Acceptable and Fair Use Policy

Last Updated: July 2026

This Acceptable and Fair Use Policy (this “Policy”) sets out rules and requirements for lawful, safe and responsible access to and use of the services supplied by Focus Group (the “Services”). The Policy is designed to protect the Services, Focus Group’s networks, infrastructure and other customers, and other third parties from improper, abusive, or illegal activity.

Please note that this Policy is incorporated into the agreement that you have entered into with Focus Group that governs your use of the Services (the “Agreement”). For purposes of this Policy, the terms “you” or “your” refer to the person or firm that has contracted to purchase Services from Focus Group. However, you are also responsible for ensuring all other persons who use the Services on your behalf or through your account(s) with Focus Group comply with this Policy, and for any breaches of this Policy by such persons.

When using the Services, all users are expected to act in a reasonable and lawful manner, to adhere to commonly accepted industry practices and standards, and not to engage in any activity that causes or is likely to cause harm to individuals, groups, or the general public. The specific guidance listed below is for illustrative purposes and is not exhaustive.

BY ACCESSING, DEPLOYING OR USING THE SERVICES, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND ACCEPTED THIS POLICY.

1. Respect applicable law.

You may not access, deploy or use the Services in any manner that breaches applicable law or regulation or that infringes or misappropriates the rights of Focus Group or any third party. Without limiting the foregoing, you may not access, deploy or use the Services to:

facilitate cybercrime or other types of crime (e.g., hacking, phishing, identity theft, social engineering, or creation or distribution of malware, ransomware or other malicious software), or plan, promote, advocate, or assist in any illegal or violent actions (e.g., terrorism, violent extremism, threats, or the planning of violent or criminal acts);
compromise the privacy of others (e.g., collecting, disclosing or otherwise processing personal data through or in connection with the Services without complying with applicable legal requirements);
violate any contract or agreement to which you are a party; or
submit any information or material to the Services, or use the Services to store, process, create, compile, transmit or distribute any information, communication or material, without having all necessary rights, licences, consents or permissions to do so.

2. Avoid high-risk activity.

You must not access, deploy or use the Services to conduct or facilitate any activity that poses a significant threat to individuals or society (whether or not it is expressly illegal in your jurisdiction). For example, you may not access, deploy or use the Services to:

create, compile, transmit, or distribute: hate speech or incitement to hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected characteristic; bullying, harassment, intimidation, or threats of violence against any person; disinformation or manipulative material, hateful or defamatory information, communications or material; child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any material that exploits or endangers minors; pornographic or exploitative information, communications or material; or unauthorised collections of personal data;
facilitate or engage in real money gambling, payday lending, political campaigning, lobbying, unsolicited advertising or promotional material distribution, except in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, or academic dishonesty or self-harm, through use of the Services;
automate decisions that could have a legal or material impact on an individual, such as making credit, educational, employment, insurance, legal, medical, or other important decisions about them;
provide Services targeted to users under the age of 13; or
provide medical, financial, tax, legal or other services that would typically require specialised credentials or licensing without appropriate professional oversight.

3. Use AI responsibly.

Certain Services may give you access to functionality that uses machine learning or other artificial intelligence features (collectively, “AI”). You must use such AI in compliance with the rules set out in this Policy, and you must not:

misrepresent AI-generated outputs as human-created, or otherwise misrepresent the provenance of AI-generated information or material (where you use the AI features to interact with persons outside of your organisation or to generate material that is presented to persons outside of your organisation, you are responsible for making appropriate disclosures regarding the AI-generated nature of such material where required by applicable law or where a reasonable person would expect such disclosure);
engage in any activity or practice that is prohibited or considered ‘high risk’ under the European Union’s AI Act or any other applicable law or regulation governing deployment and/or use of AI; or
remove watermarks, metadata or other indicia intended to identify AI outputs as artificially generated or manipulated, or circumvent abuse protections or safety filters.

4. Avoid technical misuse.

You must respect the technical, security and operational safeguards implemented by Focus Group and the third parties who help Focus Group provide the Services. This means you must not access, deploy or use the Services to:

