Acceptable Use Policy

Last update – 24th August 2026
Next review – 31st January 2027

1. About this Policy

1.1 This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) applies to your use of Airbytes residential broadband services (“the Service”) and forms part of your Contract with Airbytes Communications Limited (“Airbytes”, “we”, “us” or “our”), together with our Residential Broadband Terms and Conditions.

1.2 This Policy exists to protect you, other customers, our network, and third parties from harm, abuse and unlawful activity. It is not intended to restrict your normal, lawful use of the Service.

1.3 Capitalised terms not defined in this Policy have the meaning given to them in our Terms and Conditions.

2. Lawful use

2.1 You must use the Service in accordance with all applicable UK law. You must not use the Service to:

send, store, host or distribute content that is illegal, including child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, or material that incites violence or hatred;
infringe the intellectual property rights, privacy rights or other legal rights of any person;
harass, threaten, defame, stalk or abuse any person;
commit or facilitate fraud, identity theft or financial crime;
access or attempt to access any system, network or account without authorisation.

3. Network and technical abuse

3.1 You must not use the Service, or permit it to be used, to:

send unsolicited bulk communications (spam), or relay spam on behalf of a third party;
distribute viruses, malware, ransomware or other harmful code;
carry out or participate in denial-of-service attacks, port scanning, network probing or other attacks against any system;
operate open relays, open proxies or unsecured wireless access points that facilitate abuse by third parties;
interfere with, degrade or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Airbytes network, a Network Partner’s network, or any other network;
spoof IP addresses, email headers or other identifying network information.

3.2 We may take reasonable technical measures, including traffic management, rate-limiting or blocking of specific ports or protocols, where reasonably necessary to protect the security, integrity or performance of the network. We will not use such measures to unfairly restrict your lawful, normal use of the Service.

4. Fair use and residential use

4.1 The Service is provided on a residential, best-efforts basis, as described in our Terms and Conditions. It is intended for normal domestic use, including reasonable home-working.

4.2 You must not resell, redistribute or share the Service with third parties outside your household without our prior written permission, and you must not use the Service to provide a commercial hosting, transit or connectivity service to others.

4.3 Where a specific product has a published fair use policy or usage guidance, that guidance forms part of this AUP for that product.

4.4 We do not currently impose a fixed data cap on standard residential products. Where sustained, disproportionate usage by a small number of customers materially degrades the network for other customers, we may contact the affected customer(s) to discuss the issue before taking any restrictive action, except where urgent action is reasonably necessary to protect network integrity or security.

5. Equipment and network security

5.1 You are responsible for the security and configuration of your own devices and any customer-supplied equipment connected to the Service, including keeping software up to date and using appropriate passwords and security settings.

5.2 You must not tamper with, modify, damage or interfere with any Network Partner equipment (such as an ONT) or Airbytes-supplied Equipment, other than normal use in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

5.3 If your connection is identified as compromised (for example, part of a botnet, actively distributing malware, or otherwise posing a security risk to the network or third parties), we may take proportionate steps to protect the network, which may include temporary suspension. We will aim to notify you and help you resolve the issue where reasonably practicable.

6. Email and messaging

6.1 If email services are provided as part of your Service, you must not use them to send unsolicited bulk email, phishing messages, or messages that violate UK data protection or electronic communications law.

6.2 We may apply reasonable filtering or rate-limiting to outbound email to protect the reputation and deliverability of our network.

7. Reporting abuse

7.1 If you become aware of activity that may breach this Policy, whether by another Airbytes customer or a third party using our network, please report it to [email protected] with as much detail as possible, including timestamps, source IP addresses and any supporting logs.

7.2 We investigate reports of abuse and will take proportionate action, which may include warning, suspending or terminating the responsible account in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

8. Enforcement

8.1 Breach of this Policy is a breach of your Contract with us. Depending on the nature and seriousness of the breach, we may:

contact you to request that the activity stops;
apply reasonable technical restrictions to prevent continued abuse;
suspend the Service in accordance with clause 23 of our Terms and Conditions;
terminate the Service in accordance with clause 23 of our Terms and Conditions;
where required, report unlawful activity to the relevant authorities.

8.2 Where a breach can reasonably be remedied, we will normally give you a reasonable opportunity to remedy it before taking suspension or termination action, unless immediate action is justified by the seriousness of the matter, the law, safety, fraud or network security, consistent with clause 23.2 of our Terms and Conditions.

8.3 Nothing in this Policy limits any statutory right you have that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.

9. Changes to this Policy

9.1 We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, technology or good practice. Where a change is materially detrimental to you, we will provide notice in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.