Vantact has created this Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) to ensure the responsible, fair and reasonable use of Vantact’s networks, services, systems, websites and products (collectively, the “Vantact Products and Services”) by our customers and other users of Vantact Products and Services (collectively, the “User(s)”), and to enable Vantact to provide Users with reliable, secure and efficient services. By contracting for or using Vantact Products and Services, in addition to any other agreements Users may have entered with Vantact, Users agree to be bound by the terms of this AUP. Vantact reserves the right to modify this AUP at any time and in its sole discretion pursuant to the relevant Vantact terms of service (“Service Terms”). Any use of Vantact Products and Services after such modification constitutes acceptance of the AUP as revised.

Termination/Suspension

Any User that Vantact Business determines to have violated any element of this AUP may be subject to suspension or termination of service, with or without notice. Vantact Business has the right, but not the obligation, to take further action as Vantact Business determines to be appropriate under the circumstances to eliminate or preclude repeated violations. Vantact Business shall not be liable for any damages of any nature suffered by any User, or any third party, resulting in whole or in part from Vantact Business’s exercise of its rights under this AUP.

Prohibited Conduct

Any User that Vantact determines in its sole discretion to have violated any element of this AUP may be subject to suspension or termination of service, with or without notice pursuant to this AUP and the Service Terms. Vantact has the right, but not the obligation, to take further action as Vantact determines to be appropriate under the circumstances to eliminate or preclude repeated violations. Vantact shall not be liable for any damages of any nature suffered by any User, or any third party, resulting in whole or in part from Vantact’s exercise of its rights under this AUP.

Prohibited Conduct

Vantact Products and Services must be used for lawful purposes only and in a manner consistent with the intended purpose of Vantact Products and Services. Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to distribute, record, transmit, post, receive, use or store any type or kind of material that:

  • is illegal, improper or inappropriate
  • may expose Vantact to criminal liability;
  • may adversely affect Vantact Products and Services or other Vantact customers or Users;
  • is threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, or invades another’s privacy; or
  • constitutes any similar behavior

Users are further prohibited from facilitating the violation of this AUP and from violating or facilitating the violation of another provider’s AUP, including distributing, transmitting, posting, receiving, using, storing or otherwise providing any product or service that violates this AUP or another provider’s AUP. Should a User accesses another provider or network using the Vantact Products and Services, such User must comply with the provider or network’s rules and policies. User agrees to indemnify, defend and hold Vantact harmless from all claims, damages, losses and expenses (including attorneys’ fees and expenses) resulting from or allegedly resulting from such User’s access or use of other providers or networks.

Removing or Blocking Communications

Vantact may remove or block communications including calls to certain countries determined solely by Vantact if Vantact suspects a violation of this AUP, or if Vantact deems it necessary in order to protect Vantact Products and Services, Vantact’s network, employees, customers or third parties from harm, fraud, and/or if required by Applicable Law. Vantact may take such action without advanced notice if required to protect Vantact and other Vantact customers in Vantact’s sole discretion. Any permitted removal of blocks to certain countries requires a written waiver of liability by Customer.

Inappropriate Content

Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to distribute, record, transmit, post, receive, use or store material that is inappropriate, as reasonably determined by Vantact, or material that is obscene (including child pornography), defamatory, libelous, threatening, abusive, hateful or excessively violent.

Harmful Content

Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to distribute, record, transmit, post, receive, use or store material that may be harmful to, or interfere with, Vantact Products and Services or any third party’s systems, networks, web sites or services. Such prohibited content includes, but is not limited to worms, viruses, or Trojan horses.

Fraudulent or Misleading Content

Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to distribute, record, transmit, post, receive, use or store material containing fraudulent offers for products or services, or any advertising or promotional materials that contain deceptive, false or misleading statements, representations or claims. Users are prohibited from submitting any false or inaccurate data on any order form, contract or online application, including the fraudulent use of credit cards.

