Acceptable Use Policy

(Last updated October 1, 2014)

INTRODUCTION

This Acceptable Use Policy is intended to govern your use of Distributel Services and any devices and/or equipment used to support the Services.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed to the Acceptable Use Policy and Distributel’s Terms and Conditions (collectively, the “Agreement”). If you do not wish to be bound by this Agreement, do not use the Services and contact Distributel immediately.

Complaints regarding violations of this Agreement by Distributel users can be directed to: abuse@distributel.net

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER IS THE CUSTOMER PERMITTED TO RESELL, SHARE, OR OTHERWISE DISTRIBUTE THE SERVICE OR ANY PORTION THEREOF TO ANY THIRD PARTY WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF DISTRIBUTEL AND PAYMENT OF APPLICABLE FEES.

  1. LOCAL PHONE LINE AND LONG DISTANCE SERVICES
    1. Customer responsibility

      The Customer acknowledges their responsibility for all charges arising from the use of the Service or hardware whether or not authorized by the Customer. This includes (without being limited to) collect-calls, toll charges, 1010 type usage-dependant charges, fees from 411, 711, etc. and/or other fees according to the rate in effect at the time of usage.

      Collect calls and 1010 charges are passed through from third party service providers. By using such third party services the Customer accepts responsibility for such charges. It is the Customer’s responsibility to inform Distributel if the device has been stolen, tampered with or used by unauthorized persons or in any manner in violation of the AUP.

      The Customer will be responsible for ensuring that other users of The Service understand and comply with these Terms and Conditions.

      Distributel may at its discretion limit the use of its services or may require the customer to obtain a higher grade of service if a disproportionately high number of calls are being made to Nunavut, Yukon or the Northwest Territories (area code 867).

    2. Prohibited activities

      Use of the Service in contradiction of the following restrictions constitutes a violation of this Agreement. The Customer shall not use or permit the Service to be used for the following purposes:

      • Any use that prevents fair and proportionate use by others; in cases of excessive demand, Distributel may limit the use of its services as necessary or may require the Customer to obtain a higher grade of service at a higher subscription cost.
      • Using the Service for illegal activities or harassing or threatening behaviour.
      • Altering Caller ID information in a manner that would be deceptive or likely to create confusion or mistaken identity.
      • Misuse of calls to emergency services.
    3. Monitoring of activity

      Distributel reserves the right but is under no obligation to monitor service activity for the purposes of network improvement, integrity, security or for the purposes of monitoring compliance with these Terms and Conditions.

      Distributel may at any time be legally required to monitor, record, preserve evidence of the activity of identified Customers as a result of court orders and/or warrants or statute, without prior or subsequent notice provided to the Customer.

    4. Emergency Services 9-1-1 Dialing

      The 911 service provided by Distributel differs in a number of important ways from traditional 911 or Enhanced 911 (E911) dialling available with most traditional telephone services – and has specific limitations relative to E911.

      See the full 911 Limitations available at https://www.distributel.ca/en/terms#911EN

  2. INTERNET SERVICES Distributel’s residential Internet Service is designed for personal use. The Customer may not use the Service for commercial purposes. To ensure fair and proportional access to its network by all customers, The Customer may not run disproportionally high-bandwidth or high-load servers or applications in connection with the Service. In the event of disproportionately high usage of Distributel’s network resources by The Customer, Distributel may levy usage surcharges of up to one hundred dollars ($100.00) per billing period. This is in addition to the provisions in section 15 of the General Terms and Conditions applicable to violations of these Service conditions. Where applicable, The Customer must comply with the current data storage and other limitations on the Service. Distributel reserves the right to change the Service plan’s data transfer speeds or data transfer thresholds upon notice.
    • Customer responsibility

      The Customer acknowledges that by ordering the Service he will be responsible for the use of the Service made by any other person using his computer equipment and assumes all liability for such use of the Service. The Customer will be responsible for ensuring that all such other users understand and comply with these Terms and Conditions.

      The Customer remains responsible at all time for his computer equipment and must ensure that his computer equipment does not allow, and takes steps to prevent unauthorized access. This includes but is not limited to, setting strong wireless passwords, limiting physical access to equipment to authorized persons, utilizing up to date anti-virus and firewall software.

      The Customer is responsible for any content posted, stored, transmitted, disseminated or accessed by the Customer through his use of the Service. Any questions or complaints the Customer may have regarding content should be addressed to the content provider. The Customer is solely responsible for information published on the Internet through use of the Service.

