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Acceptable Usage Policy
1. General Notice
The Customer and / or End User acknowledges that this Lations Telecom Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), the Standard Terms, the Privacy Policy and other stipulations referred to herein form part of the Provider’s Terms and Conditions.
By accessing this website, or by contracting with us for any of our services, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this policy and the terms and conditions contained herein, as well as any other additional terms, conditions, rules or policies which may be displayed to you in connection with this service/website. Lations Telecom is committed to complying with the laws of South Africa; and to providing Customers with Services that do not infringe on the rights of others. The purpose of this AUP is to:
• Ensure compliance with the relevant national laws;
• Specify to Customers and users of Lations Telecom’s services what activities and online behaviour may be considered an unacceptable use of the service;
• Protect the integrity of Lations Telecom’s network; and
• Specify the consequences that may flow from undertaking prohibited activities. By contracting with Lations Telecom for services, the Customer agrees, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this AUP, as well as any other additional terms, conditions, rules or policies which are displayed to the Customer in connection with the particular Services. This document contains a number of legal obligations which Customers are presumed to be understand. As such, we encourage you to read this document thoroughly and direct any queries to our sales department at 087 822 1858 or email sales@lations.co.za.
Lations Telecom respects the rights of our customers and users of our services/websites to freedom of speech and expression; access to information; privacy; human dignity; religion, belief and opinion in accordance with our constitution. We undertake not to interfere with any of those rights unless:
• we are required to do so by law; • those rights are exercised for unlawful purposes;
• the exercise of those rights threatens to cause harm to another person,
• actions contrary to the AUP affect the integrity of our network or infrastructure. For the purposes of this AUP Lations Telecom / lations.co.za will be referred to at the ‘Provider’, the client/account holder shall be referred to as the ‘Customer’, and the client’s customers if any, will be referred to as the ‘End User’.
2. ISPA membership and Code of Conduct
Lations Telecom(PTY)Ltd confirms that it is in compliance with section 72 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002. Lations Telecom is a member of the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) and has adopted and implemented the association’s official Code of Conduct, which can be viewed at http://www.ispa.org.za/code-of-conduct.
3. Interpretation
The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Generally, conduct that violates law, regulation, or the accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is prohibited. The Provider reserves the right at all times to prohibit activities that may damage its commercial reputation and goodwill. The AUP applies to Lations Telecom services namely Internet services, including but not limited to, any service providing access to the Internet, hosting services (data/content hosting, server hosting, web hosting, domain reservation) or any other services provided over the Internet or wireless data networks (together “IP Services”).
4. Unlawful Use
The Provider’s services may only be used for lawful purposes and activities. Transmission, distribution, or storage, of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation, is prohibited. This includes without limitation:
• Any violation of local and international laws prohibiting child pornography; obscenity; discrimination (including racial, gender, religious or country of origin) and hate speech; or speech which may incite violence or hatred or prejudice, or threats to cause bodily harm.
• Any activity designed to defame, abuse, stalk, harass or physically threaten any individual in the Republic of South Africa or beyond its borders; including any attempt to link to, post, transmit or otherwise distribute any inappropriate or defamatory material.
• Any violation of Intellectual Property laws including materials protected by local and international copyright, trademarks and trade secrets. Moreover the Provider cannot be held liable if the Customer and / or End User makes any unlawful use of any multimedia content accessed through the search facility provided by the Provider’s network or infrastructure, or otherwise available through access to the Provider’s network, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
• Any violation of the individual’s right to privacy, including any effort to collect personal data of third parties without their consent, or any phishing attempts, or any system designed to collection personal information, under false, misleading, or any other pretences.
• Any fraudulent activity whatsoever, including dubious financial practices, such as pyramid schemes; the impersonation of another Customer and / or End User without the Customer’s and / or End User’s consent; or any attempt to enter into a transaction with the Provider, on behalf of another Customer and / or End User without that Customer’s and / or End User’s consent. • Any violation of the exchange control laws of the Republic of South Africa.
• Any activity that results in the sale, transmission, acquisition or distribution of pirated or illegal software and multimedia. Lations Telecom will take swift and firm action against any user engaging in any of the above unacceptable practices, this may be suspension and / or deletion of accounts and or services. The suspension and / or deletion will be at the sole discretion of Lations Telecom management and no communication / correspondence and / or discussions will be entered into.
5. Spam and Unsolicited Bulk Mail
Lations Telecom regards all unsolicited bulk email (whether commercial in nature or not) as spam, with the following exceptions:
• Mail sent by one party to another where there is already a prior relationship between the two parties and the subject matter of the message(s) concerns that relationship;
• Mail sent by one party to another with the explicit consent of the receiving party.
