Terms & Conditions

Fixed Wireless Terms & Conditions

In consideration of the terms, conditions and covenants listed above in this contract (the “Contract”), the Customer (as indicated above) and WiFires LLC. agree as follows:

PURPOSE: The Customer wishes to enter into a recurring contract with WiFires for the provision of Internet service (“Services”) for the above-listed Service Address (the “Property”). In order to provide Services to the Property, WiFires may install certain equipment and wiring at the Property.

TERMS: The Customer agrees that the term of this Contract starts on the date WIFIRES activates the Services and continues for the Initial Term.The Customer further agrees that the Contract shall automatically renew and continue for successive terms of one year (“Extension Terms”), unless Customer provides 30-day written notice to WIFIRES prior to the expiration of the Initial Term or any Extension Term, via email (billing@getWiFires.com), or mail to WiFires LLC., 34 Clarksville Paris,Texas 75460, or the address WiFires may designate from time to time.All WiFires accounts require a 30 day notice.This is to include all month to month accounts and all term accounts.

EARLY TERMINATION CONTRACT: In consideration for the Services, Customer has received benefits, sometimes including but not limited to reduced monthly service fees. Accordingly, upon early termination of the Contract during the Initial Term or during Extension Terms, Customer shall pay EIGHTY PERCENT (80%) of the remaining Monthly Recurring fees for the current term, a sum of which the Customer agrees represents a reasonable approximation of WiFires damages for early termination and is not a penalty or forfeiture. WiFires damages in the case of early termination include, but are not limited to, equipment; service and infrastructure costs not reimbursed by designated fees, as well as lost profits, all of which are impractical or extremely difficult to fix with specificity or accuracy.Customer must provide notice of early termination in writing to WiFires via email (billing@getWiFires.com), or mail to WiFires Communications, LLC., 34 Clarksville Paris, Texas 75460, or the address WIFIRES may designate from time to time.

CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION: Billing – Customer authorizes WiFires to charge Customer’s credit card for the Services, and any and all charges due to WiFires under the Contract, including any applicable early termination fees. WiFires will provide Customer with an itemized monthly statement by email describing all charges. If the Customer requests monthly statements via U.S. mail, then WiFires shall add a $5.00 monthly fee for such service, in addition to the Monthly Recurring rate in this Contract. In the event Customer’s credit card, or other method of payment, fails to provide payment to WiFires for any reason, Customer shall remain liable for amounts due under this Contract, and shall provide another card or method of payment to WiFires.

PAYMENT: The installation fee and the first months service fee are due once the Services are activated. Payment may be made by credit card, debit card or check. Recurring monthly payments will be debited monthly using the debit card or credit card on file. Mailed invoices will be $5.00 in addition to monthly services fees.

INSTALLATION FEES: Customer shall pay for any installation fee(s) listed in this Contract.

SERVICE FEES: The Customer agrees to pay the monthly fee indicated above (“Monthly Recurring Rate”) for each month of Service. All payments are due 10 days after invoice date when paying by check or due upon receipt if paying by credit card.All payments received 5 days past due date will be considered late and subject to a $10 late fee.All accounts shut off for non-payment are subject to a reactivation fee of $25.00.

INVOICES: Single prices shown above for bundled Services, or for Services provided at multiple locations, will be allocated among the individual services for the purpose of applying applicable taxes and regulatory fees and also may be divided on the Customer’s invoice by location served.

AUTHORIZATION: Customer authorizes WiFires, its employees, agents and independent contractors (“Authorized Parties”), to enter onto the Property to install and maintain any equipment and wiring necessary for Customer to receive the Services (collectively, “Permitted Equipment”). Customer represents and warrants to WiFires that Customer has full authority to enter into this Contract, without obtaining approval of any other person, and acknowledges that WiFires is relying upon such representation and warranty to proceed with installation of any required Permitted Equipment. Customer agrees to indemnify WiFires for any liability arising out of or in any way connected to acts reasonably performed by WiFires in reliance on Customer’s representations of authority. Additionally, in the event that WiFires arrives on location for the installation of the Permitted Equipment, or activation of the Services, and the Customer does not or did not have the authority to authorize the installation, resulting in WiFires having to remove equipment, relocate its equipment or reschedule the installation, Customer may be subject to a trip charge of ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY DOLLARS ($170.00).

GUARANTEE OF SERVICE: WiFires offers “Asymmetrical”, “Symmetrical” and “Enterprise” plan types.“Asymmetrical” and “Symmetrical” are burstable plans.The upload and download speeds listed in the “Symmetrical” and “Asymmetrical” plan descriptions are Maximum Information Rates (MIRs).The Committed Information Rates (CIRs) for “Asymmetrical” and “Symmetrical” plans are 75% of the Maximum Information Rates (MIRs).The Committed Information Rates (CIRs) for “Enterprise” plans are 100% of the listed Maximum Information Rates (MIR’s). WiFires also offers Tier Levels with support response guarantees for the Committed Information Rates.The details of any applicable service response guarantee may be found in the “Description of Packages” chart, which is available at www.WiFires.com and details the respective onsite and telephone/email response guarantees for each Tier Package.

