Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)

CPNI is a communications industry abbreviation that stands for Customer Proprietary Network Information. CPNI refers to your telephone service, including the charges on your bill; the service you subscribe to; and your usage data and calling patterns. In short, it is your private information about your communication service.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated CPNI 'must comply' rules for all telecommunications companies. These rules are designed to safeguard your information from anyone who is not authorized to have access to your account. These rules become effective December 8, 2007.

To comply with these rules, there are four security measures that Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech has implemented to ensure your information is safeguarded from unauthorized access.

1. Each time you call Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech to speak with a customer service representative regarding your account, we will be required to ask a verification question and you will be required to provide the correct answer to the question to ensure we are speaking with an authorized contact on your account.
2. Once authorization has been established, we can discuss information about specific calls that you have made after you provided the date of call, length of call and call destination. If you are unable to provide specific details, we can send a copy of this information to the account address on record.
3. If you stop by any Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech office to make account inquiries, you may be required to show personal photo identification before we can discuss or release any account information.
4. You may add up to four authorized contacts. In order to protect your information, only these authorized contacts will be allowed to make inquires or changes to your account. Inquires or requests from other parties, including those of a spouse, cannot be honored if they are not an authorized contact or listed on the account. If you are uncertain who is an authorized contact on your account, please contact your local office for clarification.

To select your verification question or to add authorized contacts to your account, please call 1-877-567-7872 and request to have an authorization form sent to you.

Additional information for businesses:

Business customers that have a dedicated account representative at Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech are exempt from these rules. However, in the instance your account representative is not in the office when you call, we want to have your verification information on file so one of our Customer Service staff can assist you.