Last edited on Tue Apr 16, 2019

Open Internet Disclosure

MEDIACOM OPEN INTERNET DISCLOSURE STATEMENT 

Updated July 18, 2018

The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") requires broadband Internet providers, like Mediacom, publish the following information regarding our mass-market retail broadband Internet access services, which the FCC defines as “a service marketed and sold on a standardized basis to residential customers, small businesses and other end-user customers such as schools and libraries.” This document provides information regarding any network management practices that we employ, the performance characteristics of our services, and the commercial terms of our service offerings.  These disclosures relate solely to that portion of our overall network devoted to providing mass-market retail broadband Internet access service and are intended to be relied upon by current and prospective subscribers to that service as well as by the providers of "edge" products (i.e., providers of applications, devices, services, and content accessed over or connected to Mediacom's broadband Internet access service).

Other portions of our network may be used to provide cable service, phone service, or other information or specialized services, each of which is subject to its own terms and conditions of service.  In addition, Mediacom may enter into arrangements to provide Internet service to third party establishments (such as coffee shops, bookstores, hotels, libraries, etc.) who then may offer such service to their customers, guests, or others.  Nothing herein is intended to address the network management practices, performance characteristics, or commercial terms that may be adopted by such third -party premises operators in connection with their provision of Internet service to others.

The information provided herein may be revised from time to time as Mediacom deems appropriate.  In addition, the following disclosures should be read in conjunction with Mediacom's "Acceptable Use Policy" ("AUP"), available online at https://mediacomcable.com/legal/acceptable-use-policy/  and with our "Terms of Service," a copy of which is provided to customers at time of installation or which may be obtained by calling 1-855-633-4226.  For further information regarding the services offered by Mediacom in your area, please see www.mediacomcable.com  .

NETWORK PRACTICES: 

Congestion Management:  The bandwidth and network resources used to deliver broadband Internet access service are limited and shared among users.  The FCC allows broadband Internet access service providers such as Mediacom to engage in "reasonable network management practices" to ensure that our customers enjoy a high quality online experience.  The use of network management tools and techniques to conserve bandwidth may cause certain users to notice slower Internet performance, such as longer download and upload times or slower responses while surfing the Internet or playing games.  The effects of network management typically will be noticeable only for a brief period of time, if at all.

At the present time, Mediacom has not found it necessary to deploy any network management tools specifically designed to address the effects of network congestion; however, consistent with the FCC's rules, Mediacom reserves the right to employ the types of "reasonable network management" practices commonly used in the industry to protect consumers from activity that can unreasonably burden our network and cause service degradation.  If and when we deploy specific network congestion management tools, we will update this disclosure statement accordingly.

Usage Allowances: In addition to reserving the right to manage network usage to ensure that the activity of a small number of subscribers at a particular point in time does not degrade, inhibit or interfere with the use of our network by others, Mediacom also maintains a usage allowance policy that addresses total usage of an account in a billing month. 

Customers to one of the following service tiers (certain tiers are not available in all areas) shall be subject to a monthly usage allowance (“Monthly Usage Allowance”) amount for their service plan as set forth in the table below:

   ** Limited availability.

 *** Ultra Plus 3T Internet service is no longer available for new subscriptions.

The Monthly Usage Allowance does not: (a) give Customers or any user a right to any bandwidth at any particular moment in time; or (b) carry-over from month to month. Measurement of the Monthly Usage Allowance resets on the first day of the billing cycle, regardless of actual usage during the prior billing cycle. Bandwidth usage is measured for each monthly billing cycle, not by calendar month. The amount of bandwidth usage of Customer's account is the sole responsibility of Customer, whether or not such usage was by Customer or authorized by Customer.

If bandwidth usage of an account exceeds the amount of the applicable Monthly Usage Allowance, Mediacom may charge an additional monthly usage fee equal to ten dollars ($10) for each additional whole or partial block of 50 GB of usage (“Additional Monthly Usage Fee”). For example, if the Monthly Usage Allowance is 150 GB and 151 GB are actually used, the Additional Monthly Usage Fee would be $10. If the actual usage was 201GB, then the Additional Monthly Usage Fee would be $20. Additional Monthly Usage Fees are not prorated for partial billing cycles. The amount of the Additional Monthly Usage Fee does not include any applicable fees and taxes. For more information regarding the Monthly Usage Allowance, please see “Additional Terms and Conditions-Monthly Usage Allowance” at  https://mediacomcable.com/legal/additional-terms-and-conditions/.

