John Lewis Broadband Acceptable Use Policy

Contents

  1. Our Services
  2. Who is responsible for use of our Services?
  3. Illegal and inappropriate activities
  4. Breach of the AUP
  5. Our obligations
  6. Notifications
  7. Changes to this policy
  8. Broadband (Fibre Broadband and Broadband)
  9. Phone
  10. Email
  11. Hosting

Our Services

  1. John Lewis Broadband is a trading name of John Lewis plc, but the services are provided by Plusnet plc and the contract for these services is between you and Plusnet.
  2. In the rest this Acceptable Use Policy, "we", "our" and "Plusnet" means Plusnet Plc.
  3. As a John Lewis Broadband customer you will have signed up to one or more of our products. These products are collectively referred to as our 'Services'. Any interaction with John Lewis Broadband (provided by Plusnet) as part of your use of our Services will be subject to this Acceptable Use Policy.

Who is responsible for use of our Services?

  1. As a customer of John Lewis Broadband, your use of and access to any of our Services is subject to this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).
  2. If you allow other individuals to use our Services, you will be responsible and held accountable for any breach of our AUP or Terms and Conditions committed by those individuals. If you allow individuals under the age of 18 to use our Services, we recommend that you take reasonable precautions to ensure that they use the Services appropriately.

Illegal and inappropriate activities

  1. While using any of our Services you must comply with the relevant laws that apply in the United Kingdom. You must not use any part of our Services to:
    1. download, possess or transmit in any way, illegal material (for example indecent images of children);
    2. send, publish, distribute, circulate or otherwise propagate any material that is threatening, invasive of privacy, discriminatory, defamatory, racist, obscene, indecent, offensive, abusive, harmful or malicious;
    3. gain or attempt to gain unauthorised access to any computer systems for any purpose;
    4. prevent other users of the Service from accessing the Service;
    5. cause critical disruption to the Service (e.g. using the Services to launch or receive a DDOS attack);
    6. execute, for malicious purposes, any form of network monitoring or data interception that may affect third parties;
    7. intentionally impair or attempt to impair the operation of any computer, prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer or to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data (this could include deleting files, changing the desktop settings introducing viruses or malware etc.); or
    8. infringe the legal rights of others, including, but not limited to, privacy rights and intellectual property rights.
  2. You must take all reasonable steps to preserve the integrity of our Services. In the event that John Lewis Broadband discovers, or is informed, that any equipment or software which you use to access to our Services has been compromised, we reserve the right to request that you cease use of such equipment or software immediately.

Breach of the AUP

  1. We may, at our discretion and without prior notice:
    1. issue a formal warning to you, specifying a breach of this AUP and requesting that you comply with its terms;
    2. temporarily suspend your access to any of our Services;
    3. terminate your account; and/or
    4. take any other reasonable action,
    if we reasonably believe that you, or an individual who you have knowingly or unknowingly allowed to access our Services, breaches or intends to breach this AUP.
  2. Reports of breaches of this AUP by John Lewis Broadband customers can be sent to abuse@plus.net
  3. We reserve the right to investigate any suspected violation(s) of our AUP.
  4. John Lewis Broadband is not responsible for any consequences of your failure to employ appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorised access by any third party to the Services.

Our obligations

  1. John Lewis Broadband is provided by Plusnet Plc, who is obliged under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to disclose information to Law Enforcement Agencies and Public Authorities that are legally entitled to obtain such information. Plusnet must also comply with court orders to disclose information. In serious instances of abuse we may also notify the police or relevant law enforcement agency.
  2. John Lewis Broadband is not responsible for the content of its' customers webspace or content of chat rooms, instant messaging, email, newsgroup or indeed of any communications and therefore John Lewis Broadband cannot and does not guarantee that all of these are free of illegal material or other content considered unacceptable by others.

Notifications

  1. We regularly send out notifications by email and/or post. As a John Lewis Broadband customer you are expected and required to review all messages from John Lewis Broadband. This will enable us to advise you of any significant issues that may affect your use of the Services.

