Open Internet Policy
To help keep you informed about Life Wireless's mass market broadband Internet access services (“Broadband Services”), this disclosure describes the Broadband Services we offer and provides information about the network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms applicable to these services, consistent with the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC’s”) Transparency Rule.
Broadband Services provide subscribers with the ability to transmit and receive data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints. As a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (“MVNO”), Life Wireless provides its Broadband Services using the facilities of leading nationwide wireless providers known as underlying carriers (“Underlying Carriers”). As a result, while we have some control over aspects of your Broadband Service, we do not actively manage the networks used to receive Broadband Services from us—our Underlying Carriers do.
The information in this statement is provided to help you make informed choices about the purchase and use of our Broadband Services, and to assist providers of Internet applications, content, and services in developing, marketing, and maintaining their Internet offerings. The information provided relates to your experience 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 mass market 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 disclosure changes your rights and obligations, or ours, under ourTerms and Conditions, or our Privacy Policy. This disclosure is provided for informational purposes only and may be revised without notice at any time.
Network Practices
How does Life Wireless manage congestion with respect to its Broadband Services?
Life Wireless, through its Underlying Carriers, 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 Life Wireless subscribers and other users of our Underlying Carriers’ networks. Our Underlying Carriers manage their networks for the benefit of all users based on a variety of factors and their technical expertise. Nonetheless, temporary congestion may occur when a large number of customers in a concentrated area access the networks at the same time, such as at stadium events, or during planned network maintenance.
Congestion-Based Data Management. During periods of congestion, our Underlying Carriers may use Congestion-Based Data Management to manage their networks. With Congestion-Based Data Management, customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced data speeds and increased latency as compared to other customers using the same cell site. However, even when subject to this congestion management practice, the amount of data these customers may use will never be limited and they will never be subject to data overage charges. Reduced speeds and increased latency may cause websites to load more slowly or affect the performance of data-heavy activities such as video streaming or interactive gaming. Customers subject to Congestion-Based Data Management will experience reduced speeds and increased latency only when they use data at 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. In addition, this network management practice adjusts dynamically to address the amount of congestion, which can start and stop over a very short time period (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 performance impact for affected unlimited data plan customers may also vary significantly, but such impact will last only as long as the site is congested.
Buffer Tuning. With the ever increasing growth in smart phone and tablet usage on wireless networks, and the growing prevalence of video downloads, our Underlying Carriers may use a reasonable network management video optimization technique in their mobile data networks. That technique delivers recorded video to the user’s device in a “just in time” fashion (“Buffer Tuning”). Buffer Tuning only applies to internet browser traffic (HTTP, port 80) for recorded video downloads, regardless of the source, and does not affect real-time streaming video. Without Buffer Tuning, video content may be completely delivered to the device and charged against the user’s data plan regardless of whether it is viewed. With Buffer Tuning, a sufficient amount of video is delivered to the device so that the user can start viewing the video, and the remainder of the video is delivered just in time to the device as needed for uninterrupted viewing. This optimizes the user’s data plan consumption. Additionally, this frees up network resources for all users. Buffer Tuning does not alter video content and should not adversely impact the viewing experience.
Does Life Wireless limit data usage or provide customers with tools to monitor and control their data usage?
Life Wireless offers prepaid plans with pre-established allotments of data as well as opportunities to purchase additional data allotments as top-ups. Customers can determine their remaining data and account balance by using our online portal or by calling customer service.
Does Life Wireless favor certain websites or Internet applications by blocking or throttling traffic, modifying particular protocols, or prioritizing certain traffic on its Broadband Services?
No, Life Wireless does not favor certain websites or Internet applications by blocking or throttling lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, application, service, user, or use of non-harmful devices on its Broadband Services. Nor does Life Wireless modify particular protocols, protocol ports, or protocol fields in ways not prescribed by the protocol standards, subject to reasonable network management. Additionally, neither Life Wireless nor its Underlying Carriers directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic (such as through prioritization, resource reservation, or traffic shaping) for any type of consideration. In response to a specific security threat against the networks of our Underlying Carriers or our customers, we or our Underlying Carriers may occasionally need to limit the flow of traffic from certain locations or take other appropriate actions. Additionally, our Underlying Carriers may favor some traffic over other traffic to address the needs of emergency communications, law enforcement, public safety, or national security authorities, consistent with or as permitted by applicable law.
How does Life Wireless handle alleged copyright infringement by subscribers to its Broadband Services?
Our Underlying Carriers utilize a copyright alert process to respond to alleged copyright infringement activities using peer-to-peer file sharing and attempts to educate customers about the importance of protecting copyright and lawful use of content available over the Internet. Under the program, content owners may notify our Underlying Carriers of alleged copyright infringement based on the IP address of a user. Our Underlying Carriers will pass the request to us, and then we will attempt to identify a subscriber account based on that IP address and forward a copyright alert to that subscriber, advising the subscriber of the allegation and providing information about online copyright infringement, so that the subscriber, as the account holder, can take steps to prevent any future possible infringement using the Broadband Services. If a subscriber receives additional alerts, we may temporarily redirect the subscriber to a webpage where the subscriber must review material on the importance of copyright and the lawful use of content available over the Internet. Upon completion of this review, such redirection will be discontinued and the subscriber’s Broadband Services will be restored to normal. If a subscriber continues to receive alerts, we or our Underlying Carriers may take action consistent with Section 512(i) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which may result in termination of the subscriber’s Broadband Services. Subscriber personal information is protected throughout this process—we will not provide such information to content owners unless required to do so by court order.
What practices has Life Wireless adopted to manage network security?