UPGRADING OR DOWNGRADING SERVICE PLAN LEVELS: The Customer may “Upgrade” to a higher “tier level” of Services at any time during the Contract Term. In order to Upgrade, a new contract must be executed with a minimum new Contract Term of one (1) year, or the period remaining on the original Contract Term, whichever is greater. The Customer may “Downgrade” Symmetrical or Asymmetrical plans to a lower “tier level” of Services only if the Customer has completed at least fifty percent (50%) of the original Contract Term. In order to Downgrade, a new contract must be executed with a minimum new Contract Term of at least one (1) year in addition to the remaining original Contract Term.Enterprise Level Plans and Tier Level Customers receiving a Special Incentive or Promotion may not be downgraded until the original contract term has been completed.If WiFires no longer offers the particular service or tier package utilized by the Customer following the expiration of the Contract Term or any Extension Term, WiFires, in its sole discretion, shall place the Customer in the new service package which most closely approximates the package or tier which the Customer previously utilized.Further, WiFires may change the terms of this Contract, including the above-referenced Monthly Recurring rate with 30 days written notice prior to the expiration of the Contract Term or any Extension Term.

EQUIPMENT RECOVERY: Upon termination of a Service for any reason, WIFIRES or its representative will contact Customer to schedule a mutually acceptable time and date for retrieval of WiFires Equipment located on Customer’s premises. Alternatively, WiFires may request that Customer package WiFires Equipment and return it, at WiFires cost, to a location identified by WiFires. If Customer does not provide WiFires with access to its premises to allow WiFires to recover the WiFires Equipment within thirty (30) days following WiFires contact, or if Customer does not ship the WiFires Equipment to WiFires with the thirty (30) days, then WiFires will charge Customer and Customer shall pay for the replacement cost of such equipment.

MOVING OR TRANSFERRING SERVICE: If Customer moves to a location outside of the WiFires coverage area, Customer shall pay FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($500), or 80% of the remainder of the Monthly Recurring fees payable under the Contract Term, whichever is less, a sum which Customer agrees is less than WiFires damages for early termination but is extended as a courtesy for those who must move locations. If Customer moves to a location inside the WiFires coverage area and cannot receive service due to Line of Sight (“LOS”) issues, Customer will pay the sum of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($500), or 80% of the remainder of the Monthly Recurring fees payable under the Contract Term, whichever is less, a sum which Customer agrees is less than WiFires damages for early termination but is extended as a courtesy for those who must move locations. In order to receive the reduced early termination fee of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($500), Customer must reasonably provide requested documentation to WiFires of Customer’s change of address, such as a utility bill.In the event Customer moves locations within WiFires coverage area, Customer shall pay ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY DOLLARS ($170) to transfer the Services to the new location (the “Move Order” fee).

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY: This Contract is subject to WiFires Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), which is incorporated by reference herein and which may be modified from time to time at WiFires sole discretion to improve network conditions, conform to industry standards and respond to legal and economic changes impacting the provision of the Services, as defined below. A copy of the AUP currently in effect may be found at www.WiFires.com/AUP

FILTERING: In the case of excessive bandwidth usage by peer to peer file sharing programs, compromised file servers or abusive packets originating from Customer’s connection, WiFires reserves the right to throttle or shape Customer’s traffic to allow fair network conditions for its customers. All customers should realize this is in the best interest of business class connectivity.

ENTIRE SERVICE AGREEMENT: SEVERABILITY – This Contract sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between Customer and WiFires, and may be changed with written notice where expressly noted. In the event any provision of this Contract is found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of any of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired and a valid, legal and enforceable provision of similar intent and economic impact shall be substituted therefore.

CHANGES IN CONTRACT TERMS: We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions on which we offer Service. If we make any such changes, we will send you a copy of your new Customer Agreement containing its effective date.If you elect not to cancel your Service after receiving a new Customer Agreement, your continued receipt of Service constitutes acceptance of the changed terms and conditions. If you notify us that you do not accept such terms and conditions, then we may cancel your Service upon 30 days written notice to you, as we cannot offer Service to different customers on different terms, among other reasons. You will not be responsible for fees for early termination.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: The total cumulative liability of WiFires, its employees, officers, directors, representatives and agents (hereinafter collectively called “the WiFires parties”), if any, for costs, losses, or damages from all claims, actions or suits howsoever caused or arising out of or in connection with this agreement shall be limited to direct damages and shall not exceed the greater of: (i) the amount of payments received by WiFires fromcustomer for the twelve months prior to the occurrence of the event(s) giving rise to any claims, actions or suits or (ii) any amounts payable and actually paid to the customer or WiFires, as applicable, under any applicable insurance policies then in effect.In no event shall the WIFIRES parties or any member thereof be liable for any special, consequential, incidental, exemplary, punitive or other indirect damages, for loss of profits, loss of use or loss of data, howsoever caused or arising and regardless of legal theory or foreseeability.No claims may be asserted by either party against the other with respect to any act, event or omission that occurred more than eighteen (18) months prior to such claims, actions or suits being asserted.