Changes to this policy

  1. We may change our AUP from time to time and will inform you on this website when we do so.
  2. It is your responsibility to regularly check our website for changes and updates to the AUP.
  3. Your continued use of any of our Services after any change to our AUP shall constitute acceptance of the changes.
  4. Please note that our AUP was last updated in February 2016.

Product specific terms

Broadband (Fibre Broadband and Broadband)

  1. These terms of use will apply to you if you currently subscribe to one of our broadband products.
  2. As a John Lewis Broadband customer, you are responsible for ensuring that your broadband connection is secure.
  3. You will be solely responsible for your use of the Internet and any web pages that you host through your broadband service (see Hosting terms below).
  4. We recommend you use and continue to update anti-virus and malware scanners to ensure that your computer is kept secure.

Phone

  1. These terms of use will apply to you if you currently subscribe to one of our phone products.
  2. As a John Lewis Broadband customer, you are expected to use your phone line for personal use only, and should not use the phone line for business purposes unless you are a home worker, and are using your line for the purposes of your employment.
  3. You shall not use the John Lewis Broadband phone service to engage in any of the following actions:
    1. use of your phone line to run call diallers;
    2. use of your phone line to engage in call forwarding to premium numbers and business rate numbers;
    3. impacting other customers by keeping their line engaged, forwarding their phone number;
    4. fax bombing; or
    5. malicious calls, criminal acts, or harassment,
  4. Where in each case we may take action to temporarily suspend or terminate your account with John Lewis Broadband.
  5. For any call plan (including any bolt-ons) that includes calls to 070 personal numbering services, you shall not make more than 150 calls or 1000 minutes (whichever is reached first) a month. If you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for any further calls made to 070 personal numbering services, as well as take any further action under this Acceptable Use Policy for breach of this section 9.5.
  6. You are responsible for all call charges incurred (see our Price guide for details on call plans and call charges). The following calls are not included in any of our call plans (and will be chargeable):
    1. calls to indirect access numbers, which includes calling cards;
    2. calls to obtain dial-up Internet access;
    3. calls to mobiles (unless you have added mobile minutes to your call plan);
    4. any calls lasting longer than 60 minutes (only excess minutes will be chargeable); and
    5. any international calls lasting longer than 60 minutes on a residential call plan (only excess minutes will be chargeable).
    6. For any call plan that includes calls to 0845 and 0870, you shall not make more than 150 calls or 1000 minutes (whichever is reached first) a month. If you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for any further calls made to 0845 and 0870, as well as take any further action under this Acceptable Use Policy.

Email

  1. These terms of use will apply to you if you currently subscribe to one of our email products (paid or unpaid).
  2. If you exceed a total of 1GB (Gigabytes) of stored email on our servers for more than a 30 day period, the excess data may be removed.
  3. Access to your John Lewis Broadband email will not be possible if your John Lewis Broadband account is, for any reason, suspended or terminated.
  4. In the event that you use your email service to post unsolicited messages to groups of people, or operate an Open Relay, we reserve the right to:
    1. temporarily suspend or permanently remove access to your account, and/or
    2. report your actions to the Information Commissioner's Office.
  5. It is your responsibility to back up the contents of your John Lewis Broadband email account. Upon termination of your email services, any contents of your email account may be removed and permanently deleted without notice.

Hosting

  1. These terms of use will apply to you if you currently subscribe to one of our hosting products or if you use your John Lewis Broadband service for your own hosting purposes.
  2. You must ensure that:
    1. your hosted content does not breach any law of any jurisdiction,
    2. the activities that you undertake through your hosted service are not in any way in breach of the obligations outlined in paragraph 3.1 or 4.
  3. It is your responsibility to back up any hosted content.
  4. Any use of our hosted service which results in an excessive use of data transfer volumes and/or has an adverse impact on our systems may result in the hosted service being removed with or without prior notice.

For your information

John Lewis Broadband is provided by Plusnet plc.

John Lewis Broadband is a trading name of John Lewis plc, but the services are provided by Plusnet and the contract for these services is between you and Plusnet plc.

