OPEN INTERNET POLICY
Posted April 20, 2021
This policy provides Boomerang Wireless, LLC d/b/a enTouch Wireless (“enTouch,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) customers (or “you” and “your”) with information about the network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms applicable to our mass market wireless broadband Internet access services (“Broadband Services”), consistent with the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC’s”) Transparency Rule and applicable state open internet laws and regulations. Broadband Services provide customers with the ability to transmit and receive data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints. As a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (“MVNO”), we provide our Broadband Services entirely by using the facilities of our underlying carriers, which are leading nationwide wireless providers (“Underlying Carriers”). As a result, while we have some control over the network management practices and performance characteristics applicable to the Broadband Services you receive from us, we do not actively manage the networks or control performance—our Underlying Carriers do.
The information provided in this policy is meant to assist customers in making informed choices about the purchase and use of our Broadband Services, and assist providers of Internet applications, content, and services in developing, marketing, and maintaining their Internet offerings. The information provided describes the experience you may have while using the networks of our Underlying Carriers and may not describe the practices, performance, or terms you may experience while using extended coverage networks or roaming on affiliated networks. We encourage our customers and other users of our Broadband Services to familiarize themselves with this information and to provide us with feedback about our Broadband Services so that we can continue to provide an excellent experience.
Nothing in this policy changes your rights and obligations, or ours, under our Terms of Service, available at www.entouchwireless.com/terms-of-service, or our Privacy Policy, available at www.entouchwireless.com/privacy-policy. This policy is provided for informational purposes only and we may change the policy at any time, without notice.
Network Management Practices
How does enTouch manage congestion with respect to its Broadband Services?
enTouch strives to provide a high-quality Internet experience for all of our customers. Like the other networks that make up the Internet, the networks of our Underlying Carriers are shared networks, which means that the transmission links and other network resources used to provide Broadband Services are shared among enTouch customers and other users of our Underlying Carriers’ networks. Our Underlying Carriers, which own and operate the networks enTouch uses to provide its Broadband Services, manage their networks for the benefit of all the users of their networks based on a variety of factors and their technical expertise. However, temporary congestion may occur when a large number of users in a concentrated area access the networks at the same time or when some customers consume a very large amount of network capacity during busy periods, such as at stadium events, during peak usage times, or during planned network maintenance. Congestion may also occur during natural disasters and other emergencies. Our Underlying Carrier may use network management techniques to ensure the best possible experience for the most possible customers, including the techniques described below. They may also prioritize emergency communications, including by law enforcement, public safety, or national security authorities, consistent with or as permitted by applicable law, which may impact other users of their networks, including our customers.
Customer Prioritization. During periods of congestion, our Underlying Carriers may prioritize data traffic for some customers over other customers to manage their networks. Customer Prioritization is not paid prioritization and instead may be based on a variety of factors, including the type of customer and the amount of data a customer is using. The customers with lower priority may experience reduced data speeds and increased latency as compared to the other customers using the same cell site, which may cause websites to load more slowly or affect the performance of data-heavy activities such as video streaming, video conferencing, or interactive gaming. Customers subject to Customer Prioritization will only experience reduced speeds and increased latency when they access data services using a cell site experiencing network congestion at the same moment. As soon as the congestion at the cell site abates, or if the customer’s session migrates to an uncongested cell site, speed and latency will return to normal. Additionally, this network management practice adjusts dynamically to address the amount of congestion, which can start and stop over a very short period of time (often measured in fractions of a second), further minimizing any customer impact. Because the amount of congestion at a cell site can vary significantly, the speed and latency impact for affected customers may also vary significantly.
Streaming Video Optimization. Our Underlying Carriers may use Streaming Video Optimization techniques to manage their networks. With one technique, a sufficient amount of video is delivered to a device so that the user can start viewing the video, and the remainder of the video is delivered “just in time” for uninterrupted viewing. This technique optimizes the user’s data consumption and frees up network resources for all users. Without this technique, video content may be delivered to a device completely and charged against the user’s data allotment regardless of whether it is viewed. This technique does not alter video content and should not directly introduce any adverse impact to the viewing experience. Using a second technique, our Underlying Carriers may adjust the delivery rate for streaming video, which causes the video to be delivered in lower resolutions and to use less data. This technique may impact the appearance of the streaming video as displayed on a customer’s device. These techniques only apply to internet browser traffic (HTTP, port 80) for recorded video streaming and do not affect real-time video streaming. The techniques may not be applied when a device is using Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet.