• Customers should only receive bulk mail that they have requested and/or consented to receive and/or which they would expect to receive as a result of an existing relationship. Lations Telecom will take swift and firm action against any user engaging in any of the following unacceptable practices:
• Sending unsolicited bulk mail for marketing or any other purposes (political, religious or commercial) to people who have not consented to receiving such mail.
• Using any part of Lations Telecom’s infrastructure for the purpose of unsolicited bulk mail, whether sending, receiving, bouncing, or facilitating such mail.
• Operating or maintaining mailing lists without the express permission of all recipients listed. In particular, Lations Telecom does not permit the sending of “opt-out” mail, where the recipient must opt out of receiving mail which they did not request. For all lists, the sender must maintain meaningful records of when and how each recipient requested mail. Lations Telecom will also monitor Customers deemed to be operating “cleaning lists”, which is using illegally obtained email addresses but removing addresses as complaints arise. Should Lations Telecom, at its discretion, believe that this is the case; the practice will be treated as SPAM.
• Lations Telecom servers are set to limit outgoing mails to 350 per hour.
• Failing to promptly remove from lists invalid or undeliverable addresses or addresses of unwilling recipients or a recipient who has indicated s/he wishes to be removed from such list, or failing to provide the recipient with a facility to opt-out.
• Using Lations Telecom’s service to collect responses from unsolicited email sent from accounts on other Internet hosts or e-mail services that violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet service provider. Advertising any facility on Lations Telecom’s infrastructure in unsolicited bulk mail (e.g. a web site advertised in spam).
• Including Lations Telecom’s name in the header or by listing an IP address that belongs to Lations Telecom in any unsolicited email whether sent through Lations Telecom’s network or not.
• Failure to secure a Customer’s mail server against public relay as a protection to themselves and the broader Internet community. Public relay occurs when a mail server is accessed by a third party from another domain and utilised to deliver mails, without the authority or consent of the owner of the mail-server. Mail servers that are unsecured against public relay often become abused by unscrupulous operators for spam delivery and upon detection such delivery must be disallowed.
Lations Telecom reserves the right to examine users’ mail servers to confirm that no mails are being sent from the mail server through public relay and the results of such checks can be made available to the user. Lations Telecom also reserves the right to examine the mail servers of any users using Lations Telecom’s mail servers for “smarthosting” (when the user relays its mail via a Lations Telecom mail server to a mail server of its own or vice versa) or similar services at any time to ensure that the servers are properly secured against public relay. All relay checks will be done in strict accordance with Lations Telecom’s Privacy Policy and the laws of South Africa.
• Should our IP address get blacklisted due to the sending of unsolicited bulk mail for marketing or any other purposes the cost to delist the IP address will be billed to the client’s account. This fee may vary depending on the SORBS blacklisting dbase.
• Upon receiving the second written notice of spam, your account will be suspended until the problem is rectified and your mail limits reduced indefinitely.
• Lations Telecom reserves the right to provide services to any Customer. Should the Provider not wish for any reason to provide said services, the Provider may ask the Customer to move said services to another provider with immediate effect.
6. Users Outside of South Africa
Where any user resides outside of the Republic, permanently or temporarily, such user will be subject to the laws of the country in which s/he is currently resident and which apply to the user as well as the Laws of South Africa. On presentation of a legal order to do so, or under obligation through an order for mutual foreign legal assistance, Lations Telecom will assist foreign law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the investigation and prosecution of a crime committed using Lations Telecom’s resources, including the provisioning of all personal identifiable data.
7. Uncapped Voice Acceptable and Fair Use Policy
• To ensure the quality and availability of our Uncapped Voice services Lations has implemented several systems to ensure fair use on all uncapped Voice products.
• In the event of abusive customer behaviour being detected, Lations reserves the right to immediately suspend the account of a customer whose usage is affecting Lations’s network.
• If found that the same user continuously effects the user experience of other customers on the Lations network or continues to bypass warnings or systems put in place by Lations to stop abusive behaviour, then Lations reserves the right to immediately terminate the account of that customer and the customer agrees to pay any and all applicable fees that may be due on termination (normal cancellation fees will apply if the customer abuses the link). It is the responsibility of the customer to ensure they have the appropriate uncapped voice package for their type of use.