 Please see our Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) at  https://mediacomcable.com/legal/acceptable-use-policy/ for more information regarding customer use of Mediacom's Internet access service.

Application-Specific Behavior:  Mediacom does not discriminate against or prevent users of its broadband Internet access service from sending and receiving the lawful content of their choice; running lawful applications and using lawful services of their choice; or connecting their choice of legal devices, provided that such applications and services do not harm the network or the provision of broadband Internet access service, facilitate theft of service, or harm other users of the service.  Similarly, Mediacom does not impair or degrade particular content, applications, services or non-harmful devices so as to render them effectively unusable, subject to the reasonable network management practices outlined herein.

Mediacom reserves the right, in accordance with applicable law, to employ reasonable network management practices to prevent certain harmful or illegal activity such as the distribution of viruses or other malicious code or the transfer of child pornography or other unlawful content.

Device Attachment Rules: Mediacom broadband Internet access service customers can either lease a modem from Mediacom or purchase their own modem at retail. Customers who choose to purchase the modem are required to use a tested and certified DOCSIS 3.0, 3.1 or other compliant modem to connect to Mediacom’s network which is capable of achieving the speed and other features and functionalities associated with the particular tier of service a customer has purchased.  Use of an incompatible retail modem may cause a service interruption. Information regarding compatible retail modems can be found at https://mediacomcable.com/compatible-retail-modems. Mediacom recommends that customers replace incompatible equipment with a compatible device.

Security:  Mediacom employs certain practices to protect the security of our customers and network from unwanted and harmful activities.  These include practices designed to protect our servers against Denial of Service attacks and to prevent viruses, worms, spyware, spam and identity theft.  In order to ensure the effectiveness of our security practices, we do not publicly disclose specific information detailing the levels and types of activities that may trigger our deployment of security protection measures. When security measures are employed, they may affect performance characteristics of service or the ability to access certain suspicious websites, but such measures are employed in a manner designed to have non-discriminatory impact on all similarly-situated customers.

Mediacom makes available certain security tools for use by our customers at no additional charge.  For more information, contact Mediacom.

PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS:  

Service Description: Mediacom provides what is known as a "fixed broadband" Internet access service that is designed to provide the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all Internet end points.  Mediacom offers multiple packages (or "tiers") of broadband Internet access service for residential or commercial use with varying speeds, features and bandwidth usage allowances that may affect the suitability of such service for real-time applications.  The features, pricing and other commercial terms of our service offerings are modified from time to time, and not all packages are available in all areas.  Each package is priced to reflect the particular speed, features and bandwidth usage allowances of that package.  Full descriptions of currently available packages, including pricing information and information about the suitability of particular packages for particular online activities can be found on the Mediacom's website at www.mediacomcable.com.

Performance Metrics: The FCC requires that we disclose information regarding the actual upstream and downstream speeds users can expect to experience with their service.   Our advertised speeds are estimates (i.e., "up to" the specified speed) and our Internet access service is provided on a best efforts basis and cannot be guaranteed.  The actual speed a subscriber experiences may vary based on a number of factors including, but not limited to (i) variances in network usage; (ii) the capabilities and capacities of the customer's computer and/or local area network (LAN) devices such as wireless routers; (iii) latency (i.e., the time delay in transmitting or receiving packets as impacted in significant part by the distance between points of transmission); (iv) the performance of the content and application providers the consumer is accessing, such as a search engine or video streaming site; and (v) performance characteristics of transmissions over portions of the Internet that are not subject to Mediacom's control.

