Whereas Assimulare, Inc., hereinafter referred to as "Assimulare", is in the business of providing a variety of telecommunication and data networking services and _______________________________, hereinafter referred to as "Customer", desires access to and use of Assimulare's Network Service with guaranteed levels of network latency, customer support, reliability, service provisioning, and business continuity/disaster recovery, Assimulare makes the following statements and offers the following service level guarantees.

Assimulare has engineered an IP (Internet Protocol) packet switching backbone with a massive level of redundancy, availability, and security features. To wit:

" Traffic at each backbone site is separated into 'core' and 'border' traffic. All IP traffic is filtered appropriately.

" All backbone IP equipment is duplicated with redundant connections. Backbone IP equipment failure will result in dynamic rerouting of backbone traffic, under normal conditions, in less than 30 seconds.

" All backbone sites are interconnected via multiple diversely routed links.

" All traffic will be routed using standard BGP routing rules.

" No backbone data circuit, either physical or virtual, will operate at more than 90% of rated capacity. Assimulare will order an increase in circuit capacity whenever traffic exceeds 75% of rated capacity. (Rated capacity is defined as the maximum guaranteed usable bit rate that can flow across a given physical or virtual circuit. For instance a T1 has a rated capacity of 1.544 mbps.).

" No peering connection will operate at more than 90% of rated capacity. Assimulare shall order an increase in circuit capacity whenever traffic exceeds 75% of rated capacity.

" No transit connection of DS3 or higher speed will operate consistently at more than 90% of rated capacity. Assimulare will order an increase in transit circuit capacity whenever traffic exceeds 75% of rated capacity.

Network Latency Guarantees:

Scope: IP packet switching round-trip times (obtained utilizing the 'ping' and 'traceroute' probes) from any Assimulare network element to any other Assimulare network element shall be less than 85 milliseconds. It must be understood that responding to these network probes is the lowest priority task assigned to network elements and that any network element under attack will, by necessity, give priority to combating the attack. (Forwarding of IP packets will proceed at normal rates even though these tools may report elevated times under attack conditions.).

Process: Latency shall be measured by taking the average round-trip time of a group of ten (10) ICMP echo-request packets and recording this value once every five (5) minutes. The average of the twelve (12) readings that occur within any given hour shall be utilized as the hourly average round-trip time (hartt) for purposes of this Service Level Agreement. The harrt values used to determine Network Latency Guarantee are those that originate at the Assimulare Network Access Point hosting the customer's connection. Harrt values for time periods during which an active network attack was in progress will not be utilized to determine applicability of the Network Latency Guarantee. No credits shall be made if failure to meet a Network Latency Guarantee is attributable to reasons of Force Majeure as defined in an addendum to this Service Level Agreement.

Remedy: If Assimulare fails to meet any Network Latency Guarantee in two calendar months during the term on Customer's service contract, Customer's account shall be automatically credited for the second month and any subsequent month during the term of Customer's original service contract. Time periods during which an active network attack was in progress, as detailed above, will not be used to determine failure of the Network Latency Guarantee.

Customer Support Quality:

Outage Reporting Guarantee Scope: Assimulare's Outage Reporting Guarantee is to notify Customer within 15 minutes after Assimulare's determination that Customer's service is unavailable or significantly degraded.

Process: Assimulare's Outage Reporting Guarantee is applicable only if Customer completes Assimulare's Customer Information Form in its entirety and supplies Assimulare with applicable updates as contact information changes. Assimulare will be relieved of its obligations under this Outage Reporting Guarantee if Assimulare's contact information for Customer is out of date or inaccurate due to Customer's action or omission or if Assimulare's failure is due to reasons of Force Majeure as defined in an addendum to this Service Level Agreement.

Remedy: If Assimulare fails to meet the Outage Reporting Guarantee, at Customer's request Customer's account shall be credited the pro-rated charges for one day of the Assimulare Monthly Fee for the service with respect to which this Guarantee has not been met; provided, that Customer may obtain no more than one credit per day, irrespective of how often in that day Assimulare failed to meet the Outage Reporting Guarantee.

Reliability/Service Availability:

Service Availability Guarantee Scope: Assimulare's Service Availability Guarantee is to have the Assimulare Network (as defined in an addendum) available 100% of the time.

Scheduled Maintenance Scope: Scheduled Maintenance shall mean any maintenance at the Assimulare network access point to which Customer's data network is directly connected (a) of which Customer is notified 48 hours in advance, and (b) that is performed during a standard maintenance window on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 03:00 AM to 06:00 AM or on Sundays from 03:00 AM to 08:30 AM. All times shall be based upon local time at the Assimulare network access point to which Customer's data network is directly connected. Notice of Scheduled Maintenance will be provided to Customer's designated point of contact by email delivery at least 48 hours in advance.

Process: Assimulare will, at Customer's request, calculate Customer's Network Unavailability in a calendar month. Network Unavailability consists of the number of minutes that the Assimulare network was not available to Customer, and includes unavailability associated with any maintenance at the Assimulare network access point to which Customer's data network is directly connected other than Scheduled Maintenance. Outages will be counted as Network Unavailability only if Assimulare notifies Customer of the outage in accordance with the Outage Reporting Guarantee set forth previously or it Customer opens a trouble ticket with Assimulare customer support within five (5) days of the outage. Network Unavailability will not include Scheduled Maintenance, or any unavailability resulting from (a) Customer's applications, equipment, or facilities, (b) Customer ordered telecommunications circuit failures, both physical and virtual, (c) acts or omissions of Customer, or any use or user of the service authorized by Customer, (d) outages imposed upon the Customer as a result of violations of the standard Terms and Conditions of use, or (e) reasons of Force Majeure as defined in an addendum to this Service Level Agreement.

Remedy: For each cumulative hour of Network Unavailability or fraction thereof in any calendar month, at Customer's request Customer's account shall be credited for the pro-rated charges of one day of the Assimulare Monthly Fee, not to exceed one full month's Monthly Fee in any calendar month.

Caveats and Exclusions:

Assimulare specifically does not and cannot guarantee the following:

" Circuit outages outside of the Assimulare network. This includes the circuit connecting the customer to the nearest network element on the Assimulare network.

" Performance within another Internet Service Provider's network. Assimulare shall provide all capacity required for optimal performance, but cannot guarantee that other providers will do the same.

" Performance across peering links. As stated earlier, Assimulare shall provide all capacity required for optimal peering performance, but cannot guarantee that other providers will do the same.

" Performance to a specified end-user, even if on the Assimulare network. We will, however, guarantee performance to the point on Assimulare's network that is topologically nearest to the specified end-user.