• We reserve the right to establish policies, rules and limitations, from time to time, concerning the use of any service. You must comply with any limitations we may impose, in our reasonable discretion. Failure to comply with these rules may result in your service being restricted, suspended or terminated, in our reasonable discretion. • Please note the following fair usage table will apply to all uncapped voice usage:
• Uncapped Voice Package. *Minutes Included (Local and Local Mobile Only)
• Uncapped 2 Channels: 2150 Minutes
• Uncapped 4 Channels: 4350 Minutes
• Uncapped 8 Channels: 9550 Minutes
• Uncapped 15 Channels: 17550 Minutes
• Uncapped 30 Channels: 33250
• VPBX Per extension: 400
• *Voice billing is calculated based on per second billing and will be billed from the first second. Should you exceed the total included minutes (based on the above uncapped voice minutes table) you will be billed at our standard call rates (which may be requested by you at any time from Lations) for any minutes that exceed the fair usage table above.
• Please note that all uncapped voice services exclude all international telephone calls and/or premium rated telephone calls. Should you choose to call any of these telephone numbers you will be billed for this according to our prevailing standard call rates which can be requested from Lations at any time.
• Notwithstanding anything else contained in this policy or any other Lations agreement, Lations may at its sole discretion change the Uncapped Voice Minutes Table on 14 (fourteen) days written notice.
8. Hosting
Due to the nature of a shared Web Hosting environment, a Customer’s website, or usage of the shared Hosting Service, may adversely affect the network or server performance for the majority of the Provider’s hosting customers.
The Provider reserves the right to ask the Customer to upgrade to the relevant, or suitable service option, or to correct the issue, or request the customer to migrate his services to another more suitable provider. The Provider reserves the right to terminate the Customer’s Services should the Customer fail to comply with the requests. The Provider reserves the right to migrate or move a customer’s website to a “quarantine zone” until the issues have been corrected.
“Unlimited Bandwidth” the Provider employs complex mechanisms to protect its Customer and / or End User and systems from abuse. The Provider’s offering of “unlimited bandwidth” is not intended to allow the actions of a single, or a few Customers, to unfairly or adversely impact the experience of other Customers. The Provider’s shared web Hosting platform is intended for hosting a website with relevant content and function for a personal, SME, or small home business without the concern of traffic overages or over use.
It is NOT intended to support the sustained demand of large enterprises, internationally based businesses, or non-typical applications better suited to a cloud or dedicated server. The Provider strictly prohibits the use of the shared web hosting platforms and / or cloud server solutions for any unsolicited bulk email. Bulk emailing of this nature has a negative impact on the other customers email delivery. In some cases even marketing emails sent out to clients will be blocked due to the shared hosting environment.
The Provider prohibits the use of the shared web hosting service disk space to be utilised for purposes other than its intended function: content hosting, personal and small enterprise email and relevant web files.
• The usage of a shared hosting account as a backup or storage device is not permitted.
• The following are examples of unacceptable material which cannot be hosted on the Provider’s shared hosting servers:
o Topsites o IRC Scripts/Bots
o Proxy Scripts/Anonymizers
o Pirated Software/Warez o Image Hosting Scripts (similar to Photobucket or Tinypic)
o AutoSurf/PTC/PTS/PPC sites o IP Scanners o Bruteforce Programs/Scripts/Applications
o Mail Bombers/Spam Scripts o Banner-Ad services (commercial banner ad rotation)
o Auto Blogging Scripts o Search Engine Scripts/Spiders/Bots
o File Dump/Mirror Scripts (similar to rapidshare)
o Commercial Audio Streaming
o Escrow/Bank Debentures
o High-Yield Interest Programs (HYIP) or Related Sites
o Investment Sites (FOREX, E-Gold Exchange, Second Life/Linden Exchange, Ponzi, MLM/Pyramid Scheme)
o Sale of any controlled substance without prior proof of appropriate permit(s)
o Prime Banks Programs
o Lottery/Gambling Sites
o MUDs/RPGs/PBBGs
o Hacker focused sites/archives/programs
o Sites promoting illegal activities
o Forums and/or websites that distribute or link to warez/pirated/illegal content
o Bank Debentures/Bank Debenture Trading Programs o Fraudulent Sites (Including, but not limited to sites listed at aa419.org & escrow-fraud.com)
o Push button mail scripts
o Broadcast or Streaming of Live Sporting Events (UFC, NASCAR, FIFA, NFL, MLB, NBA, WWE, WWF, etc.)
o Tell A Friend Scripts o Anonymous or Bulk SMS Gateways
o Otherwise circumventing the Acceptable Use Policy or intended use of the product. Lations Telecom offers unlimited bandwidth (web traffic) usage on Shared Hosting platforms. However, this is subject to reasonable and responsible usage, as determined at Lations Telecom’s discretion.