As an MVNO, Life Wireless does not have the ability to manage the security of its Underlying Carriers’ networks. However, our Underlying Carriers proactively monitor network activity to help guard against a wide range of security threats, including viruses, botnets, worms, and distributed denial of service attacks, SPAM, and other harmful activity. We cannot guarantee that you will not encounter unwanted, harmful, or malicious internet traffic while using our Broadband Services and encourage you to adopt your own reasonable security practices.
Our Underlying Carriers use a variety of network tools to monitor network activity and health to maintain stability and functionality, to protect their networks against threats, and for other operational purposes. As our service providers, our Underlying Carriers store the information they gather through this monitoring for only as long as we have a business purpose for them to maintain it. Our Privacy Policy further describes how we collect, use, and share this information. You can view ourPrivacy Policy.
If our Underlying Carriers detect a security threat, they will typically attempt to isolate the threat and minimize the impact to network services. They may use a variety of security measures to protect their networks, including blocking malicious or unlawful traffic, redirecting the flow of traffic over some portions of their networks, or taking other actions to address the threat. They may also attempt to limit actions to the specific portions of their networks or customer base impacted by the security threat and only for as long as necessary to mitigate the threat.
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 detect vulnerabilities that might be used to compromise the assets of Life Wireless, our Underlying Carriers, their subscribers, or our subscribers or that might be used in attacks against others. In doing so, they seek to avoid disrupting network service to customers. We and our Underlying Carriers may use information derived from these activities to identify and address security issues or to notify subscribers of issues.
Does Life Wireless restrict the types of devices that customers can use with its Broadband Services?
Life Wireless customers may attach 5G- or 4G-capable devices of their choice to our Broadband Services, so long as the devices are FCC-approved, are compatible with the technology used in our Underlying Carriers’ networks, do not harm the networks or other users, and are not designed only for accessing data services. Devices must also be used in a manner consistent with our Terms and Conditions, including our Authorized Use policy. For example, some customers may not use their device(s) as a personal hotspot, depending on their device and location.
Performance Characteristics
What factors affect the performance of my Broadband Services?
End-to-end performance of your service can depend on a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our 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 subscribers connected to the same cell site, the number of subscribers 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 you are communicating through your usage, the destination of your Internet traffic, overall traffic on the Internet, whether there are network outages, and applicable network management practices as discussed above. In addition, our Underlying Carriers have designed their wireless services to provide our 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. Although our Underlying Carriers engineer their networks to accommodate all users and user types based on a variety of factors, including average and anticipated peak usage of their networks, many factors cannot be anticipated or are outside of our and our Underlying Carriers’ control. These factors can impact the availability of network resources for Broadband Services at any particular time.
What performance can I expect from Life Wireless’s Broadband Services?
We and our Underlying Carriers each strive to manage networks to provide you optimal performance. However, because many different factors can affect the performance of Broadband Services, as discussed above, neither we nor our Underlying Carriers guarantee specific performance levels of our Broadband Services. Broadband Service performance 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 data from third-party, crowd-sourced testing of actual network performance compiled by our Underlying Carrier.
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. 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, such as streaming video or video conferencing.
Life Wireless provides high-speed mobile broadband Internet access service on at least 4G mobile networks at 4G or better speeds (at least 200 kbps symmetrical), where the network will support such performance. In addition, our customers may receive 5G or 5G LTE service where available for all or part of their allotted broadband data. We expect our customers will typically experience speeds within the following ranges, which do not necessarily reflect speeds achievable along the entire end-to-end transmission path to all Internet destinations:
| Technology | Download Range | Upload Range |
|---|---|---|
| 4G | 2 to 6 Mbps | 800 kbps to 1 Mbps |
| 4G LTE | 5 to 20 Mbps | 3 to 10 Mbps |
| 5G LTE | 38 to 120 Mbps | 5 to 23 Mbps |
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.
We expect our customers will typically experience the following round-trip latencies when accessing the Internet using our Broadband Services:
| Technology | Time in milliseconds |
|---|---|
| 4G | 85 to 166 |
| 4G LTE | 57 to 95 |
| 5G | 20 to 40 |
Commercial Terms
Descriptions of the prices and fees applicable to our Broadband Services are available on our rate and data plan informationpage. Life Wireless does not charge termination fees.
Where can I find the Terms and Conditions and the Authorized Use policy that apply to the Life Wireless’s Broadband Services?
The Terms and Conditions, which includes the Authorized Use policy, can be found on ourTerms and Conditions Page.
What are Life Wireless’s privacy practices for its Broadband Services?
To learn about our privacy practices for our Broadband Services, please review ourbboi.privacy_policy.
How can I get assistance if I have a question or concern or need more information about Life Wireless’s Broadband Services?
Should you have any questions or concerns about our Broadband Services, please contact our Customer Support Department by calling the number listed below or writing to us at the following address.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1-888-759-8654
Mail: Life Wireless
P.O. Box 2840
Covington, GA 30015
Last updated: April 21, 2020
High Speed Data provided over 5G, 4G/LTE and 4G networks subject to network availability and handset compatibility. Videos stream at DVD Quality (480p). Reduced speeds may affect audio and video streaming, access to certain websites and content, or use of available applications. Monthly plans expire 30 days after loaded to account. Data usage subject to our Acceptable Use Policy, available in our terms and conditions. Directory assistance, premium SMS, no answer/busy transfer, caller ID, caller ID block, and roaming not available. Unused accumulated data is forfeited if you switch between plans or terminate or fail to renew your plan before expiration. Unused Data/Refills/promotions are not redeemable for cash, have no cash value and are not transferable or refundable. Taxes/fees charged separately. Plans/rates/fees subject to change without notice. Coverage and service not available in all areas. Life Wireless service provided by Telrite Corporation. Full Terms and Conditions applicable and available here.
