BBN Planet, Harvard's Internet service provider, has issued a new network service reliability guarantee for its Internet customers, BBN Planet representatives announced last week.

The guarantee follows BBN Planet's recent completion of a new Internet "backbone," a high-tech tool designed to ensure the availability of network service 99.9 percent of the time, said Vaughn Harring, public relations manager for BBN Planet.

The new backbone will also permit a doubling of network traffic for BBN Planet subscribers by next year, Harring added.

The guarantee states that if service is interrupted for more than fifteen minutes in any 24-hour period, customers will receive credit for one full day of service.

Beginning October 1, the Internet service guarantee will be available to new BBN Planet customers and current customers who renew their contracts, Harring said.

The improved services will not be accompanied by a price increase, Harring said.

Harvard students and faculty use BBN's services every time they access information channels outside of the immediate Harvard network, Daniel A. Lopez '97, president of the Harvard Computer Society, said.

"To my knowledge, BBN has been very reliable," Lopez said.

With BBN Planet's new backbone, the exchange of information may be faster between people on both ends of the BBN Planet system, Harring said.

For example, a Harvard student will potentially be able to send e-mail to friends at Stanford, another BBN subscriber, more quickly with the new backbone, Harring said.

The Cambridge-based BBN Planet serves more than 2,300 customers worldwide, including many U.S. universities, the New York Stock Exchange and most of the federal cabinet departments, according to Edge magazine.