Shared Hosting is designed for serving personal hosting requirements or that of small enterprises, and not medium to large enterprises. Lations Telecom reserves the right to move Customers deemed to have excessive bandwidth usage to a Cloud product, which will better suit their requirements.
Customers will be given notice as such, and will be informed of any cost implications. Disk Space on Shared Hosting may only be used for Website Content, Emails and related System Files. General data storage, archiving or file sharing of documents, files or media not directly related to the website content is strictly prohibited. Unauthorised storage or distribution of copyrighted materials is prohibited, via FTP hosts or any other means.
For Shared Hosting, Lations Telecom will implement security updates, software patches and other updates or upgrades from time to time, to maintain the best performance, at their sole discretion. Lations Telecom is under no obligation to effect such upgrades, or to rectify any impact such changes could potentially have to Shared Hosting Customers.
Lations Telecom will not be liable or responsible for the backing up, restoration or loss of data under any circumstances. Customers are solely responsible for ensuring their data is regularly backed up and for restoring such backups in the event of data loss or corruption. The Provider will, at times, purge any email which has been stored on the shared hosting or reseller hosting server(s) for longer than 6 months (180 days).
The Provider does not provide technical support for website design, html, php or any other scripts. E-Mail Accounts are restricted to a maximum size as per the package purchased. If this space is exceeded, this will result in e-mails being lost, e-mails being bounced, and the website being inaccessible.
Upon termination of the Customer’s agreement or services with the Provider, it is the Customer’s responsibility to backup and or move all the Customer’s files from the Provider’s servers prior to termination. All data is removed perminantly after date of termination.
9. Protection of Minors
Lations Telecom prohibits Customers from using Lations Telecom’s service to harm or attempt to harm a minor, including, but not limited to, by hosting, possessing, disseminating, distributing or transmitting material that is unlawful, including child pornography and cyber bullying. Lations Telecom prohibits Customers from using Lations Telecom’s service to host sexually explicit or pornographic material of any nature.
10. Privacy and Confidentiality
Lations Telecom respects the privacy and confidentiality of Lations Telecom’s Customers and users of Lations Telecom’s service. Please review Lations Telecom’s Privacy Policy which details how Lations Telecom collects and uses personal information gathered in the course of operating its Services.
11. User Responsibilities
Customers are responsible for any misuse of Lations Telecom’s services that occurs through the Customer’s account. It is the Customer’s responsibility to ensure that unauthorised persons do not gain access to or misuse Lations Telecom’s service. Lations Telecom urges Customers not to reply to unsolicited mail or “spam”, not to click on any suggested links provided in the unsolicited mail.
Doing so remains the sole responsibility of the Customer and Lations Telecom cannot be held liable for the Customer being placed on any bulk mailing lists as a result. Where the Customer has authorised a minor to use any of the Lations Telecom’s services or access its websites, the Customer accepts that as the parent/legal guardian of that minor, the Customer is fully responsible for: the online conduct of such minor, controlling the minor’s access to and use of any services or websites, and the consequences of any misuse by the minor.
12. Complaints Procedure
Complaints relating to the violation of this AUP should be submitted in writing to legal@Lations Telecom. Complaints must be substantiated, and unambiguously state the nature of the problem and its connection to Lations Telecom’s network and services. Complaints in any language other than English will not be addressed.
13. Action Following Breach of the AUP
Upon receipt of a complaint, or having become aware of an incident, Lations Telecom may, in its sole and reasonably-exercised discretion take any of the following steps:
• In the case of Customers, warn the Customer, suspend the Customer account and/or revoke or cancel the Customer’s Service access privileges completely;
• In the case of a abuse emanating from a third party, inform the third party’s network administrator of the incident and request the network administrator or network owner to address the incident in terms of this AUP and/or the ISPA Code of Conduct (if applicable);
• In severe cases suspend access of the third party’s entire network until abuse can be prevented by appropriate means;
• In all cases, charge the offending parties for administrative costs as well as for machine and human time lost due to the incident;
• Assist other networks or website administrators in investigating credible suspicions of any activity listed in this AUP; • Institute civil or criminal proceedings;
• Share information concerning the incident with other Internet access providers, or publish the information, and/or make available the users’ details to law enforcement agencies; and/or
• suspend or terminate the Service as provided for in the Agreement. This policy applies to and will be enforced for intended and unintended (e.g., viruses, worms, malicious code, or otherwise unknown causes) prohibited usage.