ARBITRATION: The parties agree that any disputes between the parties, their employees, their owners, officers or directors shall be resolved by binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act.The arbitration shall be held in Lamar County, Texas and the arbitrator shall apply the substantive law of Texas, which shall govern this dispute. The parties shall share equally the cost of arbitration.

ATTORNEY’S FEES: If either party brings legal action to enforce or interpret this Agreement, the prevailing party shall be entitled to its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.

VENUE/ENTIRE AGREEMENT: This Contract supersedes all prior agreements, if any.It can only be changed by a written agreement signed by parties.If any part of this Contract is deemed unenforceable, the remaining portions will continue in full force and effect.A waiver of a breach of any portion of this Contract will not be considered to be a waiver of any future breaches.This Contract will be governed by Texas law and any dispute will be venued in Lamar County, Texas.

    1. NLOS (Non-Line-of-Sight) Challenges

    In the license-exempt and lightly-licensed fixed wireless broadband space, operators must live with the modest power limits set by regulators. Whether in the USA, Canada, are anywhere else, regulatory regions require wireless technology in these frequency bands we are permitted to use to operate at greatly reduced power relative to those operators like mobile carriers who hold expensive licensed bands. The reasons for this go back many years, but the crux of the issue is that these bands were never expected to support commercial broadband plays, but rather were expected to be used by all the common indoor and very close range wireless devices that have become pervasive in our lives today, such as Wi-Fi, baby monitors, garage door openers, etc. The exceptions include 3.x GHz bands, but even these are granted very limited output power for fear of interfering with adjacent license band licensees like satcom companies. Despite this, technologists have been able to make lemonade out of lemons, and now thousands of operators around the world are serving millions of customers around the world – especially in rural areas where choices are few – with community-saving high speed internet. But common technologies like Wi-Fi and its proprietary derivatives can only do so much; Wi-Fi capabilities are modest when it comes to outdoor obstructions like trees. The result is that areas with lovely forests (and even a few trees in a wireless path), while nice to live around have been impossible to service with any kind of broadband speeds today’s streaming users demand. You see (again, this will be remedial for some of you),
    wireless signals weaken over distance – a process called “attenuation.” This attenuation occurs in a step-like manner, where enough attenuation means the signal drops to progressively lower and lower levels, with each level down reducing the ability of the signal to deliver less and less speed (megabits). These levels are called “modulations.” Top modulations might be able to deliver 80 megabits or more, but by the time distance and trees continue to attenuate the signal, one might be in a modulation that can only deliver 1 or 2 Mbps, and eventually nothing at all. With trees in the way, low power signals are both scattered (reflection) and absorbed by leaves, modulating the signal down to useless levels. In the wireless business we categorize this sort of radio path obstruction as a foliage-related non-line-of-sight problem (NLOS). Tree-based NLOS is the primary reason keeping most WISPs from being able to connect a majority of the customers in their footprint who want their service; it is a massive business problem, not just a technical one. Those who can beat NLOS — or at least deal with it much more effectively — win in the marketplace.

    In the wireless world we measure these signal levels in decibels (dB). The way the science works, -3 dB attenuation (loss) means you’ve lost half your power. Conversely, +3 dB (gain) means your power is double. And it’s exponential, so a loss of 6 dB is catastrophic in terms of delivering effective high speed internet. To use an analogy, imagine you are driving down the interstate at 80 mph. If you lost half your power (3dB), you are down to running at 40 mph. Lose another 3 dB (or 6 dB total) and now you are down to 20 mph. So in the wireless world, we might say 80 mph is like 80 dB, but 77 dB is like 40 mph and 74 dB is like 20 mph. That’s not going to get you anywhere fast – and your competitor still driving 80 will crush you in the market if your job is to delivers goods down the highway. And guess what? Your job IS to deliver “goods” down the “highway” – broadband down the information superhighway.

    This is where LTE comes in. Unlike Wi-Fi, LTE was designed for outdoor wireless, not indoor wireless local networks. As a more advanced technology designed specifically for outdoors, LTE signals are able to hold higher modulation levels in the face of more foliage. LTE also does a better job of collecting all the various reflections off leaves and still making sense of the signal.

