Network Transparency Statement

West Texas RURAL TELEPHONE COOP., Inc.

Network TRANSPARENCY statement

West Texas Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (“WTRT” or “Company”) in conjunction with its affiliate WT Services, Inc. (“WTS”) provides this Network Transparency Statement in accordance with the FCC’s Restore Internet Freedom Rules to ensure that you have sufficient information to make informed choices about the purchase of broadband services.  Information about WTRT’s other policies and practices concerning broadband are available at www.wtrt.net. 

WTRT engages in network management practices that are tailored and appropriate for achieving optimization on the network considering the particular network architecture and technology of its broadband Internet access service.  WTRT’s goal is to ensure that all of its customers experience a safe and secure broadband Internet environment that is fast, reliable and affordable.  WTRT wants its customers to indulge in all that the Internet has to offer, whether it is social networking, streaming videos and music, to communicating through email and videoconferencing. 

WTRT’s network management includes congestion- and security-protocol-management and customers generally will not be impacted by the protocols and practices that WTRTuses to manage its network. 

A.     WTRT’s Network Transparency Disclosures

WTRT uses various tools and industry standard techniques to manage its network and deliver fast, secure and reliable Internet service.  WTRTbelieves in full transparency andprovides the following disclosures about its network management practices:

1.      Blocking: WTRTdoes not block or discriminate against lawful content. 

2.      Throttling: WTRTdoes not throttle, impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic.

3.      Affiliated Prioritization: WTRTdoes not prioritize Internet traffic and has no plans to do so.

4.      Paid Prioritization: WTRThas never engaged in paid prioritization.  We don’t prioritize Internet for consideration to benefit particular content, applications, services or devices. WTRT does not have plans to enter into paid prioritization deals to create fast lanes.

5.      Congestion Management: WTRT monitors the connections on its network in the aggregate on a daily basis to determine the rate of utilization.  If congestion emerges on the network, WTRT will take the appropriate measures to relieve congestion. 

On WTRT’s network, all customers have access to all legal services, applications and content online and, in the event of congestion, most Internet activities will be unaffected.  Some customers, however, may experience longer download or upload times, or slower surf speeds on the web if instances of congestion do occur on WTRT’s network. 

Customers using conduct that abuses or threatens the WTRT network or which violates the company’s Internet and DSL Service Agreement will be asked to stop any such use immediately.  A failure to respond or to cease any such conduct could result in service suspension or termination. 

WTRT’s network and congestion management practices are ‘application-agnostic’, based on current network conditions, and are not implemented on the basis of customers’ online activities, protocols or applications. WTRT’s network management practices do not relate to any particular customer’s aggregate monthly data usage.

WTRT monitors its network on a daily basis to determine utilization on its network.  WTRT also checks for abnormal traffic flows, network security breaches, malware, loss, and damage to the network. If a breach is detected or high volume users are brought to light by complaint, WTRT provides notification to the customer via email or phone.  If a violation of WTRT’s policies has occurred and such violation is not remedied, WTRT will seek to suspend or terminate that customer’s service. 

6.   Application-Specific Behavior: Except as may be provided elsewhere herein, WTRT does not currently engage in any application-specific behaviors on its network.  Customers may use any lawful applications with WTRT.

7.   Device Attachment Rules: Customers must use PPPoE for authentication of point to point connections between devices on the network.  There is a limit of one (1) PPPoE session per account.  For best results, DSL modems, wireless modems, or other proprietary network gateways used on the WTRT broadband network should be provided by WTRT. Customers may attach devices of their choosing to their modems, including wired or wireless routers, laptops, desktop computers, video game systems, televisions, or other network-enabled electronics equipment. However, customers are responsible for ensuring that their equipment does not harm WTRT’s network or impair the service of other customers. WTRT is not responsible for the functionality or compatibility of any equipment provided by its customers. Customers are responsible for securing their own equipment to prevent unauthorized access to WTRT’s broadband network by third parties and will be held responsible for the actions of such third parties who gain unauthorized access through unsecured customer equipment.