      In addition, The Customer must ensure that his activities do not restrict, disrupt, inhibit, degrade or impede Distributel’s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

      THE CUSTOMER ACKNOWLEDGES AND SOLELY ACCEPTS THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH ANY ONLINE ACTIVITY. THIS INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS OF MALWARE, VIRUSES, DATA LOSS, DATA THEFT – INCLUDING PERSONAL AND PRIVATE INFORMATION, CONNECTION FAILURE OR NETWORK OUTAGES. THE CUSTOMER SHOULD SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE BEFORE RELYING ON USE OF THE SERVICE FOR MEDICAL OR SECURITY PURPOSES.

    • Prohibited activities

      Use of the Service in contradiction of the following restrictions constitutes a violation of this Agreement. The Customer shall not use the Service for the following purposes:

      • Publishing content which violates copyright or intellectual property rights of others. The customer assumes all risk regarding their published content;
      • Engaging in fraudulent such as, but not limited to, pyramid or illegal soliciting schemes;
      • Impersonating any person or entity, or forging anyone’s digital or manual signature, including forging of email headers – your true address must remain visible and accessible to recipients;
      • Accessing or attempting to access data, content, computer systems or services without express authorization of the owner;
      • Attempting to circumvent or breach network or system or service security measures put in place by Distributel or any other service provider or service owner by utilizing but not limited to: IP packet forgery, brute force or systematic intrusion, “man in the middle” attack, cache injection, HTTP/S parameter polluting, Denial of Service attacks or any other system hacking method or vulnerability exploit;
      • Illegally using or distributing tools designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools;
      • Collecting or attempting to collect personal information about third parties without their knowledge or written consent;
      • Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam;
      • Indiscriminately sending unsolicited, unwanted, or inappropriate messages in mass quantity (spam, mail bombing – multiple copies of a single message to the same recipient, or any application or environment specific messaging);
      • Interfering with any computer networks or telecommunications services by, but not limited to Denial of Service attacks, data or ping flooding of an individual user machine, network or service, overloading a service, seizing and abuse of operator privileges and attempting to “crash” a host;
      • Transmitting any content or software that contains a virus, malware, trojan, exploit or other harmful code or feature.
    • (c) Internet traffic management policies (ITMP) For Ontario and Quebec Customers:

      Most of the network facilities that make up the Internet are shared by many users at the same time. This is also true for the network facilities used by Distributel’s High Speed Internet Service. While Distributel is constantly investing in its network in order to ensure a high quality Internet service, significant increases in traffic demand may occasionally result in congestion on such shared networks.

      Distributel has designed its Internet Quality Management system to minimize the impact for most users during congestion periods. Distributel’s Internet Quality Management system works by identifying types of Internet traffic that are more sensitive to congestion and delays and prioritizing such traffic when necessary. The system identifies traffic types at all times in order to react immediately in case of network congestion. Normally no prioritization of traffic occurs as the network capacity is more than sufficient to handle the traffic volume. However during congestion periods, delivery of the more time-sensitive traffic will be prioritized to ensure an overall high quality internet experience for the most users possible.

      Internet traffic is identified and, if necessary, prioritized based on four groups. The highest priority is given to applications that are very time-sensitive, such as gaming and VoIP. The second and third priority groups consists of traffic that is also sensitive to congestion, such as web browsing, social networking and video streaming. The fourth group includes applications that are traditionally less popular with our customer base as a whole.

      Normally all internet traffic will be delivered at full speed. During congestion periods, Customers should see no change in the quality of their Internet experience when using time-sensitive Internet applications. Customers using less time-sensitive applications may notice a decrease in their download/upload speeds until the temporary network congestion has passed.

      For Alberta and British Columbia Customers:

      Distributel Customers in Alberta and British Columbia are subject to Internet Traffic Management Policies (ITMPs) that are imposed under Distributel’s TPIA agreement with Shaw in order to provide Cable Internet.

      Distributel uses the same traffic management policies as Shaw to ensure proportional access to its network for all Cable Internet users located in Alberta and British Columbia. Some Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications used for non real-time file sharing can consume a disproportionate amount of upstream bandwidth causing disruption to other users on the network. These traffic management policies were introduced to quickly address any upstream congestion caused by these P2P applications while standard network expansion activities are undertaken to increase the bandwidth availability for all users.

      The traffic management policies come into effect only if upstream network congestion occurs on a network segment. If congestion occurs, the traffic management policies reduce the amount of upstream bandwidth available for P2P applications completing non real-time file transfer activity to 80 kbps per end-user.

      The traffic management policies do not affect download speeds and will not affect real-time interactive activities such as on-line gaming, banking, e-mail or VoIP services. For the majority of Customers the Internet experience is unaffected by the traffic management policies and both upstream and downstream bandwidth will be available to ensure the full operation of any application.

