Charging for bandwidth usage is designed to control bandwidth costs to keep rates down for the average Internet customer. Our Internet prices are competitive relative to the speeds we offer and our goal is to keep it that way. Charging for bandwidth usage allows us to invest in a network to provide the few high-end users the consistently high performance they demand without charging the average user more for their Internet service.

Yes, both downloading and uploading count towards your monthly allowance.

A small percentage of customers will be affected by this change. We have identified that 91% of BendBroadband’s customers use less then 10GB per month, which is the cap for our Bronze product. In addition, 99.5% of customers use less then 100GB per month which is our cap for the Platinum product.

Depending on which tier you sign-up for you will be given a usage plan of 10GB, 30GB, 50GB, or 100GB per month. Once you exceed that cap you will then be billed a fixed amount per GB over the cap (see pricing plans for usage fees per GB). For example, if you have the 10GB plan and consume 15GB per month and the usage fees are $1.50 per GB you will be billed $7.50 in usage fees in addition to your monthly bill ($1.50*5GB).

There are two ways to check your monthly consumption.

1. Go to www.BendBroadband.com/usage to view your monthly usage. This requires a BendBroadband e-mail address to sign-on. Please visit www.webmail.bendbroadband.com/ to sign-up for an e-mail address. All high-speed subscribers receive an account free of charge.
2. Check your monthly billing statement. Starting in June, each month your bill will show in (GB) how much bandwidth you consumed.

1. Peer-to-peer file sharing application may be the problem. These programs operate as file servers by default and offer files from your hard drive to other Internet users, possibly causing your account to use excessive bandwidth without your knowledge.
2. If you have a wireless home network, there is a possibility that other people are using your wireless network without your knowledge and are greatly increasing your network usage. Please secure your connection with a password to block others from using your files. To secure your wireless network you will need to refer to the documentation, website, or technical support of the manufacturer of your wireless router.
3. Your computer may be affected by a computer virus. A virus will often send out mass emails from your computer without your knowledge. Installing antivirus software on your computer and scanning for possible infections may resolve this issue. BendBroadband will offer virus software starting in July 2008. Please visit our web portal at www.bendbroadband.net to sign-up for antivirus software, or buy our Gold, or Silver product and receive this software for free.
4. Visit “How much Bandwidth do I need?” to learn how other types of applications can affect your total allowance.”

The chart below provides examples of different types of Internet activities and how much bandwidth is needed. Please note that upload and download data are measured equally. Upload is data sent from your PC and download is receiving data to your PC.

	Included In Package
	Platinum	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Gigabytes	100	50	30	10
Megabytes	100,000	50,000	30,000	10,000
Kilobytes	100,000,000	50,000,000	30,000,000	10,000,000
Bytes	100,000,000,000	50,000,000,000	30,000,000,000	10,000,000,000
What can I do with my bandwidth?
Web Pages (30K Web Page)	3,333,333	1,666,667	1,000,000	333,333
E-Mails (2,000 Characters 14K)	7,142,857	3,571,429	2,142,857	714,286
Songs (3min or about 4MB)	25,000	12,500	7,500	2,500
Flash Video Clips (3 min = 5MB)	20,000	10,000	6,000	2000
TV Shows (44 min or 500MB)	200	100	60	20
Movies (1.5GB)	67	33	20	7
*These figures are estimates.

 

Videogame consoles like Xbox, PlayStation, and even PCs use relatively small amounts of bandwidth during actual gaming (estimated at about 15 MB per hour). To consume 1GB you would need to play for roughly 65 hours. Bandwidth usage does increase significantly however when these devices are used to download extras such as game videos, videogame add-ons, and other content. For example, individual movies, TV titles and other extras downloaded from the Xbox Live website can require bandwidth of 10MB to more than several GB.

Audio is streamed at a lower quality than a music download and will not have as much of impact on your consumption. Most Internet music sites stream at a rate of approximately 128Kpbs, which means you would have to stream music for 20 hours straight to accumulate 1GB of usage.

Connection speeds are measured in bits per second.
Consumption (Bandwidth Allowance) is measured in bytes transferred.

BendBroadband provides three speed tiers:

• Bronze Internet will deliver a maximum speed of 8Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.
• Silver Internet will deliver a maximum speed of 12Mbps download and 1.5Mbps upload.
• Gold Internet will deliver a maximum speed of 16Mbps download and 1.5Mbps upload.
• Platinum Internet will deliver a maximum speed of 8Mbps download and 1.0Mbps upload.

These are the maximum speeds that will be provided per your profile and can vary depending on your home network and programs being used on your computer. BendBroadband engineers to provide service to the cable modem and cannot control what happens beyond the modem. Home routers, wireless set-ups, your operating systems, and the specifications of your PC can cause your speeds to fluctuate. In addition, certain websites could be experiencing heavy traffic and could cause your system to slow. If you have home network or wireless devices try plugging your Ethernet cable directly into your cable modem from your PC. If problems still occur you can contact our technical support department at (541) 382-5551.

Wireless routers typically cause a reduction in signal strength or speed. For best results, consider connecting the computer directly to the cable modem.

First we will run through a series of test internally (from our offices) to ensure that your cable modem is responding properly and that there is nothing wrong with your connection. If a problem with our service is discovered, we will immediately work to resolve the issue. If we believe the problem is internal to your home or equipment, we will inform you of this. Once we have tested that our system is working, you have the option to request an on-site test at your modem by a BendBroadband technician for a fee of $39.50. If we find that there are issues that are our responsibility, we will waive the fee and work to resolve the issue. However, in most cases we find the speed issue is caused by customer provided equipment; i.e. routers, wireless set-up, and PC’s.

BendBroadband will provide an Internet connection to your cable modem and will ensure that the signal from our facility to your modem is functioning properly (within normal parameters). What happens beyond the cable modem is out of our control and is your responsibility. Customer provided routers, wireless devices, and PC’s along with other in home problems can cause your speeds to be degraded. BendBroadband will assist customers in the setting up their e-mail and Internet connection to the PC to provide full connectivity to the Internet.