Does enTouch limit data usage or provide customers with tools to monitor and control their data usage?
enTouch offers prepaid and Lifeline service plans with pre-established allotments of data per month and the opportunity to purchase additional data. Customers select how much data they receive under their service plan. Certain uses of the Broadband Services may not count against a customer’s data allotment. If you use the Broadband Services in a manner that violates our Terms of Service, including our Acceptable Use Policy, available at www.entouchwireless.com/terms-of-service, we may suspend, terminate, or restrict your data session, switch you to a more appropriate data plan, or terminate your service. Customers may find their remaining data balance by contacting customer service.
Does enTouch block or throttle (including impair or degrade) lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, or use of non-harmful devices or modify particular protocols?
No, enTouch does not block or throttle (including impair or degrade) lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, or use of non-harmful devices on its Broadband Services, subject to reasonable network management. Nor do we modify particular protocols, protocol ports, or protocol fields in ways not prescribed by the protocol standards. However, in response to a specific security threat against the networks of our Underlying Carriers or our customers, we or our Underlying Carriers may need to block or limit the flow of traffic from certain locations or take other appropriate actions.
Does enTouch directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic (such as through prioritization, resource reservation, or traffic shaping) in its provision of the Broadband Services either in exchange for consideration (monetary or otherwise) from a third party or to benefit an affiliate?
No, enTouch does not directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic (such as through prioritization, resource reservation, or traffic shaping) in its provision of the Broadband Services for any type of consideration from a third party or to benefit an affiliate. During natural disasters and other emergencies, our Underlying Carriers may prioritize emergency communications, including those of law enforcement, public safety, or national security authorities, consistent with or as permitted by applicable law.
Does enTouch require consideration, monetary or otherwise, from edge providers (i.e., individuals or entities that provide any content, application, service, or non-harmful device) in exchange for the non-discriminatory treatment of their content, application, service, or non-harmful device?
No, enTouch does not require consideration, monetary or otherwise, from edge providers in exchange for the non-discriminatory treatment of their content, application, service, or non-harmful device, including, but not limited to, in exchange for transmitting traffic to and from our end users or preventing the blocking or throttling (including impairment or degradation) of the edge provider’s content, application, service, or non-harmful device.
Does enTouch engage in zero-rating (i.e., exempting some Internet traffic from a customer’s data usage allowance) either in exchange for consideration, monetary or otherwise, from a third party or by zero-rating some content, applications, services, or devices in a category of such content, applications, services, or devices, but not the entire category?
No, enTouch does not engage in zero-rating either in exchange for consideration, monetary or otherwise, from a third party or by zero-rating some content, applications, services, or devices in a category of such content, applications, services, or devices, but not the entire category. enTouch may engage in zero-rating for no consideration and by not differentiating on the basis of source, destination, content, application, service, or device, or class thereof.
Does enTouch unreasonably interfere with or unreasonably disadvantage: (1) an end user’s ability to select, access, and use the Broadband Services; (2) the lawful content, applications, services, or devices of the end user’s choice; or (3) an edge provider’s ability to make lawful content, applications, services, or devices available to end users.
No, subject to reasonable network management, enTouch does not unreasonably interfere with or unreasonably disadvantage: (1) an end user’s ability to select, access, and use the Broadband Services; (2) the lawful content, applications, services, or devices of the end user’s choice; or (3) an edge provider’s ability to make lawful content, applications, services, or devices available to end users.
What practices has enTouch adopted to manage network security?
As an MVNO, enTouch does not have the ability to manage the security of its Underlying Carriers’ networks. However, our Underlying Carriers have implemented reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to help guard against a wide range of security threats. Specifically, our Underlying Carriers may scan or analyze network addresses that are registered through the Underlying Carriers, including addresses that may have been delegated to customers, and/or routes that originate from the Underlying Carriers’ networks to identify and address security threats or to notify customers of such threats. In doing so, they will seek to avoid disrupting the Broadband Services for customers. If our Underlying Carriers detect a security threat, they will attempt to isolate the threat and neutralize it or minimize its impact to their networks using a variety of measures, such as blocking the malicious or unlawful traffic, blocking ports that transfer such traffic, limiting such traffic to specific portions of their networks or to the customer base impacted by the security threat, or redirecting the flow of other traffic. Despite these security practices, enTouch cannot guarantee that you will not encounter unwanted, harmful, or malicious internet traffic while using our Broadband Services and encourages customers to adopt their own reasonable security practices.
Does enTouch restrict the types of devices that customers can use with its Broadband Services?
enTouch customers may attach any 3G- or 4G-capable devices of their choice to our Broadband Services, so long as the devices are compatible with and do not harm or interfere with the networks of our Underlying Carriers and comply with all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and standards.
