Version: CONN-2026.03 · Updated: March 2026. This page reproduces AOLC's Connectivity, Hosting & Acceptable Use Policy. The version accepted with your service agreement governs.
This Policy forms part of the agreement between AOLC (Pty) Ltd and the Client for connectivity, hosting and related services — web hosting, email hosting, cPanel accounts, fibre, LTE, wireless broadband, MPLS, SD-WAN, VPN and related network services. It must be read together with AOLC's Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy and, where applicable, the Microsoft CSP Addendum (the "Master Terms"). In the event of conflict, the Master Terms prevail except where this Policy expressly states a clause applies to a particular service.
Each service has the minimum term stated in the applicable Estimate, Order, Service Schedule or activation record; where none is stated in writing, a minimum of twelve (12) months applies. Services continue for successive 12-month periods unless cancelled in writing at least thirty (30) days before the renewal (anniversary) date.
All new activations are subject to the universal 7-day Grace Period. After that period — or once installation, procurement, domain registration, licence allocation or third-party activation has occurred — the Client remains liable for committed charges, setup costs and non-recoverable third-party fees for the full term. Certain services (domains, SSL, software licences, hosted platforms, some ISP services) may carry separate upstream minimum terms that remain payable notwithstanding cancellation of AOLC's managed component. Early termination does not extinguish liability for accrued charges, notice-period charges, non-recoverable setup/hardware/licensing/registration costs, or the balance of the minimum-term charges.
Fees are billed monthly or annually in advance per the accepted Estimate. Installation fees, CPE costs, domain renewals and once-off charges are billed separately and may be payable before provisioning. Invoices are payable within seven (7) calendar days; overdue amounts may attract interest at prime plus 2% per annum, and services may be suspended on notice. AOLC may amend recurring charges on at least 30 days' written notice; increases from taxes, regulatory levies, foreign-exchange movements or Upstream Provider price changes may be passed through on reasonable notice. Debit order or another approved recurring method may be required for certain services.
The Client must use the Services only for lawful purposes and must ensure its users do not use the Services to:
AOLC may, to the extent reasonably necessary for service delivery, security, incident response, fraud prevention, legal compliance or investigation, monitor network performance and traffic metadata and may restrict, remove or disable access to hosted content that breaches this Policy or threatens the Services — in accordance with applicable law. The Client is responsible for all use of the Services through its accounts, credentials, equipment and connections. Where practicable and not urgent, AOLC will give notice of an alleged breach and a reasonable opportunity to remedy it.
AOLC may suspend all or part of the Services, with or without prior notice where reasonably necessary, for non-payment, suspected AUP or material breach, compromised/misused accounts, legal or upstream-supplier requirements, or urgent maintenance. Suspension does not waive payment obligations or prior breaches. AOLC may terminate for uncured material breach, repeated breach, insolvency, or where continued provision becomes unlawful or impossible due to upstream withdrawal. On termination the Client has seven (7) calendar days to retrieve hosted data (unless a different period applies) before permanent deletion, subject to legal retention. Provider-owned CPE must be returned in good working order (fair wear and tear excepted) within fourteen (14) days of demand or termination, failing which replacement value and recovery costs may be charged. Termination does not affect accrued rights; survival provisions remain in force.
AOLC will use reasonable skill and care. Subject to the non-excludable liabilities below, AOLC is not liable for indirect, special, incidental, punitive or consequential loss (including loss of profit, revenue, goodwill or business). Unless expressly agreed in a service schedule or SLA, the Services are not warranted to be uninterrupted, error-free, or available at any minimum speed, latency or uptime — stated metrics are “up to” estimates. AOLC's total aggregate liability shall not exceed the fees paid for the affected Services in the six (6) months preceding the event. Nothing excludes liability for fraud, gross negligence, breach of confidentiality, breach of data-protection obligations under POPIA to the extent not lawfully excludable, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. The Client indemnifies AOLC against third-party claims arising from its content, unlawful use or AUP breach, and remains responsible for maintaining current backups unless AOLC has expressly agreed otherwise in writing.
Where AOLC processes personal information on the Client's behalf in providing the Services, the Client is the responsible party and AOLC the operator, processing only to provide the Services, on the Client's documented instructions and in accordance with applicable law and the Privacy Policy. The Client warrants it has the necessary rights, notices and lawful grounds. Nothing prevents AOLC from disclosing information where required by law, and on termination AOLC will delete or return personal information within a reasonable period, subject to legal retention.
Hosting plans, resource allocations and limits (disk, bandwidth, email accounts, databases, CPU, memory, inodes) are as set out in the accepted Estimate, Order or Service Schedule, amendable on notice where reasonably necessary. cPanel credentials are for the Client and its authorised personnel only; the Client must keep credentials confidential, revoke access when authorisation ends, and report suspected compromise. Shared hosting is subject to fair-use limits; where the Client's use degrades or threatens the shared environment, AOLC may throttle, require reduced usage, suspend, or require migration to a suitable plan. Unless expressly stated, hosting is provided on a best-efforts basis with no guaranteed uptime.
cPanel email is subject to operational and fair-use limits (sending volume, recipient counts, mailbox size, storage, attachment size, anti-spam thresholds). The cPanel mail server may not be used for bulk marketing, mass mailing, mailing lists or high-volume automated/transactional email — use a suitable third-party delivery platform (e.g. Mailchimp, SendGrid). The Client is responsible for all email sent from its accounts, domains, scripts and devices, including via compromised credentials. Where an IP, domain or mail service is blocklisted or rate-limited due to the Client's acts, content or compromised software, the Client is liable for the reasonable costs of investigation, delisting, remediation and reputation repair. AOLC may suspend or restrict email immediately to prevent spam, blocklisting, degradation or security incidents.
