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Tooway provides its satellite broadband services through the KA-Sat satellite that is owned by Eutelsat.
Eutelsat has no role in direct communication with end users or customers. Its sole role in relation to customers is to manage the satellite operations and manage the traffic on the network.
Broadband Shack, the parent company of Tooway, is responsible for all ground services that directly relate to the customer. e.g. sales, billing, support, installation and logistics.
Like most domestic terrestrial broadband services, Eutelsat’s Tooway network (the “Network”) is a shared and ‘best effort’ network; at any given time, subscribers within a given geographic area must share available network capacity.
Eutelsat aims to provide each subscriber with a “fair share” of that capacity, while providing all subscribers with a high-quality online experience. If you exceed peak usage or monthly thresholds, you should expect to see your service slow down, especially at peak times, in order to allow fair access to other lower users. You can identify whether your service is being impacted by FUP/traffic management via the Customer Portal.
Eutelsat employs Network management practices designed to prevent any user from placing a disproportionate demand on Network resources. Some of these practices are used only when the Network is congested; others are used more generally.
Traffic levels on the Network usually have no significant impact on the user experience. Eutelsat has designed its Network carefully to achieve this result. At other times, however, too much demand from too many users in the same period may lead to congestion (“Congestion”), where total demand exceeds that available on the Network.
During these times, Eutelsat’s Congestion management practices (see Part II for more detail) will be applied first to users who have already used more than 50% of the traffic included in their Consumption Profile (with the exception of the Service Class “Tooway Extra 2014”, which is regulated by a specific policy further described in part III below). Through this practice we aim to treat traffic in a manner that reduces the impact on the user experience and prevents a subscriber from exceeding his or her “fair share” of available capacity.
The goal of these measures is for the vast majority of users to enjoy a better overall service experience than they otherwise would without these practices.
Under normal traffic conditions, it is not necessary for Eutelsat to employ congestion management practices. However, while network capacity is abundant, it is not unlimited. This means that some congestion at some peak times is inevitable – and that is when the congestion management practices make sure that the load is managed to give the best possible experience to most number of people using the Network.
Congestion typically occurs in the link between the subscriber terminal and the gateway earth station via the satellite. In order to determine if the link is congested, Eutelsat continuously monitors the traffic load in each spot beam channel. If the instantaneous traffic load exceeds the available capacity of the spot beam channel, Eutelsat implements the congestion management algorithm described below.
Internet traffic is normally “bursty” in nature, i.e. traffic flows generally are not constant or continuous, but rather are characterised by “bursts” of data. On occasion, too much demand from too many users in the same period in a given spot beam channel results in a total instantaneous demand for capacity exceeding, on a temporary basis, the capacity available within the channel.
On such occasions, the Network can experience Congestion. Congestion most typically occurs during the Network’s “peak” usage hours which generally can be expected to be from about 17:00 to 00:00 local time at the user’s location, depending on the day of the week (“Peak Hours”).
Congestion may also occur during certain periods when usage is “unmetered” (such as the “night free zone”).
Congestion, and the resulting transmission delay, impacts the user experience with respect to some types of applications more than others. For example, a delay in the rendering of a web page may be noticeable to a user waiting for the content to appear on their screen. On the other hand, a user downloading a bulk file (e.g. a software update) may be less impacted if the download takes longer during Congestion than it otherwise would, since the subscriber may already know that the download requires some time to complete.
Customers should also be aware that the public Internet itself suffers from frequent bottlenecks and congestionand, if users experience ‘slowness’, it shouldn’t automatically be assumed as being related to congestion on the Tooway network.
Eutelsat’s goal is to manage its Network to minimize the impact of Congestion on traffic. To achieve this aim, Eutelsat’s congestion management algorithm is designed to reduce the traffic load, while giving a preference to services and applications that require less transmission bandwidth, such as web browsing and email.
During periods of Congestion, bandwidth intensive applications such as video streaming and file downloading may be affected more than other applications. As a result, the quality of video streaming may be reduced and/or buffering may occur. In addition, file downloads may take longer to complete during periods of Congestion.
Under more severe Congestion, all applications may need to be slowed, and in those instances, the time to download web pages may take longerEutelsat and the Tooway service operates as a “mere conduit”. Despite the fact that Eutelsat is in no way involved with the information transmitted through the Network, following a specific request of a Public Authority, Eutelsat may block the access to specific URLs.
Eutelsat does not intentionally block any particular form of traffic (unless explicitly specified in the characteristics of a given service profile) but may block certain TCP/UDP ports and/or specific protocols that it reasonably believes may represent a security threat to the Network.
A “Heavy User” is a user (or a small group of users) consuming a disproportionate amount of a Network’s resources. Eutelsat will monitor both overall Network performance and individual resource consumption to determine if any user is a Heavy User, whocould potentially disrupt or degrade the Network and/or its usage by other users.
Eutelsat reserves the right to immediately restrict, suspend or terminate Heavy Users’ Service Accounts without further notice.
The “Tooway Extra 2014” tariff or Service Class provides uncapped web browsing and email and is subject to specific usage conditions, in order to ensure that all users have equitable access to the Network and that heavy usage by a small number of users does not negatively impact the Network performance for all users.
The following details what happens when a user reaches 40 GB of generated traffic volume (both upload and download traffic are considered, traffic generated between 00:00 and 06:00 local time is not accounted) during an accounting cycle:
(i) Less than 40 GB: no service limitation applied;
(ii) Between 40 and 100 GB (during peak hours): only web and email will be provided and any other protocol than web browsing and email will be blocked;;
(iii) Between 40 and 100 GB (during periods of congestion): Eutelsat’s congestion management algorithm may reduce traffic load giving a preference services and applications that require less transmission bandwidth such as web page browsing and email. Bandwidth intensive applications such as video streaming and file downloading may be slowed more than other applications. As a result, the quality of video streaming may be reduced and/or buffering may occur. In addition, file downloads may take longer to complete during periods of Congestion.
(iv) More than 100 GB: only web browsing and email will be provided and any other protocol than web browsing and email will be blocked.
During period of service limitation, to be certain to fully experience web browsing and email, the user needs to follow all of the guidelines below (otherwise no service will be available):
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