Standard Service Level Agreement (SLA)

 

Scope of Service Level Agreement

1.1. This Service Level Agreement (SLA) documents the commitment for "Your Internet Access Corp." (herein referred to as "YIA") to provide high quality Internet Access, email and Web Hosting services.
It is to be used as a reference guide for YIA’s Customers and Industry Partners.

1.2. This SLA is also governed by the YIA Master Services Agreement (MSA) and the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

1.3. This SLA applies to the Consumer High Speed Internet Plans and Services.

Service Levels & Hours of Operation

2.1. Availability - YIA monitors its system and network on a 24-hour / 7 days perweek basis. In the event of service outages, our system alarms automatically notify our Support Staff about the problem. A customer can report any service problem to Customer Care during business hours (9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday – Friday). The telephone number is 204-205-0246; or via email at any time to support@yia.ca.

2.2. Scheduled Maintenance - Planned down times will occur on a scheduled basis between the hours of 22:00 to 06:00 CST. YIA will provide notice for any planned outages past 6:00 CST for those services and/or customers being affected. 2.3. Emergency Maintenance - When emergency maintenance is required, YIA will provide the greatest amount of reasonable lead-time and arrange, with client management or IT contact, a solution that minimizes the impact on the users.

Availability Commitment

3.1. Your Internet Access services are available 24 hours a day; 7 days a week, taking into consideration scheduled and emergency maintenance times. Systems are monitored and managed from our Network Operations Centre (NOC) to ensure a monthly committed level of availability, in excess of 99.5% outside of scheduled and emergency maintenance periods. Your Internet Access designed and built its network with redundant connections to the Internet to maximize reliability and network availability.

Latency Service Commitment

4.1. Your Internet Access’s latency is based on an average round-trip transmission between Your Internet Access’s Internet Gateway Router and the customer’s access point (hub site). The average latency is estimated not to exceed more than 80 milliseconds.

Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)

5.1. YIA’s NOC strives to restore customer services in a timely manner. In the event that we need to dispatch one of our field service technicians, subject to having prompt access to its equipment in customer’s location, our goal is to achieve a Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) as follows:

5.2. Highway Distance chart from Winnipeg MTTR

Service Level Credits

6.1. A "Network Outage" is defined as customer reported no access to the Internet (excludes scheduled and emergency outages, outages related to customer responsibilities as defined in the contract and outages beyond YIA's network in the Internet).

6.2. In the event of Service Interruption, YIA will credit the customer a portion of the monthly fee for the affected service, services, or location (only), according to the following schedule:

Service Interruption Definition

Interruption in this Agreement refers to the inability of the Customer to complete Internet network connections due to a malfunction of the YIA Equipment or YIA’s core network, and YIA is unable to reach the last piece of YIA Equipment before the Customer’s Demarcation Point. Interruption does not include:

7.1. failure due to problems related to the customer’s local area network (LAN);

7.1. failure due to problems related to the customer’s local area network (LAN);

7.2. failure caused by power outages at the Customer’s location; 7.3. equipment or network failure or routing issues associated with Internet connections outside of YIA’s core network;

7.4. failure caused by the Customer;

7.5. failure caused by power outages in excess of 6 hours in duration;

7.6. failure due to termination of the Services by YIA in accordance with the terms of this Agreement; or;

7.7. force majeure, including but not limited to delays or failures caused by weather conditions or delay in gaining access to properties not controlled by YIA, including the Customer’s premises. For the purposes of calculating actual time to repair and Service Level Credits, the Service Interruption length shall be adjusted to reflect delays caused by factors which are not considered an Interruption as defined herein. For greater certainty, YIA will not credit the Customer for that portion of an Interruption which is caused by failure or delay which is not otherwise considered an Interruption.

Problem classification & Notification

8.1. Problems and service requests are recorded in the YIA task system and are evaluated by YIA personnel by level of severity. There are 3 levels of severity, designed to record customer problems: URGENT: Complete service interruption MEDIUM: Service degradation or preventable service outage LOW: Information request or minor service degradation

8.2. All inquiries/problems that are the responsibility of YIA are classified as follows. Problems may be re-classified in priority levels as new information about the problem becomes available.

Priority Level Descriptions:

8.2.1 Urgent (Complete Service Interruption) - OUT OF SERVICE - Involves situations where one or multiple services are affected and a significant impact to the service is occurring. SLA: Restoration of service in 72 hours or less.

8.2.2. Medium (Service Degradation) - CUSTOMER STILL HAS SERVICE - Involves situations where infrastructure is degraded and the situation may lead to a service interruption if not attended to in a timely manner. SLA: Resolution of situation in 72 hours or less.