Network Performance Characteristics
What factors affect the performance of enTouch’s Broadband Services?
Although our Underlying Carriers engineer and manage their networks to provide optimal performance to all users and user types, including based on average and anticipated peak usage of the network, end-to-end performance of our Broadband Services can depend on a variety of factors, many of which cannot be anticipated or are outside of our and our Underlying Carrier’s control, including: your location relative to our coverage area, your proximity to a cell site, the capacity of the cell site, the number of other customers connected to the same cell site, the number of customers simultaneously using the network, the services other users are using, topography, weather, obstructions, use inside a building or a moving vehicle, radio frequency interference, the capabilities of your device, the applications you are using, the server with which your device is communicating, the destination of your Internet traffic, overall traffic on the Internet, whether there are network outages, and applicable network management practices discussed above. These factors can impact the availability of network resources for Broadband Services at any particular time. In addition, our Underlying Carriers have designed their wireless services to provide customers with a high-quality voice experience during simultaneous voice and data sessions, which may affect data performance, including, but not limited to, a temporary reduction in speed to minimize the likelihood of dropped calls.
What performance can I expect from enTouch’s Broadband Services?
Because, as described above, our reasonable network management practices and a variety of other factors can affect the performance of our Broadband Services, neither we nor our Underlying Carriers guarantee specific performance levels of our Broadband Services. Performance of broadband Internet access services is generally evaluated based on speed and latency. The speed and latency you can expect to receive using our Broadband Services are described below. Our speed and latency measurements are based on performance information provided by our Underlying Carriers.
Speed
Speed reflects the capacity at which Broadband Services can transmit data. This capacity is typically measured in the number of kilobits, megabits, or gigabits that can be transmitted in one second (kbps, Mbps, or Gbps). Some applications, like a short email without attachments or basic web browsing, do not require high-speed service to function optimally. Other activities, like transferring large data files, can be performed faster with higher-speed services. Applications involving real-time or near real-time, high-bandwidth uses, such as streaming video or video conferencing, require high-speed services to function optimally.
enTouch provides high-speed mobile broadband Internet access service on at least 3G mobile networks at 3G or better speeds (at least 200 kbps symmetrical), where the network will support such performance. When available, enTouch, at its sole discretion, may provide access to higher than 3G speeds. Expected speeds do not necessarily reflect speeds achievable along the entire end-to-end transmission path to all Internet destinations. After you use your monthly data allotment, your data speed may be reduced or your data access may be suspended for the remainder of the billing cycle. The speeds you receive from our Broadband Services may not be optimal for certain applications, particularly those involving real-time or near real-time, high-bandwidth uses.
Latency
Latency, also known as delay, is the amount of time from when a data packet is sent to when it is received. For Broadband Services, latency is usually expressed as the round-trip time in milliseconds (ms) that it takes for a data packet to travel between two end points on the Internet (from point A to point B and then back to point A). Some applications, such as email, can tolerate a substantial amount of latency without any noticeable impact on the application’s performance. Other applications, such as real-time video conferencing, require lower latency to function properly. End-to-end latency reflects the cumulative effect of the individual latencies that occur along the end-to-end network path.
enTouch provides high-speed mobile broadband Internet access service on at least 3G mobile networks at round-trip latency that is typical for 3G mobile networks (107 to 223 milliseconds) where the network will support such performance. When available, enTouch, at its sole discretion, may provide access to better than 3G network latency performance.
Commercial Terms
Where can I find the rates and other fees that apply to enTouch’s Broadband Services?
Descriptions of the rates and fees applicable to our Broadband Services are available on our website, www.entouchwireless.com/plans. enTouch does not charge termination fees.
Where can I find the Terms Service and prohibited uses that apply to enTouch’s Broadband Services?
The Terms of Service, which describes prohibited uses as part of our Acceptable Use Policy, can be found at www.entouchwireless.com/terms-of-service.
What are enTouch’s privacy practices for its Broadband Services?
To learn about our privacy practices for our Broadband Services, please review our Privacy Policy at www.entouchwireless.com/privacy-policy.
How can I get assistance if I have a question or concern or need more information about enTouch’s Broadband Services?
If you have questions or concerns about our Broadband Services, please contact us using the following information:
Email: support@enTouchwireless.com
Phone: 1.866.488.8719 or 611 from your device during normal business hours: Monday – Friday, 10am – 7pm CT.
Mail: enTouch Wireless, 3030 Lyndon B Johnson Freeway, Suite 1320, Dallas, TX 75234