There are a number of publicly available sources of information regarding actual broadband performance, each of which uses a different methodology and thus may produce different results. For instance, along with various other broadband providers and the FCC, Mediacom participates in an ongoing study of mass-market broadband services in the United States in which information regarding broadband performance is compiled for different regions across the country. The results of that study in 2018 can be found on the FCC’s website at  https://data.fcc.gov/download/measuring-broadband-america/2018/2018-Fixed-Measuring-Broadband-America-Report.pdf.

This study measured the ratio of median download speed to advertised download speed (as a national average) during peak times for Mediacom service tiers.[1]

The study also measured the ratio of median upload speed to advertised upload speed (as a national average) during peak times for Mediacom service tiers.[2]

Mediacom offers several other speed tiers but the FCC’s test did not measure all. However, the results from that study are illustrative of what can be expected using these methodologies with the speed tiers that were not tested. In addition, because those test results reflect nationwide averages, the actual speeds users will experience in their specific locations may differ.

In addition, this study attempted to account for many of the factors that can impact users’ actual, experienced end-to-end broadband speeds, unlike many other speed measurement tests, it is important for consumers to realize that online speed tests rely on a different testing methodology than that used in the FCC study discussed above, and results may therefore differ. Moreover, because speed tests measure performance at that particular time, the results may vary depending on when the test is run.

We also are required by the FCC to provide information regarding "latency." Latency is a measurement of the average time that it takes for a data packet to travel from one point on a network to another.  Latency is typically reported based on "round-trip" time and expressed in milliseconds.  While the impact of latency generally is not noticeable by customers, it can have an impact on networks and on certain types of Internet applications.  For example, according to the FCC, high round-trip latencies can have a perceptible impact on the quality of voice services.  High definition multiplayer online games also may be sensitive to latency.     

The FCC study noted above also included data on latency[3]. For Mediacom, the average latency (measured in milliseconds) for all tested service tiers was as follows:

Impact of Specialized Services:  The FCC's "Open Internet" rules distinguish between our mass market retail broadband Internet access services and "specialized services" that share capacity with our broadband Internet access service over our last-mile facilities.  Examples of such "specialized services" may include Mediacom's voice over IP phone ("VoIP") service.  Such services, which are not subject to the same rules as our broadband Internet access services, share bandwidth with our Internet access service and because of their nature sometimes receive priority; thus, increased use of our phone service may temporarily impact our broadband Internet access service at particular times.  We routinely monitor any such services to minimize their impact on our broadband Internet access service.

COMMERCIAL TERMS:

Pricing:  As noted above, Mediacom offers multiple tiers of broadband Internet access service.  The current pricing and other terms and conditions of these tiers (including information regarding fees for early termination or additional network services) can be found at www.mediacomcable.com or www.mediacomtoday.com or obtained by calling our customer service center at 1-855-633-4226.  The pricing and other commercial terms of our broadband Internet access services are subject to change and the information provided in this disclosure statement is not intended to supersede or modify any of the terms and conditions of service as applicable to a particular customer.

Privacy Policies: Your privacy is very important to us.  Personal information you provide to Mediacom is governed by the Mediacom's Privacy Policy, which is posted on Mediacom's Website at https://mediacomcable.com/legal/privacy-notice/ and is subject to change from time to time.  Personal information provided by you to the Mediacom is used primarily to provide a customized experience as you use our services, and is generally not shared with third parties.  Mediacom reserves the right, as required or permitted by law, to provide account and user information, including email, to third parties and to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of any criminal or civil matter.  Such cooperation may include, but is not limited to, monitoring of Mediacom's network consistent with applicable law.

Redress Options:  For immediate assistance with issues or complaints involving your broadband Internet access service, please contact our customer service centers at 1-855-633-4226.  We have agents available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.   Customers can also email us at https://support.mediacomcable.com/#!/About/Contact/Customer  or can contact our social media group at our Twitter and Facebook sites.  Written complaints can also be sent via U.S. mail to:  Mediacom Communications Customer Service Department, One Mediacom Way, Mediacom Park, NY 10918.   The FCC has established procedures for addressing informal and formal complaints relating to its "Open Internet" rules.  For information concerning these formal and informal complaint procedures, please refer to the FCC's website at https://www.fcc.gov/guides/getting-broadband.

 

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