Best Cellular’s terms & conditions, including guidelines & policies on such topics as service plans, activation procedures, data usage & dispute resolution, can be viewed at the bottom of our online shopping pages. Best Cellular’s legal & service policies can be viewed here: BestCellular.com/legal/.
What is the Best Cellular policy for online privacy?
Best Cellular is committed to protecting the privacy of its customers. The Best Cellular Privacy Policy describes how Best Cellular may collect, access, use, or disclose your personal information while using our products or services. You can find Best Cellular’s Privacy Policy & other relevant privacy information online at /legal/privacy-policy/
What if I have a question or concerns related to my Best Cellular broadband Internet access?
For questions that are not answered on this page, Best Cellular customers may contact customer care at 970-424-4563 or by any of the methods listed on our customer service contact page located at BestCellular.com/contact/. For information on resolving disputes with Best Cellular, please review our terms & conditions under the heading “Dispute Resolution” located here: BestCellular.com/legal/.
What performance can I expect from Best Cellular’s data networks?
Best Cellular is a multi-carrier mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). The carriers regularly measure the performance, coverage & speed of our 3G & 4G data networks in an effort to ensure our coverage maps are accurate & up-to-date. Our average speed & latency estimates are based on a combination of independent third-party testing & carrier-generated results. Coverage isn’t available everywhere, & speeds may vary considerably from these averages based on factors both within & beyond carrier’s control such as network problems, software, signal strength, your wireless device, structures, buildings, weather, geography, topography, etc. It is important that you consider the capabilities of your device, carrier’s network coverage, & expected speed & latency estimates for carrier’s network technologies in determining whether carrier’s data services are right for you.
Network Management Frequently Asked Questions
Best Cellular is committed to providing the best mobile broadband Internet access service experience possible for its customers. To ensure that all Best Cellular customers enjoy the best possible network experience, Best Cellular uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with mobile broadband industry standards & guidance provided by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Best Cellular’s network management practices are primarily used for & tailored to achieving legitimate network management purposes taking into account carrier’s network architecture & technology.
The following Frequently Asked Questions are intended to help clarify for Best Cellular customers what we mean by network management & explain Carrier’s network management techniques & approaches.
Why Does Best Cellular Manage Its Network?
Best Cellular manages our network with the goal of delivering the best possible mobile broadband Internet access experience to all customers. Mobile network resources are not infinite. Managing the network is essential to promote the use & enjoyment of mobile data by all network users. Carriers use reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards for protecting Best Cellular’s network & customers & for managing the delivery of mobile broadband services. Just as the Internet continues to change & evolve, so too, will Carrier’s network management practices to address the challenges & threats on the Internet.
If Best Cellular didn’t manage our use of the carrier network, network users would be subject to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, & other risks & degradations of the service. By engaging in reasonable & responsible network management, Carrier can deliver the best possible mobile broadband Internet access experience to all users of the network.
How does Carrier manage its network?
Carrier employs a holistic approach to managing congestion on its data network. Carrier’s first goal is to avoid congestion altogether by directing traffic to the best available spectrum resources & cell sites. Carrier also attempts to avoid congestion by managing tonnage on its network. Finally, when congestion does occur, meaning that the demand on a particular sector temporarily exceeds the ability of that sector to meet the demand, Carrier relies on the radio scheduling software provided by Carrier’s hardware vendors to allocate resources to users.
Techniques to Direct Traffic to the Best Available Spectrum Resources & Cell Sites: All mobile networks, including Carrier’s, employ a Radio Access Network (“RAN”) that manages connectivity between mobile client devices & the core network. The RAN functions to identify mobile devices permitted to access the network & their locations & assigns the mobile device to an available frequency b& & cell site serving the location. The RAN also controls device “h& off” between neighboring cell site resources to balance the load across network resources or as a mobile device moves from one location to another. Carrier’s RAN manages connections between mobile devices & cell sites operating on multiple frequency bands & multiple air interfaces (CDMA, EVDO, LTE). As part of managing those connections, Carrier’s RAN is designed to dynamically connect customers to the best available spectrum resources & cell sites—& reassign those connections as circumstances change.
