous usage by multiple users. Consequently, EarthLink does not guarantee the performance of your service on an end-to-end basis. For more information on service speed or to test the speed of your high speed Internet access service go to our internet speed test page.

Information on the network management practices and performance characteristics of our third party Internet access service providers is available on their websites:

AT&T: about.att.com/sites/broadband
CenturyLink: centurylink.com/aboutus/legal/internet-service-disclosure
MegaPath: megapath.com
Verizon: verizon.com/about/terms-conditions/overview
Spectrum: spectrum.com/policies/terms-of-service

In addition, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has released studies and reports on the performance of certain nationwide residential DSL, cable, fiber and satellite broadband services in the United States, including most of the third parties that help EarthLink provide high speed Internet access service. The studies examined and reported on the service offerings of the largest DSL, cable, fiber and satellite broadband providers using automated, direct measurements of broadband service performance delivered to the homes of thousands of volunteers. For more information on the FCC studies and reports and the most recent performance data go to fcc.gov/measuring-broadband-america.

4. Commercial Terms: In general, EarthLink does not place usage limits on our high-speed Internet access services. However, certain third-party cable Internet access service providers that EarthLink uses may limit the amount of data that customers can upload or download per month. More information on these limits can be found in EarthLink’s Internet Service Agreement, which can be found at earthlink.net/tcs. For information on all our high-speed products and services, including pricing and available speeds, please go to our homepage. Please note our high-speed product and service offerings vary by region, may change over time, and may be subject to limited time promotional rates and conditions. Our high-speed products and services are governed by our policies and agreements, including our Privacy Policy, which can be found at earthlink.net/tcs. To contact EarthLink with any questions or concerns about its network management practices or any other issues please call us at 888-327-8454.