Unsolicited Messages (Email & Text Messages)

Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to transmit unsolicited email or text messages including, without limitation, unsolicited bulk email or text messages, where such emails or texts could reasonably be expected to provoke complaints (“spam”). Users are prohibited from using the services of another provider to distribute spam or to promote a site hosted on or connected to Vantact Products and Services. Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to:

  • send messages that are excessive or intended to harass others;
  • continue to send messages to a recipient that has indicated that recipient does not wish to receive them;
  • send messages with forged TCP/IP packet header information;
  • send malicious messages, including “mail bombing”; or
  • end or receive messages in a manner that violates the policies of any other provider.

Intellectual Property

Material accessible through Vantact Products and Services may be subject to protection under publicity, privacy or other personal and intellectual property rights. Such rights include, but are not limited to, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, trademarks or other proprietary information. Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services in any manner that would breach, dilute, misappropriate or otherwise violate any such rights. Users must not use a domain name in connection with any Vantact Products and Services, and must not use that domain name in violation of the trademark, service mark or other rights of any third party.

Third Party Rules

Users may have access through Vantact Products and Services to search engines, chat rooms, bulletin boards, Web pages and services or other services that publish rules, guidelines or agreements to govern their use. Users must adhere to any such rules, guidelines or agreements.

Inappropriate Actions

Users shall not use Vantact Products and Services to conduct activities that may be harmful to, or interfere with, Vantact Products and Services or any third party’s networks, systems, services, or Web sites, and shall not reverse engineer any Vantact Products or Services. This includes, but is not limited to, mail bombing, flooding or denial of service attacks. Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of Vantact Products and Services, or the computers, accounts, or networks of another party. Users are prohibited from any activity considered a precursor to attempted security violations, including any form of probing, scanning or other testing of information gathering activity. Inappropriate activity may result in civil or criminal liability. Vantact will investigate such activity, and may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users involved in such activity.

Responsibility for Content

Vantact assumes no responsibility for any material created, submitted, or accessible on or through Vantact Products and Services. Vantact is not obligated to monitor or exercise any editorial control over such material, but reserves the right to do so. Should Vantact become aware that any such material may violate this AUP or expose Vantact to civil or criminal liability, Vantact reserves the right to block access to such material and suspend or terminate any User creating, recording, storing or disseminating such material. Vantact further reserves the right to cooperate with legal authorities and third parties in the investigation of alleged wrongdoing, including disclosing the identity of the User that Vantact deems responsible for the wrongdoing.

Fair and Reasonable Use

Vantact desires that Users understand the intended and permissible uses of Vantact Products and Services, and further desires to prevent fraud, exploitation and abuse of certain Vantact calling plans and features. Vantact’s business service plans and features are for normal, reasonable business use and consistent with the types and levels of usage by typical customers on the same business calling plan. “Typical” refers to the calling patterns of at least 95% of Vantact’s business customers on the same business calling plan. Certain calling and messaging plans, including unlimited calling and messaging plans, are designed for normal commercial use and are not intended to represent typical usage by unique organizations such as call centers, resellers, fax messaging services, telemarketing firms, or for use without live dialog, such as transcription services, intercom or monitoring services. Unauthorized or excessive use beyond that normally experienced by other Vantact business customers may cause extreme network capacity and congestion issues and interfere with Vantact’s network and the third party networks with which Vantact connects for call initiation and completion services. Any use of the Vantact Products and Services or any other action that causes a disruption in the network integrity of Vantact Products and Services or its vendors, whether directly or indirectly, is strictly prohibited and may result in suspension or termination of the Services.

Evaluation of Usage

Vantact evaluates Customer usage in comparison to typical levels of permissible usage engaged in by Vantact’s customers. The following is a non-exhaustive list of impermissible uses under Vantact’s calling plans and is considered outside of normal use, whether obtained directly from Vantact, an authorized reseller, or from a co-branded Vantact partner:

  • aggregate outbound domestic long distance calling exceeds 3,000 minutes per subscriber line (i.e., hosted seat) per month pooled across all customer subscriber lines;
  • aggregate inbound domestic toll free calling exceeds 500 minutes per subscriber line per month per month pooled across all customer subscriber lines; or
  • facsimile pages exceed 500 pages per individual subscriber line per month.

