Fair and Acceptable use policy

We are committed to providing our customers with high quality and/or low contention services at a price that reflects true value. To ensure the best experience for our users we may actively manage our network and the traffic that routes over it. We operate a traffic prioritisation policy which safeguards the performance of our services over the network and other business critical applications.

We carefully manage our capacity to ensure that, in line with the number of customers on the network and a usage profile that fits business customers, enough capacity is provided. However our network is shared and if a group of users consistently use a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth (i.e. transfer a large amount of data) it would drive up the cost of supplying the service to all users. Therefore to ensure we can continue to provide high quality and low contention services without increasing our charges a Fair and Acceptable Use Policy applies to the use of our services.. 

1. General 

   1. This Fair and Acceptable Use Policy sets out the rules which apply to the use of our Connectivity Services and Voice Services if applicable.

   2. We remind Customers that when they use our Services they must comply with the law. Customers must not use our Services:

      1. for the improper use of a public electronic communications network which is or would be an offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003; or

      2. for any unauthorised access or denial of service attack which is or would be an offence under Sections 1, 2 or 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990; or

      3. to commit an offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; or

      4. to commit an offence under any other relevant UK legislation.

   3. A customer’s use of our service constitutes acceptance of this Fair & Acceptable Use Policy.

   4. We reserve the right to revise and update this Fair & Acceptable Use Policy from time to time.

2. Your Responsibilities

   1. In addition to the activities detailed in Clause 15 of our Business General Terms you are responsible for your actions when connected to our network and the systems you access through your internet connection or voice traffic you generate. If you act without care or irresponsibly in using the Services we provide to you, or your actions put at risk the integrity or security of our network, systems or equipment, your access may be restricted, suspended or terminated, without prior notice.

   2. In particular, you agree that you will not use, attempt to use or allow your internet connection to be used to:

      1. store, send or distribute any content or material which is restricted, prohibited or otherwise unlawful under any applicable law or which is likely to be offensive or obscene to a reasonable person; or

      2. store, send or distribute confidential information, copyright material or other content which is subject to third party intellectual property rights, unless you have a lawful right to do so; or

      3. do anything which defames, harasses, threatens, abuses, menaces, offends, violates the privacy of, or incites violence or hatred against, any person or class of persons, or which could give rise to civil or criminal proceedings; or

      4. do any other act or thing which is illegal, fraudulent or otherwise prohibited under any applicable law or which is in breach of any code, standard or content requirement of any other competent authority; or

      5. do anything which interferes with other users or restricts or hinders any person from accessing or using our internet connection service or systems including the excessive usage of bandwidth under section 5 below; or

      6. forge header information, email source address or other user information; or

      7. access, monitor or use any data, systems or networks, including another person’s private information, without authority or attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any data, system or network; or

      8. deliberately compromise the security or integrity of any network or system including our network; or

      9. knowingly access, download, store, send or distribute any viruses or other harmful programs or material; or

      10. send or distribute unsolicited advertising, bulk emails or calls, or otherwise breach your spam obligations set out below, or overload any network or system including our network and systems (including the excessive usage of bandwidth under section 5 below); or

      11. invade anyone’s privacy by attempting to harvest, collect, store, or publish private or personally identifiable information, such as passwords, account information, credit card numbers, addresses, or other contact information without their knowledge and consent; or

      12. tamper with, hinder the operation of or make unauthorised modifications to any network or system; or

      13. authorise, aid, abet, encourage, conspire with or incite any other person to do or attempt to do any of the above acts.

   3. In addition, you may not use our network to create, transmit, distribute, or store content that:

      1. violates a trademark, copyright, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others; or

      2. violates export control laws or regulations; or

      3. violates the privacy, publicity or other personal rights of others; or

      4. impairs the privacy of communications; or

      5. constitutes deceptive marketing, causes technical disturbances to our network (including excessive usage of bandwidth under section 5 below), its affiliated networks, or the network used by customers to access the email service or telephone calls, or violates the policies of such networks by, including, but not limited to, the intentional introduction of any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel bots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system or data; or

      6. assists, encourages or permits any persons in engaging in any of the activities described in this section.

   4. If you become aware of any such activities, you are obligated to immediately notify us and take all other appropriate actions to cause such activities to cease.

3. Use of email with particular regards to SPAM

   1. Also known as junk mail or unsolicited commercial email, the term “spam” refers to submitting a commercial email to a large number of recipients who have not requested or opted to receive it and have no reasonable expectation of receiving email from the sender.

   2. email sent by a company or an organisation with whom the recipient has established a relationship, or which was requested or accepted (opt-in requirement) by the recipient is not considered spam.

   3. Spamming is not only harmful because of its negative impact on consumer attitudes toward businesses that supply email and interconnection services, but also because it can overload our network and disrupt service to other customers.

   4. As a user of our email service platforms sending direct marketing emails, 

You must:

1. include a conspicuous notice identifying the message as an advertisement or a commercial solicitation; and

2. provide a valid physical postal address in each email you send; and

3. include a valid email address or an unsubscribe link allowing the recipient to opt-out, either by replying to a valid return address, or by using an Internet-based unsubscribe mechanism; and

4. process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after the sending of the commercial email and stop sending email to the requestor within 10 business days upon request; and

5. comply with any regulation in force that covers direct marketing regulations.