Any server- or account-level backups AOLC performs are a courtesy only and do not form a guaranteed backup, archive, retention or business-continuity service. The Client remains solely responsible for maintaining current, complete, independent backups, verifying their recoverability, and implementing its own disaster-recovery arrangements. AOLC does not warrant that any backup will be complete, current or recoverable, and — to the maximum extent permitted by law — is not liable for data loss or restoration issues except to the extent caused by its wilful misconduct or gross negligence. Backup restoration and rebuilds are chargeable unless expressly included in scope.
The Client is responsible for the security, lawful use, configuration, maintenance and updating of all content and software in the hosting environment (website software, CMS, plugins, themes, scripts, integrations, user accounts). The Client must promptly apply security patches, remove unsupported/vulnerable/nulled/end-of-life software, and use strong unique passwords with multi-factor authentication where available. Where AOLC reasonably suspects compromise or risk, it may suspend, isolate or restrict the affected service without prior notice where urgent, and may take emergency mitigation (password resets, malware quarantine, mail suspension). Remediation, forensic review, clean-up and rebuild work is chargeable unless included in scope. The Client must ensure personal information processed through hosting/email complies with POPIA.
ISP Services may include fibre (FTTP/FTTB), LTE/5G fixed wireless, point-to-point links, MPLS, SD-WAN, VPN, failover/dual-WAN, static IP allocation and DNS/DHCP configuration, as specified in the applicable Estimate. Availability, feasibility, line quality, throughput, latency and performance depend on the relevant Upstream Provider, coverage, signal conditions and infrastructure. Unless a separate service-level addendum states otherwise, ISP Services are supplied on a commercially reasonable-efforts basis and are not guaranteed at every location.
Installation is subject to site survey, feasibility, infrastructure availability and third-party approvals; activation dates are estimates and may be affected by upstream, municipal, wayleave, landlord or access constraints. CPE may be sold, rented or loaned; ownership passes only for sold CPE once paid in full, and rented/loaned CPE remains AOLC's (or the Upstream Provider's) property. The Client must provide a suitable environment, reliable power, safe access, internal cabling readiness and any required third-party consents at its cost unless agreed otherwise. Unreturned or damaged rented/loaned CPE may be charged at repair or replacement cost. The Client may not move, modify, reset or tamper with CPE without written consent, and risk in rented/loaned CPE passes on delivery or installation.
Unless a signed service-level addendum states otherwise, AOLC does not guarantee uninterrupted service, minimum uptime, throughput, latency, jitter, packet-loss thresholds or fault-restoration times, and will use reasonable endeavours to log, escalate and follow up faults with the relevant Upstream Provider. AOLC is not responsible for degradation or interruption caused by upstream faults, load-shedding or power failure, cable theft/vandalism, radio interference, DDoS or third-party malicious acts, force majeure, or the Client's own equipment, network, software, power or configuration. Nothing excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Where a service is supplied subject to a fair-use policy, traffic-management policy or contention basis, the applicable rules are disclosed in the Estimate, service schedule, product description or AUP. AOLC may apply reasonable prioritisation, shaping, throttling or filtering where necessary to maintain network integrity, prevent abuse or congestion, comply with legal obligations, or enforce disclosed limits. AOLC will not inspect the substantive content of communications except where reasonably necessary for support, security, abuse handling or legal compliance, and any processing of personal information is carried out in accordance with applicable data-protection law.
Unless otherwise specified, IP addresses are assigned dynamically. Any static IP allocated remains under the control of AOLC or the relevant upstream allocation holder, is non-transferable, may not be ported or retained on termination, and may be changed where reasonably required for operational, technical, security or regulatory reasons — with reasonable prior notice where practicable.
Where RICA or any successor law applies, the Client must provide all information and documents reasonably required for registration, verification and ongoing compliance before activation and on request. AOLC may delay activation, suspend or restrict the service if required information is incomplete, inaccurate, withdrawn or expired. The Client warrants that all information supplied for RICA purposes is true, accurate and up to date.
Subject to the committed term, notice requirements, settlement of amounts due and any third-party or administrative charges, AOLC will reasonably cooperate with a request to migrate, transfer or cease a service. Migration, porting, re-provisioning or handover may be subject to service fees, third-party charges and the processes of the relevant Upstream Provider. Certain services (including many fibre services) are linked to specific upstream infrastructure or addresses and may not be portable. AOLC does not warrant that any migration will occur by a requested date or without interruption.
This Policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Questions: support@aolc.tech · +27 87 55 00 555. Report abuse or acceptable-use violations: abuse@aolc.tech.