Broadband and Fibre Broadband

To sign up to one of John Lewis Broadband's services, you will also have to sign up to John Lewis Broadband Phone, both on a 12-month contract. John Lewis Broadband Phone includes the Evening and Weekend† call plan as standard. You can choose to take one of our other call plans at an additional monthly charge.

*Broadband speed is described as 'average download speed of 10Mb' and 'average upload speed of 1Mb' as it is based on speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time (8-10pm). Your actual speed will be dependent on your location, phone line, home wiring, wifi connection and time of day. Find out why speeds vary. Check your speed and products available at your location at www.johnlewisbroadband.com.

*Fibre broadband speed is described as'average download speed of 36Mb' and 'average upload speed of 9Mb' on Fibre and 'average download speed of 66Mb' and 'average upload speed of 18Mb' on Fibre Extra as it is based on speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time (8-10pm). Your actual speed will be dependent on your location, phone line, home wiring, wifi connection and time of day. Find out why speeds vary. Check your speed and products available at your location at www.johnlewisbroadband.com.

Our broadband contracts: You must sign-up to a 12-month contract for one of the broadband services (John Lewis Broadband Unlimited, Fibre or Fibre Extra) and John Lewis Broadband Phone. If you choose to end either or both services within the minimum period, you will have to pay an early termination charge by way of compensation for ending your service(s) early. This charge depends on your monthly price and the length of time remaining in your minimum term. How we calculate these charges is set out in the Price Guide.

Phone

To sign up to the John Lewis Broadband Phone service, you will also have to sign up to one of the broadband services (John Lewis Broadband Unlimited, Fibre or Fibre Extra), both on a 12-month contract. If you choose to end either or both services within the minimum period, you will have to pay an early termination charge by way of compensation for ending your service(s) early. This charge depends on your monthly price and the length of time remaining in your minimum term. How we calculate these charges is set out in the Price Guide.

John Lewis Broadband Phone includes the Evening and Weekend† call plan as standard. You can choose to take one of the other call plans at an additional monthly charge. If you need a new phone line installing at your property, there is a £49.99 installation charge (excluding external construction charges). Details on the available call plans are set out below:-

†Call Plans

Evening and Weekend calls: Means calls to UK landlines beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 made Monday-Friday 19:00-07:00 and anytime Saturday or Sunday (except calls to indirect access numbers (which include calling cards), dial-up Internet access and calls longer than 60 minutes). Calls must be started and finished within these times to be inclusive (non-chargeable) and any call that lasts more than 60 minutes will be chargeable. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes a month (whichever is reached first) applies to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. (if you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions). Our Evening and Weekend call plan is included as standard when you take John Lewis Broadband Phone.

Anytime calls: Means calls to UK landlines beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 at anytime (except calls to indirect access numbers (which include calling cards), dial-up Internet access and calls longer than 60 minutes). Anytime also includes a 25% discount on calls to the top 35 international destinations. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes a month (whichever is reached first) applies to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. (if you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions). Our Anytime call plan costs £6.86 a month.

Anytime and International: Means calls to UK landlines beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 at anytime (except calls to indirect access numbers (which includes calling cards), dial-up Internet access and calls longer than 60 minutes). Hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes (local) and you won't be charged. Anytime and International also provides 300 inclusive minutes per month to the top 35 international destinations and a 25% discount on any further calls made to those 35 destinations over this amount within the month. Hang up and re-dial before 30 minutes on international calls, whilst in your inclusive minutes, and you won't be charged. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes a month (whichever is reached first) applies to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. (if you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions). Our Anytime and International call plan costs £9.15 a month.

Mobile Bolt-on: Unlimited calls to UK mobile and 070 personal numbering services, hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes and you won't be charged. Mobile Bolt-on is available only to Anytime and Anytime and International call plan customers. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes (whichever is reached first) a month applies to calls to 070 personal numbering services. If you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions. A Mobile Bolt-on costs £5.00 a month.

Service calls outside of your inclusive minutes: The charge for calls to service numbers beginning 084, 087, 09 and 118 consists of a 9.58p per minute access charge from John Lewis Broadband, plus a service charge set by the company you called. For all John Lewis Broadband Phone pricing, please see our Price Guide.