American Samoa Telecommunications Authority Interconnection Policy

American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) currently offers and commits to continue to offer wholesale transport and interconnection offerings to retail providers on a nondiscriminatory basis of internet access in those geographies it serves. 

ASTCA will provide access to facilities at identified nodes and other negotiated locations that are economically and technically feasible. Traffic can be exchanged at node locations. Rates and terms for interconnection shall be reasonable and nondiscriminatory. ASTCA shall negotiate in good faith with all requesting parties (i.e., public, private, non-profit, or other parties) making a bona fide request for interconnection or wholesale services. ASTCA is prepared to:

  1. provide transport services to a last mile provider that is serving the customer (e.g., backhaul, Internet access, voice interconnection, transit traffic).
  2. allow collocation by interconnecting parties, on a first-come, first-served basis, where and when possible.
  3. rates and terms for interconnection shall be reasonable and nondiscriminatory.
  4. provide transmission services to and between node locations and to a wholesale customer.
  5. provide service level agreements, service level guarantees, and standards, including service guarantees and standards related to jitter, latency, delivery ratio, and service availability.
  6. provide reasonable and nondiscriminatory provisioning and installation intervals; and
  7. deliver repair and maintenance timeframes that are consistent with industry standards and practices (ASTCA has established Mean Times to Repair for all offered services based on the nature of the service issue).

Parties may inquire about ASTCA’s wholesale services by emailing a request to [email protected]. 

A list of standard terms and conditions, interconnection policy, and network management policy, can be found on ASTCA’s website at https://www.astca.net/terms-conditions

NETWORK MANAGEMENT POLICY

ASTCA uses various tools and industry standard techniques to manage its network and deliver fast, secure and reliable Internet service. ASTCA believes in full transparency and conducts the following as part of its network management practices: 

  1. Congestion Management. ASTCA monitors the connections on its network in the aggregate on a daily basis to determine the rate of utilization. If congestion emerges on the network, ASTCA will take the appropriate measures to relieve congestion. ASTCA’s network and congestion management practices are ‘application-agnostic,’ based on current network conditions and are not implemented based on customers’ online activities, protocols, or applications. 
  2. Network Security. ASTCA promotes the security of its network and patrons by protections from such threats as spam, viruses, firewall issues and phishing schemes. As its normal practice, ASTCA does not block any protocols, content, or traffic for purposes of network management except that it may block or limit such traffic as spam, viruses, malware, or denial of service attacks to protect network integrity and the security of customers. 
  3. Device Attachment Rules & Application Specific Behaviors. Except as may be provided elsewhere herein, ASTCA does not currently engage in any application-specific behaviors, nor does it employ device attachment rules for its network. 
  4. Monitoring Schedule. ASTCA employs a variety of industry-standard tools, applications, and devices to monitor, secure and maintain its network, including one or more of the following: 
  • Network graphing solutions; 
  • Software to monitor SNMP network devices; 
  • Port monitors; 
  • Electronic alert notifications; 
  • Diagnostic protocols; 
  • Spam and virus protection on inbound & outbound email 

EXCEPTIONS 

Law enforcement and reasonable network management may require disruptions or decline in service from time to time. ASTCA reserves the right to employ generally accepted technical measures to provide acceptable service levels to all customers. The terms in this Policy shall not change the parameters of existing facilities, agreements, or non-MMG funded projects/programs. To the extent non-MMG funded projects/programs become a part of the MMG funded project/program, then this policy shall control, subject to further guidance from the grantor.