copy, distribute, rent, lease, resell, lend, license, transfer or make derivative works of the Services or any related materials (except as expressly permitted under your agreement with Focus Group), or use any of the foregoing on a service bureau or similar basis;
decompile, distil, jailbreak, subject to prompt injection or other adversarial attacks, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Services or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, training data, model weights or other algorithmic parameters of the Services (including the third-party AI models used in the Services), or in the case of AI features, cause them to take unauthorised actions or produce inappropriate output;
circumvent, disable, interfere with, or otherwise attempt to bypass any authentication measures, access controls, usage limits, monitoring mechanisms, or security features of the Services or any underlying third-party services;
probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Services or related systems;
introduce malicious code, malware, or other harmful components into the Services, or use the Services to transmit or store such materials;
interfere with, disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorised access to the servers, networks, equipment, or infrastructure of Focus Group, its suppliers, carriers, licensors, or other customers;
use the Services in a manner that materially degrades, impairs, or interferes with the performance, integrity, or availability of the Services or any networks or third-party services used to provide them;
use software, devices, scripts, robots, AI agents, or any other means or processes (including browser plugins, add-ons, or other technology) that scrape, crawl, or otherwise extract data from the Services, that access or use the Services automatically (including to send or redirect messages), or that circumvent any technical limitations or rate limits imposed on the Services;
attempt to circumvent or alter any method of measuring or billing for the Services; or
where you use Services that make use of shared networks, environments or other infrastructure (such as cloud hosting services), make excessive use of that infrastructure or fail to implement and maintain reasonable security measures on any systems or applications hosted on shared infrastructure, including timely application of security patches and updates.

5. Avoid infringement and malware.

In addition to the foregoing, you may not use the Services to create, transmit, distribute, or store content that:

infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property rights of others, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights; or
includes 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.

6. Unsolicited communications and email.

You must not use the Services to send junk mail or bulk commercial email (“SPAM”). SPAM includes any 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.

As a user of Focus Group email service platforms sending direct marketing emails:

You must:

include a conspicuous notice identifying the message as an advertisement or a commercial solicitation;
provide a valid physical postal address in each email you send;
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;
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
comply with all applicable direct marketing regulations.

You may not:

include false, deceptive or misleading header information, including a false domain name or address;
send emails with a false, deceptive or misleading subject line;
include sexually explicit content in your email;
add an address into your list without the subscriber's permission;
maintain an email address in your list for which an opt-out request has been received;
use lists older than 6 months without obtaining a confirmation of the subscriber's permission;
harvest email addresses from websites or web services;
generate an email address by using a dictionary attack combining letters and numbers into multiple permutations;
use scripts or automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial emails;
relay emails through a computer or network without permission;
use your subscription form to subscribe users for an unrelated list or to send them content differing from the one they have agreed to;
send emails with added words/characters in an attempt to bypass filters;
send, or attempt to send, SPAM of any kind from third-party networks using a return email address that is hosted on Focus Group’s network, or referencing an email address hosted on Focus Group’s network;
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;
send email messages which are excessive and/or intended to harass or annoy others;
continue to send email to a recipient who has indicated that they do not wish to receive it;
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
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.

In the absence of positive, verifiable proof to the contrary from you, Focus Group 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.

7. Bulk Email.

The use of Services to send bulk email whether opt-in or otherwise, and the use of bulk email to promote a site on Focus Group’s network is strictly forbidden.

Bulk mailing is defined as:

emails with more than 50 recipients per email or
sending emails at a rate of over 5 emails per minute.

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

8. Excessive Usage of Bandwidth.

The use of bandwidth that is inappropriate for a particular service is prohibited. In the event that excessive usage of bandwidth on a consistent basis is detected, Focus Group 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, Focus Group reserves the right to restrict, suspend or terminate your access, at Focus Group’s discretion.

Examples of excessive bandwidth usage are:

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

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

9. Bulk Calls.

You are responsible for all call traffic that is sent from your phone systems, handsets and softphones. You must not use the Services to make bulk unsolicited telephone calls.

10. Excessive Usage of Calls.

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

The following details the maximum call usage allowance by product (the “Allowance Cap”):

Cloud License
2,000 local, national, mobile (pooled)

SIP Channel Rental
2,000 local, national, mobile (pooled)

Microsoft Teams SIP Direct Routing
2,000 local, national, mobile (pooled)

Horizon Rental License

Up to 2,000 minutes per subscription per month of calls to 01, 02 and 03 are free*
*The number of calls to 03 must not exceed 15% of the total number of calls made by the user.
Up to 2,000 minutes per subscription per month of calls to UK mobiles (all FM) are free.
The threshold is applied at the Horizon company level, not at the level of the individual subscriptions. For example, if a Horizon company has 4 subscriptions, it will get up to 8,000 free minutes which can be pooled across any of the individual subscriptions.
Where the conditions are exceeded, all usage during the month for the company will be rated at your IP rates.

If you exceed the Allowance Cap, Focus Group is entitled to levy a charge in respect of the excessive calls at the following rates:

Local/National – 1.5ppm
Mobile – 3ppm

11. Internet Speeds.

You can find details of the speeds Focus Group’s Services offer in the Products & Solutions section of Focus Group’s website. If you require any further information, you can also speak to your account manager.