8.   Network Security: WTRT knows the importance of securing its network and customers from network threats and annoyances.  The company promotes the security of its network and patrons by protections from such threats as spam, viruses, firewall issues, and phishing schemes.  WTRT also deploys spam filters in order to divert spam from an online customer’s email inbox into a quarantine file while allowing the customer to control which emails are identified as spam.  Customers may access the spam files through the email.  Spam files are not automatically deleted.

As its normal practice, WTRT does not block any protocols, content or traffic for purposes of network management, but WTRT may block or limit such traffic as spam, viruses, malware, or denial of service attacks to protect network integrity and the security of our customers. 

B.   Network Performance

1.      Service Descriptions

WTRT deploys Internet access to its subscribers through hardwired broadband access (DSL and Fiber) and fixed wireless service (in a limited area).

2.      Network Performance

WTRT makes every effort to support advertised speeds and will dispatch repair technicians to customer sites to perform speed tests as needed to troubleshoot and resolve speed and application performance caused by WTRT’s network.  WTRT measures availability, latency, and aggregate utilization on the network and strives to meet internal service level targets. 

However, the bandwidth speed at which a particular distant website or other Internet resources may be downloaded, or the speed at which your customer information may be uploaded to a distant website or Internet location is affected by factors beyond WTRTs’ control, including the speed of the connection from a distant web server to the Internet, congestion on intermediate networks, and/or limitations on your own computer equipment, including a wireless router.  In addition, your service performance may be affected by the inside wiring at your premise.  Accordingly, you, the customer, must consider the capabilities of your own equipment when choosing a WTRT broadband service. Your computers and/or wireless or other networks in your homes or offices may need an upgrade in order to take full advantage of the chosen WTRTbroadband plan.

For the wireless service, WTRT measures Bit Error Rate (BER) and the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) parameters for transmission rates, latency, and traffic every 15 min.  For DSL, Fiber and T1 service, WTS measures traffic every 5 min.  All services are best effort. 

WTRT tests each service for actual and expected access speeds at the time of network installation to demonstrate that the service is capable of supporting the advertised speed. 

Customers may also test their actual speeds using the speed test located at speedtest.wtrt.net and may request assistance by calling our business office at 806-276-5225 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . 

Based on the network information WTRT receives from its monitoring efforts, the service typically delivers speed of 92% to 100% of advertised speeds with latency between 17.6ms and 37ms.

3.   Impact of Non-BIAS Data Services

The FCC has defined Non-Broadband Internet Access Services (Non-BIAS) to include services offered by broadband providers that share capacity with Broadband Internet Access Services (BIAS) (previously known as “Specialized Services”) also offered by the provider over the last-mile facilities

Real time services, such as Non-BIAS services, include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol (IP) video services, command optimal bandwidth.  As Non-BIAS traffic is combined with general Internet traffic on WTRT’s network, broadband customers could experience service delays, although very unlikely, if there is an occurrence of congestion on WTRT’s network.  In any such event, the Non-BIAS traffic is given priority over general Internet traffic.

The Company offers IP video service to end-users in limited areas. This non-BIAS data service does not adversely affect the last-mile capacity available for the Company’s broadband Internet access services, or the performance of such services. Customer should note that significantly heavier use of non-BIAS services (particularly IP video services) may impact the available capacity for and/or the performance of its broadband Internet access services. The Company will monitor this situation, and appreciates feedback from its customers.

C. Commercial Terms

Pricing and additional service information may be found here. 

In addition to this Network Transparency Statement, patrons may also find links to the following on the West Texas Rural Telephone’s Website: www.wtrt.net     

§     Internet and DSL Service Agreement

§     Email set up instructions

For questions, complaints or requests for additional information, please contact WTS by email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.