Managing Tonnage: The majority of Carrier’s traffic management efforts are aimed at avoiding congestion by managing the total volume of data transmitted, referred to colloquially as “tonnage.” Carrier manages tonnage by optimizing certain applications on the network such as video & web traffic. This optimization improves page load times & reduces video stalling, while also eliminating wasted data transmissions that result from lack of coordination between applications, the network, & a device (for example, stopping transmission of a video after a customer has stopped viewing it). It also matches media transmission quality to the capability of the device viewing the media.
Allocating Resources During Times of Congestion: Despite its best efforts to prevent congestion through managing tonnage & directing customers to the best available network resources, the demand on a particular network sector sometimes temporarily exceeds the ability of that sector to meet the demand. During these times, Carrier relies on the radio scheduling software provided by Carrier’s hardware vendors to allocate resources to users. This radio scheduling software includes a set of generic fairness algorithms that allocate resources based on signal quality, number of users, & other metrics. These algorithms are active at all times, whether or not the cell is congested; however, during times of congestion, the algorithms operate with the goal of ensuring that no single user is deprived of access to the network.
Quality of Service (QoS): To help protect against the possibility that unlimited data plan customers that use high volumes of data may occupy an unreasonable share of network resources, Carrier employs network prioritization or QoS on the Carrier network. Customers who choose unlimited data handset plans launched on or after October 16, 2015, or customers who choose to upgrade their handsets on or after October 16 & are on unlimited data plans, that use more than 5GB (to be adjusted periodically) of data during a plan cycle will be de-prioritized for the remainder of that plan cycle as compared to other customers at times & places where the availability of network resources is constrained. Affected unlimited data customers will continue to be able to enjoy unlimited amounts of data without the worry of overage charges or hard, full-time bandwidth reductions. Customers subject to prioritization may experience reduced throughput & increased latency compared to other customers on the constrained site & as compared to their normal experience on the Carrier network. Unlimited customers may also notice temporary changes in the performance of data-intensive applications such as streaming video or online gaming when subject to prioritization. These temporary reductions in performance will only occur at times & places where capacity is constrained. Performance will return to normal as soon as the resource constraints have been relieved or the customer has relocated to a non-constrained location. Unlimited data customers potentially subject to lower QoS will be notified when their individual data usage reaches approximately 75% of 5 GB so that they may modify their usage to avoid network management practices that may result in slower data speeds. We will also notify customers when they have reached the 5 GB threshold & are now subject to de-prioritization.
How does congestion management impact me & my data services?
The goal of congestion management is to ensure that all users during times of congestion have access to a fair share of the network resources & that no user is starved of resources. When congestion occasionally occurs, customers may experience reduced throughput or speed compared to their normal experience on non-congested sites.
How often does Carrier use congestion management?
Because of the peaked nature of mobile data traffic, congestion management software is actively looking for network congestion at all times. When it detects congestion, the fairness algorithms described above operate with the goal of ensuring that all customers are allocated a fair share of network resources.
To help reduce congestion, Carrier evaluates its overall network performance & enhances its network by adding capacity or making other network adjustments to help improve network performance.
Does network management change over time?
Yes. The wireless industry is highly dynamic. As the Internet & related technologies continue to evolve & advance, Carrier’s network management tools will evolve & keep pace allowing Carrier to deliver an excellent, reliable & safer online experience to all of our customers. We will provide updates here & in other appropriate locations if we make important or significant changes to our network management techniques that impact customers.
Does Carrier employ any type of data compression or optimization on the Carrier network today?
Yes, Carrier deploys network optimization capabilities for video & web traffic on the Carrier Wireless Network. Intent is to improve overall user experience & increase network efficiency. Optimization helps improve page load times & reduces video stalling. The optimization technology provides for the elimination of wasted data transmission that results from lack of coordination between applications, network, & device, for example stopping transmission of video after a customer has stopped viewing it. It also matches media transmission quality to the capability of the device viewing the media.
What specific types of optimization does Carrier employ?