14. Reservation and Non Waiver of Rights
• Lations Telecom reserves the right to amend or alter this policy at any time, and without notice to the Customer.
• Lations Telecom reserves the right to take action against any individuals, companies or organizations that violate the AUP, or engage in any illegal or unlawful activity while accessing Lations Telecom’s services, to the fullest extent of the law.
• Lations Telecom reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to act against other types of abuse not listed in this document and to investigate or prevent illegal activities being committed over Lations Telecom’s network.
• Lations Telecom does not waive its right to enforcement of this AUP at any time, or prejudice its right to take subsequent action, should Lations Telecom fail, neglect or elect not to enforce a breach of the AUP at any time.
• Lations Telecom reserves the right, at its sole discretion to cancel a customers services or account.
15. General Acceptable Usage
You are expected to use the Internet and other networks and services access through the services with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users. We expect you to have a basic knowledge of how the Internet functions, the types of uses which are generally acceptable, and the types of uses which are to be avoided.
Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use. Fibre Services Fibre Broadband Access is supplied as a best effort service by the Fibre Line Provider. Warranties on equipment/hardware supplied during the installation are held by the Fibre Line Provider or their chosen Representative and remain their property. In order to use the Fibre Data purchased from Lations a Fibre router/modem is required, this router/modem needs to be purchased by the client.
Only approved (ICASA, SABS) hardware is permitted to be used, un-approved hardware connected to the Fibre Line by the client which proves to be interfering/causes damage to the service provided by the Fibre Line Provider/Lations or its infrastructure is not permitted. Any costs which arise due to damage and repairs caused by the connection of un-approved hardware by the client will be for the clients account.
Areas marked as available on the map may not be Fibre ready at your particular address due to a number of factors. Pre-orders do not guarantee that Fibre will be available at your particular address once the planned project has been completed. Should we not be able to proceed with your application we will advise you thereof. Installations are typically completed within +- 30 days, this timeframe is however not guaranteed.
Fibre line installations and connections are subject to an installation and connection fee which is prescribed by the Fibre Line Provider. Additional fees may apply should trenching or additional cabling be required to complete the installation. Additional fees may also apply should a re-installation or indoor transfer (move line within the same premises) be required.
Lations, the Fibre Line Provider or its Contractor will make any additional charges known to the client and the client will be required to accept or reject these charges before the order is completed. Please note that should the service be ordered and the incorrect address is supplied, the client will be responsible for all charges relating to the order placed at the incorrect address.
An additional fee may be charged as prescribed by the Fibre Provider for re-grading the speed of a fibre line as well as outdoor transfers (new address) and transfers between Internet Service Providers. Downgrades may require 30 days’ notice depending on the Fibre Provider, the earliest date for a downgrade request will be displayed in the Client Control Panel when submitting the request.
Cancellations for fibre lines are only submitted at the end of each month, the cancellation request must be submitted via the Client Control Panel at least a calendar month before the cancellation date, the earliest available cancellation date will be shown in the Client Control Panel.
Cancellation requests which do not adhere to a calendar months notice requirement are subject to Early Termination Fees which will need to be settled before the cancellation request is processed, this fee is prescribed by the Fibre Line Provider. Transfers between Service Providers are handled in the same manner as a new installation and are typically completed within +- 30 day, this timeframe is however not guaranteed.
An additional fee of up to R2 500.00 may be charged on faults logged which are found to be caused by faulty hardware or user error. This amount will be charged to your account once we are advised of the charges by the Fibre Line Provider. By completing the order it is deemed that consent has been received from the landlord, owner or body corporate for the installation of the service.
The available capacity on the network is shared between all users of Lations bandwidth. Acceptable Usage Policies are attached to Uncapped Services. Capped services whilst the majority of the time will remain untouched may be shaped or throttled should the demand on the network and available capacity be affected. Capped services will generally receive priority through-put on our network provided there is no rise in demand or extenuating circumstances affecting the performance of the network.
Uncapped Services Uncapped services do not carry a usage limit (cap) but speeds will be limited to the speed of the Fibre line. The service is for personal use only and may not be resold, shared or used for commercial purposes. The use of our uncapped services by WISP’s (wireless internet service provider) is strictly prohibited. All uncapped products carry an Acceptable Use Policy which can be found here, please take the time to read through it as important information is communicated there-in.
By accepting the Terms and Conditions, you also agree to the afore-mentioned AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). Uncapped services are billed on a calendar month basis (1st to last day of the month) and payment is due in advance by the 1st of each month.