Whilst Focus Group is committed to providing you with great internet access services, the speeds that you experience are also dependent on several factors, including your own actions. For instance, if you try to download multiple large files during working hours at the same time, this will have an impact on your speed. You might, therefore, want to schedule large updates to run overnight or on the weekends to improve your Service. Additionally, the type of product you consume and how it is delivered to your premises can affect the speeds you receive, particularly when all or part of the Services is delivered over the copper network.

It is also important that you select the right Service for your business needs. If you need to support a high volume of traffic and devices, then you may need to upgrade to ensure consistent quality of Service. For more information on the speeds required to undertake common internet activities, please see the Ofcom guidance at Ofcom.org.uk. Your account manager will also be able to work with you to ensure that you are using the appropriate Service.

Finally, the quality of your Service can be impacted by the devices which you use. Older equipment is less likely to provide the speeds you are expecting. Speeds may also be affected where you access them over Wi-Fi.

If you are experiencing issues with your internet speeds, please raise a service request via the inFocus Portal in the first instance and Focus Group will work with you to find a solution.

12. IT Support Services.

IT support packages with service descriptions or schedules that do not specifically list a limit on usage in any area (such as volume of incidents, changes or requests) are still subject to fair usage limitations. Where fair usage is deemed exceeded, appropriate charges for the excess services/usage may be applied to your account, with prior notice provided. The following scenarios are considered to exceed fair usage:

where the number of employees or supported assets increases from the original order form during the life of the contract;
where the number of employees or supported assets differs from the original order form at the point of onboarding;
where the overall volume of support incidents or service requests exceeds more than three cases, per device or user, per month on a rolling three-month period;
where the client fails to take advice or recommendations from Focus Group relating to end-of-life or unsupported equipment, resulting in excess support cases; and
where the overall scope of requirement for the Service materially changes during the life of the contract (change of location, business working hours, etc.).

13. Mobile Services.

Retail Mobile Services Customers (Network Billed)

Customers who are billed directly by the relevant Mobile Network (O2, Vodafone or EE), should check the Fair Use Policy of their respective Network. Details can be found by visiting their website, or on request from your Account Manager.

Wholesale Mobile Services (Mobile Services billed by Focus Group)

Where Mobile Services are billed by Focus Group, the Services are provided subject to the following usage limits:

3,000 SMS sent from a single line within a calendar month;
3,000 standard inclusive minutes used within a calendar month;
For those on Unlimited UK Data plans, 650GB is considered fair usage within a calendar month;
Where EU roaming is included as part of your inclusive allowance, this is subject to a fair usage policy based on either your UK allowance, or 25GB (whichever is lower); and
Usage in Europe is considered fair usage if the relevant line has roamed for 59 days or less in a rolling 120-day period.

Breaches of any of the above may result in excess charges and/or usage restrictions being applied.

14. Material on the Internet.

Focus Group does not operate or control the information, services, opinions, or other material available on the internet. You agree that you shall make no claim against Focus Group relating to the material from the internet or respecting any information, product, service, or software ordered through or provided by virtue of the internet. Focus Group does not monitor or exercise editorial control over information passing over its networks and excludes all liability in respect of any transmission or reception of information of whatever kind, including the accuracy of its contents.

15. Respect Focus Group’s partners.

The Services may incorporate, rely on, or enable access to products, software, platforms, networks, or services provided by third parties, including without limitation telecommunications carriers, cloud service providers, software licensors, and cybersecurity vendors. When using the Services, you must comply with all applicable policies and terms imposed by such third-party providers, to the extent such terms are made available to you by the relevant third party or by Focus Group. Additionally, you must not use the products, software, platforms, networks, or services incorporated into, relied upon or enabled by the Services, including material generated by or provided through the Services, to develop or improve any products, software, platforms, networks, or services that compete with Focus Group or with Focus Group’s partners (e.g., you may not use a third-party software program that Focus Group provides to you to develop an alternative, competing version of that program).

16. Exceptions.

Focus Group may, in its sole discretion and subject to applicable law and third-party obligations, grant exceptions to this Policy, including for legitimate business, educational, testing, security, or compliance-related purposes.

17. Changes to this Policy.

Focus Group may modify this Policy at any time to reflect changes in Focus Group’s practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. Focus Group will notify you of any such modifications either via email or by posting a revised copy of this Policy on its website. Your continued use of the Services following the posting or notice of any changes will mean you accept those changes.

18. Enforcement.

Failure to comply with this Policy constitutes a breach of the Agreement and may result in immediate suspension or termination, or both, of the Services. Focus Group reserves the right to install and use, or to require you to install and use, appropriate mechanisms to detect or prevent breaches of this Policy. If you become aware of any breach of this Policy by any person, including third parties who have accessed the Services through you, you shall immediately notify Focus Group. You shall cooperate with Focus Group and with appropriate law enforcement agencies and other parties involved in investigating claims of illegal or inappropriate activity.