You may not:

6. include false, deceptive or misleading header information, including a false domain name or address; or

7. send emails with a false, deceptive or misleading subject line; or

8. include sexually explicit content in your email; or

9. add an address into your list without the subscriber’s permission; or

10. maintain an email address in your list for which an opt-out request has been received; or

11. use lists older than 6 months without obtaining a confirmation of the subscriber’s permission; or

12. harvest email addresses from websites or web services; or

13. generate an email address by using a dictionary attack combining letters and numbers into multiple permutations; or

14. use scripts or automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial emails; or

15.  relay emails through a computer or network without permission; or

16. use your subscription form to subscribe users for an unrelated list or to send them content differing from the one they have agreed to; or

17. send emails with added words/characters in an attempt to bypass Bayesian filters; or

18. send, or attempt to send, Spam of any kind from third-party networks using a return email address that is hosted on our network, or referencing an email address hosted on our network; or

19. send email messages which result in complaints from the recipient or from the recipient’s email provider, or which result in blacklisting of the sender’s email address or mail server; or

20. send email messages which are excessive and/or intended to harass or annoy others; or

21. continue to send email to a recipient who has indicated that he/she does not wish to receive it; or

22. take any actions intended to cloak your identity or contact information, including but not limited to intentionally omitting, deleting, forging or misrepresenting message headers or return addresses; or

23. take any other action that results in the blacklisting of the sender’s email address or mail server, or negatively impacts other customers who use the email service.

5. In the absence of positive, verifiable proof to the contrary from you we will consider complaints by recipients of emails to be conclusive that the recipient did not subscribe or otherwise request the email(s) about which a complaint was generated.

4. Bulk Email

   1. The use of our network to send bulk email whether opt-in or otherwise, and the use of bulk email to promote a site on our network is strictly forbidden. Bulk mailing is defined as:

      1. E-mails with more than 50 recipients per email; or

      2. Sending e-mails at a rate of over 5 emails per minute

   2. If bulk mailing attempts are detected the relevant ports may be blocked with immediate effect.

5. Excessive Usage of Bandwidth

   1. The use of bandwidth which is inappropriate for a particular service is to be avoided. In the event that excessive usage of bandwidth on a consistent basis is detected we will contact you to propose a more suitable service as a replacement. If you decline to accept the suggested replacement service and the excessive usage continues we reserve the right to restrict, suspend or terminate your access, at our discretion.

   2. Examples of excessive bandwidth usage are:

      1. A circuit that uses in excess of 100GB of bandwidth in a 24 hour period

      2. A group of circuits (as part of the same company or end user group) that consumes bandwidth in excess of 100GB at each site on the same day(s).

      3. Large bandwidth requirements across numerous sites would be better suited by a solution that does not have the potential to impact other users.

6. Bulk Calls

   1. You are responsible for all call traffic that is sent from your phone systems, handsets and softphones.

   2.  You must not use the services to send bulk unsolicited telephone calls.

7. Excessive Usage of Calls

   1. You must not embark on any course of action which may cause an excessive level of call traffic without providing us with at least seven days’ prior notice in writing. 

   2. The following details the maximum call usage allowance (in minutes) according to product (“Allowance Cap”):

      1. Xoomtalk Hosted VoIP User subscription or any equivalent (inc Teams users) where UK calls are bundled into the monthly price – 2,000 minutes to local, national and the Top Five Mobile Carriers (pooled).

      2. SIP Channel Rental subscription or any equivalent where UK calls are bundled into the monthly price – 2,000 minutes to local, national and the Top Five Mobile Carriers (pooled).

      3. The number of calls to 03 must not exceed 15% of the total number of calls made by the user (pooled).

      4. The maximum threshold for calls will be applied at the company level, not at the level of the individual subscriptions. For example, if a company has 4 subscriptions, it will get up to 8,000 free minutes which can be pooled across any of the individual subscriptions.

      5. If you exceed the Allowance Cap any excess usage during the month for the company will be rated at our standard call rates as defined on our current Rate Card. e.g In the above example, if the company made calls totalling 10,000 local minutes they would be billed for 2,000 local minutes.

8. Administration of Policy

   1. You understand that the administration of this policy requires the exercise of discretion and judgement. We  agree to exercise good faith in the administration of this policy and in making determinations under the policy.

9. Usage

1. To ensure the best experience for our users we actively manage our network. During busy periods non-interactive bulk traffic (such as Peer to Peer traffic) may receive lower priority than interactive traffic such as video and VoIP.

2. You acknowledge and agree that our resources, used in providing the Services, are limited and that any reckless or wasteful use of the Services may affect those resources and may have a material impact on the services provided to our other customers. You agree that we may suspend or terminate an individual User access to the Services where we decide, acting reasonably, that User is using the Services in a reckless or wasteful manner. You further agree that we may terminate that User’s access to the Services where we decide, acting reasonably, that they are continuing to use the Services in a reckless or wasteful manner after having first been suspended and then reinstated.