      The ITMPs use IP addresses to make real-time traffic management decisions in relation to the network. Since IP addresses have the potential to be linked to an individual’s Customer account, IP addresses could be considered personal information. The traffic management policies implemented by Distributel do not involve capturing, storing or archiving this information in any way.

    • (d) Monitoring of activity

      Distributel reserves the right but is under no obligation to monitor service activity for the purposes of network improvement, integrity, security or for the purposes of monitoring compliance with these Terms and Conditions.

      Distributel may at any time be legally required to monitor, record, preserve evidence of the activity of identified Customers or may be required to remove content in whole or in part as a result of court orders and/or warrants or statute, without prior or subsequent notice provided to the Customer.

  3. DISTRIBUTEL TV SERVICES

    Distributel TV service and equipment are provided or sold to the Customer for personal, residential, non-commercial use ONLY at the location identified in the Service order or contract.

    1. Customer responsibility

      The Customer acknowledges that by ordering the Service he will be responsible for the use of the Service made by any other person using his equipment and assumes all liability for such use of the Service. The Customer acknowledges their responsibility for all charges arising from the use of the Service or hardware whether or not authorized by the Customer. This includes (without being limited to) pay-per-use, video on demand and/or other fees according to the rate in effect at the time of usage. Pay-per-use and video on demand charges are passed through from third party service providers. By using such third party services the Customer accepts responsibility for such charges. It is the Customer’s responsibility to inform Distributel if the device has been stolen, tampered with or used by unauthorized persons or if the device has been altered in any manner in violation of these Terms and Conditions.

      The Customer will be responsible for ensuring that other users of The Service understand and comply with these Terms and Conditions.

      In addition, The Customer must ensure that his activities do not restrict, disrupt, inhibit, degrade or impede Distributel’s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services.

      THE CUSTOMER ACKNOWLEDGES AND SOLELY ACCEPTS THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH ANY ONLINE ACTIVITY. THIS INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS OF MALWARE, VIRUSES, DATA LOSS, DATA THEFT – INCLUDING PERSONAL AND PRIVATE INFORMATION, CONNECTION FAILURE OR NETWORK OUTAGES.

    2. Prohibited activities Use of the Service in contradiction of the following restrictions constitutes a violation of this Agreement. The Customer shall not use the Service for the following purposes:
      • Accessing or attempting to access data, content, computer systems or services without express authorization of the owner;
      • Attempting to circumvent or breach network or system or service security measures put in place by Distributel or any other service provider or service owner by utilizing but not limited to: IP packet forgery, brute force or systematic intrusion, “man in the middle” attack, cache injection, HTTP/S parameter polluting, Denial of Service attacks or any other system hacking method or vulnerability exploit;
      • Illegally using or distributing tools designed for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, cracking tools, packet sniffers or network probing tools;
      • Collecting or attempting to collect personal information about third parties without their knowledge or written consent;
      • Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate these Terms and Conditions, which includes the facilitation of the means to spam;
      • Interfering with any computer networks or telecommunications services by, but not limited to Denial of Service attacks, data or ping flooding of an individual.
    3. Monitoring of activity

      Distributel reserves the right but is under no obligation to monitor service activity for the purposes of network improvement, integrity, security or for the purposes of monitoring compliance with these Terms and Conditions.

      Distributel may at any time be legally required to monitor, record, preserve evidence of the activity of identified Customers or may be required to remove content in whole or in part as a result of court orders and/or warrants or statute, without prior or subsequent notice provided to the Customer.

    4. Ownership of identifiers

      The Customer has no ownership or claim to any identifiers provided to the Customer in association with the Service. Identifiers include but are not limited to TV Service Account Numbers, Server IP addresses, or login credentials.

      DISTRIBUTEL MAY MODIFY OR CHANGE SUCH IDENTIFIERS AT ANY POINT IN TIME AND SHALL IN NO WAY BE REQUIRED TO COMPENSATE THE CUSTOMER FOR SUCH CHANGES.

    5. End-user licenses

      The Customer agrees to comply with the applicable terms and conditions of all end user license agreements accompanying any software or plug-ins to such software provided in connection with Service. All such end user licenses will terminate upon termination of the Service unless otherwise specified. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between the terms of this Agreement and any such license, the terms of this Agreement shall prevail.

    6. Price Volatility and Regulation

      Our television services are provided by TotalTV Inc. Decisions or orders issued by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (the “CRTC”) or changes in legislation may have a direct impact on content and transmission costs. As such, the price for TV services may have a certain volatility. While Distributel will take reasonable steps to ensure price stability, certain price increases may be passed on to the Customer and are beyond Distributel’s control.

      Distributel may revise this Acceptable Use Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on www.distributel.ca, along with the effective date.

The Customer agrees to abide by Distributel’s Terms and Conditions which are available in the Legal section of www.distributel.ca.

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