8.2.3. Low (Information Request or Minor Service Degradation) - CUSTOMER STILL HAS SERVICE - Involves situations where infrastructure may be experiencing a minor degradation or the customer has a question or request. Objective: Best efforts to resolve.

Help Desk Hours

9.1. YIA’s Help Desk or Emergency IVR can be reached 24 hours day, 7 days a week by calling 204-205-0246. The technical representative responding to the call will attempt to classify the call by the level of urgency and attempt to rectify the trouble on line with the customer. Should this not be possible the technical support representative will update the customer on trouble status as agreed to by the customer.

Problem Notification

10.1. Before calling YIA' Technical Support, please have the following information available so that your call can be handled more efficiently

• a) Company Name
• b) Name of Caller
• c) Location of problem
• d) Type of Problem
• e) Priority or severity of the problem
• f) A detailed description of the nature of the call

Business Continuity

11.1. YIA places considerable emphasis on service availability and continuity through system architecture design and operation management discipline. The remaining parts of this section discuss other preventative plans put into place for this service, and possible contingency measures available to the client in the event of a prolonged service failure.

Disaster Recovery

12.1. YIA emphasizes prevention and management discipline and does not currently offer off-site disaster recovery services for our services. However YIA is in a position to develop disaster recovery plans within a contractual relationship with specific clients taking into consideration the specific conditions for each case.

Security

13.1. YIA has implemented the necessary logical and physical security required to ensure a secure environment in order to deliver our services. A number of procedures are implemented in order to control personnel, System Software maintenance, Application Software design and maintenance, Software controlled accessibility, Telecommunications, environmental infrastructure and physical access. Only authorized operators and system administrators have access to the NOC and equipment rooms.

Review and Update of the Service Level Agreement

14.1. YIA will periodically update this document, and will post updates from time to time on our website. Changes will be made at the sole discretion of YIA, with changes being made in the best interest of all parties. Some changes to this documentation may require contractual and pricing updates.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Interpretive

This document does not form part of YIA's SLA, but serves to provide clarification on how it is applied, particularly regarding calculation of credits for service outages. This document is intended to help clarify how MTTR is calculated when force majeure conditions apply. YIA will not credit the Customer for that portion of an Interruption which is caused by failure or delay not otherwise considered an Interruption under the SLA terms and conditions. Under YIA's SLA, the “Service Interruption” Definition refers to:

Power Outages

Power outages in excess of 6 hours in duration.

Interpretive Note

1.1. YIA takes steps to mitigate or prevent outages caused by power failures, but extended power failures may not be within our ability to bridge – an example might be weather conditions causing a widespread blackout, in which case many of our clients' sites could be shut down as a result. Other examples exist, but this is typically a force majeure clause where YIA nevertheless takes responsibility during the first several hours of such an outage so that shorter outages remain under consideration by the SLA.

Weather Conditions

Delays or failures caused by weather conditions or delay in gaining access to properties not controlled by YIA, including the Customer's premises.

Interpretive Notes

2.1. This is a force majeure clause in the SLA that serves to make allowances for circumstances beyond the control of YIA which may cause an outage or delay restoration of service. The following are examples (not exhaustive) of conditions which in YIA's calculation of SLA credits constitute force majeure for which credits will be adjusted:

2.2. delay during a weather warning, watch, or advisory issued by Environment Canada, specifically if outdoor work is required to restore service; applicable weather conditions are as outlined at: http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/cd/brochures/warning_e.cfm as amended and updated from time to time. Notwithstanding weather advice from Environment Canada, YIA will still make reasonable efforts to restore service.

2.3. delay during highway closures or travel advisories which limit or bar access to sites or equipment to which access is necessary to restore service; applicable closures and advisories are accessible via http://tgs.gov.mb.ca/roadinfo/default.asp?varLanguage=English as amended and updated from time to time, or as imposed by local authorities with or without public notice. (Notwithstanding travel or access delays from Manitoba Transportation & Government Services or local authorities, YIA will still make reasonable efforts to restore service.)

2.4. delay caused by darkness if a tower climb or other outdoor work is required in order to diagnose an outage or to restore service.

2.5. delay caused by lack of access to premises or equipment when physical access to the equipment or premises is required to diagnose the outage or to restore service. As can be seen from a review of these examples, most delay conditions relate to matters which are not under the reasonable control of YIA or which may be under YIA's control but would create safety concerns for personnel – for example, climbing a tower in extreme cold or darkness causes a safety risk to workers, and delay from these circumstances is therefore not considered in SLA credit calculations.