Video optimization is deployed for RTSP & HTTP video traffic & all HTTP web traffic. Video optimization is always deployed & active on the Carrier network for all identifiable video traffic. Although the purpose of the optimization techniques is to improve overall video viewing experience, it is possible that some users may experience minor discernable reductions in image quality when viewing video traffic on certain devices. These reductions should generally be offset by improvement s in load times & reductions in video stalling & other experience improvements. Carrier’s video optimization uses four basic technologies:
- Video Delivery Synchronization: Delivers video “just in time” to the mobile device. Intent is to eliminate network waste associated with transmitting video that isn’t watched.
- Quality Aware Transcoding. Matches video quality with network conditions in real time. Optimizes video for the bandwidth available to the user. Intent is to minimize or eliminate annoying video stalling. Similar in concept to the optimization techniques already employed by sites using adaptive streaming.
- Video Transcoding: Transcodes video with intent to optimize the video experience for the user while efficiently using network bandwidth. Provides for the elimination of video waste using techniques like replacing less efficient video codecs with more efficient ones. Optimizes video for the mobile device the customer is using.
- Intelligent Caching: Caches optimized video in the network with the intent of eliminating delay associated with internet video sites.
Some streaming video applications employ adaptive bitrate protocol to stream video. These applications automatically & continuously monitor the available bandwidth & adjust the streaming video bitrate to current user conditions. Depending on available bandwidth, users may notice differences in video streaming quality as the application adjusts the video streaming bitrate to account for changing channel conditions.
What specific types of web optimization does Carrier employ?
Web optimization is deployed for all HTTP web traffic & is always deployed & active on the Carrier network for all identifiable web traffic. Although the purpose of the optimization techniques is to improve overall web viewing experience, it is possible that some users may experience minor discernable reductions in image quality when viewing web traffic on certain devices. These reductions should generally be offset by improvement s in load times & other experience improvements. Web optimization uses three basic technologies:
- Caching: Caches web pages to help avoid delays associated with retrieval of the same internet content multiple times
- Text/Binary Compression: Lossless compression of data & binary files using standard compression techniques supported by HTTP-compliant browsers.
- Image Compression: JPEG & GIF compression designed to reduce the size of images while maintaining no user perceptible loss of quality.
Does Carrier have any prohibited applications or uses?
Yes, Carrier broadband internet access services are intended to be used for web surfing, sending & receiving email, photographs & other similar messaging activities, & the non-continuous streaming of videos, downloading of files or online gaming. To ensure the activities of some users do not impair the ability of our customers to have access to reliable services, Carrier prohibits the use of our services in a manner that harms or unduly interferes with Carrier’s network or systems or poses a security risk. Refer to BestCellular.com/legal/terms-conditions/ for more information.
Does Best Cellular discriminate against particular types of online content?
Best Cellular/ Carrier strive to deliver to its customers access to all the lawful, legitimate & non-infringing content that the Internet has to offer. However, we are committed to protecting customers from spam, phishing & other unwanted or harmful online content & activities. Carrier uses industry standard tools & generally accepted best practices & policies to help it meet this customer commitment. In cases where these tools & policies identify certain online content as harmful, Carrier may prevent the content from reaching customers. In other cases, these tools & policies may permit customers to identify certain content that is not clearly harmful or unwanted, such as bulk email or websites with questionable security ratings, & enable those customers to inspect the content further if they want to do so. Carrier does not block sites based on content or subject unless the Internet address hosts unlawful content or is blocked as part of an opted-in customer service.
Does Best Cellular have rules regarding the attachment of devices to its network by customers?
Any device certified as being Carrier network compatible may be used on the Carrier network including compatible devices not purchased from Best Cellular. Information about Carrier compatible devices can be found on Carrier’s website. Best Cellular/ Carrier will not activate devices that have been reported as lost or stolen or associated with accounts that are found not to be in good standing.
Do device software upgrades affect the performance of my device on Carrier’s network?
From time to time, carrier may push software updates to your device to improve device features, security, & performance. These updates are not managed ur approved by Best Cellular. These updates may include components that optimize the way your device & application on the device use network resources by, for example, managing connections between a user’s WiFi networks & the carrier network or by managing the intervals at which certain background applications not being used by the user connect to the network. Updates that manage radio resources are intended to improve performance & device battery life while at the same time maintaining a high-quality user experience.