    LTE does such a better job in fact that it holds about a 7 dB advantage over Wi-Fi on a per modulation basis — remember that’s more than double and double again. With that massive advantage it can easily cope with foliage-based NLOS that will literally render competitive technologies useless, unable to connect. WiFires LTE lets you deliver much higher speeds to your NLOS-impacted customers where your competitors maybe can’t service them at all. This means many more potential customers for every tower you install.

     

    1. Standards

    The NLOS benefits alone are enough to drive most fixed wireless operators delivering broadband commercially to move to LTE if they deal with foliage-based NLOS, but there is another reason why such users should care a lot about LTE: standards. This is also a reason cities and towns, must care about it. We are all carrying LTE-enabled devices in our purses and pockets. LTE, in just a few short years, has displaced all other old school mobile technologies. When you see that “4G” icon appear on your smart phone, that’s LTE. The mobile operators have invested billions to upgrade their networks to LTE because it gives them much more speed at distances the old 3G methods could deliver. But that’s not the only reason, the global drive for all mobile carriers to use LTE for its technological advantages also means the entire globe is unifying around a single standard. It’s an explosion in innovation. Just consider the amount of Wi-Fi prompted revolutionary innovations for what and how we can connect things inside just over the space of ½ a generation. We can’t imagine living with it, just ask your kids!

  • Fixed wireless

    Fixed wireless broadband may not be a household term just yet, but it’s definitely a term worth learning.  Simply put, fixed wireless provides broadband internet access to a single location through radio waves, eliminating the need for phone or cable lines.

    Why haven’t more people heard of fixed wireless?  Probably because it’s frequently confused with satellite internet service.  There are some similarities between the two.  Both satellite and fixed wireless require a dish or antenna.  Both provide high speed internet connection without using phone or cable lines.  But that’s about where the similarity ends.  Here’s a look at the important differences.

    Weather

    Most everyone knows that satellite doesn’t handle certain weather conditions very well.  Because the signal has to travel through the entire atmosphere and back, it might not even be your local weather that causes the problem, but a storm many miles away.  This is not an issue with a fixed wireless connection.  Fixed wireless towers are land-based, and about as tall as the average cell phone tower, so clouds or rain won’t interfere with the signal, and the signal covers a shorter range, so a storm in the next state will have no effect on your service.

    Latency

    One of the biggest differences between fixed wireless and satellite is the amount of latency, or lag.  This is how long it takes information to be sent or received over your connection.  When it comes to latency, lower is always better.  With satellite, a signal must travel from the dish to the satellite, then back down from the satellite to the provider’s servers and on to the internet.  All that distance adds up to high latency, which can cause even a high speed connection to be sluggish.  With a fixed wireless connection, the signal only travels from the antenna to the nearest tower, which is usually within about 10 miles.  The shorter distance means that fixed wireless has about the same latency as a cable or DSL connection, and will run just as quickly.

    Latency isn’t just important for gamers – although anyone who’s ever played World of Warcraft or Call of Duty will tell you it makes all the difference in the world.  Just as a gaming session needs low latency to prevent timing out or dropping, many business applications also require that quick response time.  VoIP phone services, video conferencing, and streaming audio or video are all difficult, if not impossible, to run on a connection with high latency.

     

    Data Caps

    Satellite companies enforce data caps – limits on the amount of data any one connection can use in a given period – in accordance with a document called a “Fair Access Policy”.  Essentially, this policy states that some customers use the internet more than others, and that is unfair, so each customer is allowed only so much data in a given time frame.  Usually, it’s something like 5-20GB per month, but you can be allowed more if you confine your internet activities to the hours between 2am and 8am or if you pay an extra fee.  When you reach your data limit, the provider reduces your connection speed significantly, sometimes to the level of dial-up.  This is highly impractical for any company that needs constant, reliable internet access to do business.  Even a small business with only two or three computers could easily reach some of the lower data limits with just a few large files.

    Most fixed wireless providers do not enforce any data caps.  Therefore, you can download or upload large files (software, updates, large email attachments, etc.), run a VoIP phone system, stream music in your office, or use internet-based applications and databases as much as you need to in order to keep your business running at its best.

    Price and Contracts

    In internet service, just like anything else, everyone wants the most for their money.  In almost all cases, fixed wireless broadband costs less than a comparable satellite connection, in both monthly charges and installation fees, and without the long-term contracts that satellite companies use.

    Satellite may be more well-known, but fixed wireless broadband is more reliable, with low latency, no data caps, and lower cost.  It’s a big step up, and a great choice for business.

    WiFires Communications LLC is your first choice for unified communications and connectivity services in North East Texas & South East Oklahoma including Lamar, Red River & Choctaw Counties. Contact us today for the internet, voice, or data center solution that is right for you.