Review of Usage. Vantact reserves the right to review usage of the Service(s) to ensure that customers are not abusing or excessively using Vantact Products and Services, and Vantact may suspend or terminate service pursuant to this AUP and the Service Terms if it determines, in its sole discretion, Customer is abusing the Vantact Products and Services. Prior to taking such action, Vantact Business will attempt to contact the Customer to discuss the cause for the excessive or abusive use.

As a guide, in combination with other factors as described herein, Customer may be considered to be in violation of this AUP when any of the following occur:

  • aggregate outbound domestic long distance calling exceeding 3,000 minutes per extension or seat per month pooled across all customer extension or seat lines;
  • aggregate inbound domestic toll free calling exceeding 500 minutes per extension toll free number or seat toll free number per month pooled across all customer toll free number lines;
  • facsimile pages exceeding 500 pages pooled across all customer facsimile lines per month (excluding Personal Fax); or
  • personal facsimile pages exceeding 500 pages per personal fax line per month (assigned to a single extension)

In addition, Vantact Products and Services may not be used for any of the following prohibited uses (which are in addition to the other prohibited uses under this AUP or otherwise applicable to the Vantact Products and Services):

  • Spamming or blasting (e.g., sending one hundred (100) or more bulk and/or junk voicemail or faxes simultaneously);
  • Bulk call-in lines (e.g., customer support or sales call centers unless Customer has purchased the Vantact call center service, “hotlines,” 900 numbers, sports-line numbers, etc.);
  • Auto-dialing or “predictive” dialing (i.e., non-manual dialing or using a software program or other means to continuously dial or place outbound calls); or
  • use an email box exclusively as storage space for data.

Vantact reserves the right to review Users’ accounts at any time for potential abuses of this AUP. Vantact may determine abnormal or abusive usage as stated herein. If Vantact identifies excessive or abusive traffic patterns, Vantact Business reserves the right to change Users’ applicable calling and/or rate plan or suspend or terminate the relevant Vantact Business Products and Service(s) with advanced notice provided Customer responds to such notice. In the event Vantact provides notice and Customer fails to respond within the timeframe indicated in the notice, Vantact reserves the right to suspend the excessive or abusive activity, and change the applicable calling and/or rate plan in its sole discretion thereafter.

 

Excessive Usage.

If it is determined that Customer’s usage is excessive or abusive, Customer agrees to pay a per minute, per page fee for use in excess of typical levels at the then current rate established by Vantact, of up to $.06 per minute for voice calls and/or up to $.06 per facsimile page. THIS OVERAGE FEE APPLIES TO ALL PLANS INCLUDING THE UNLIMITED PLANS, IF USE EVIDENCES PATTERNS OF ABUSIVE OR PROHIBITED USE RELATIVE TO NORMAL USE GUIDELINES. A Customer’s aggregate usage may be considered outside of normal use if it is excessive or abusive as described above. If Vantact Business affords Customer the opportunity to correct abnormal usage patterns and Customer fails to immediately conform to normal use, Vantact may exercise its right to transfer Customer’s service to a more appropriate calling plan, charge applicable rates for that plan, implement other limitations, or suspend or terminate the relevant Vantact’s Products and Service(s) pursuant to the Service Terms.

 

Backup Wireless Service.

Any Backup Wireless Service offered by Vantact is not intended to be used as Customer’s primary internet access source. It is to be used only as a backup/failover service in the event Customer’s primary internet connectivity is materially degraded or unavailable. In the event Vantact determines that Customer is utilizing the Backup Wireless Service as primary access and not as a backup service (whether or not such plan contemplates overage charges), Vantact reserves the right to suspend or terminate such Service with prior written notice to Customer, and Customer shall be liable for all costs and charges associated with any such use, including any overage and other charges and costs incurred by Vantact. Vantact also reserves the right to throttle or reduce Service as needed due to Customer’s recurring overages or prohibited use or in order to protect its network, its obligations to its wireless carriers and mitigate its costs, which may adversely impact Customer’s other Vantact Products and Services, in which case Vantact shall not be liable to Customer for such impacts or be subject to service credits or Customer’s termination rights on account of such actions. Vantact shall not be responsible for any Service issues arising from such improper use including but not limited to Service Level Credits, outages and degradation of call quality.

 

Revised and In effect:

January 1st, 2012