Voice fair usage policy

Document reference: FUP
Version 1.0. 30 September 2026.
Effective date: 1 October 2026
Supersedes: none (first published version)

1. What this policy covers

1.1 This policy sets out how a Voice Service may and may not be used. It applies to every Voice Service we supply to a business or wholesale customer in New Zealand and Australia.

1.2 In this policy, "Voice Service" means any voice or calling service we supply to you over an internet or data connection, and any add-ons you order with it. "We", "us" and "our" mean the Lightwire entity named on your order form.

1.3 This policy does not apply to a mobile service supplied over a mobile network. Those services are covered by the terms for that service.

1.4 This policy forms part of your agreement with us for each Voice Service you take.

2. What this policy is, and what it is not

2.1 This policy is about how a Voice Service is used. It is not about how much calling is included in your plan.

2.2 What your plan includes, what it costs, and what is charged beyond any included allowance are set out in your plan and pricing schedule. Nothing in this policy changes them.

2.3 This policy does not impose a minute limit. Where a plan is described as including unlimited calling of a particular kind, that calling is unlimited. Making a lot of calls is not a breach of this policy, however many you make, provided the calls are the ordinary calling of your business.

3. The principle

3.1 Our Voice Services are built for the ordinary calling of a business: people at your organisation making and taking calls.

3.2 They are not built to carry automated calling, to deliver another organisation's calling, or to be resold. Those uses consume capacity out of all proportion to what a business voice service is designed and priced for, and they affect the service other customers receive.

4. Unacceptable use

4.1 You must not use a Voice Service, and must not allow it to be used, for any of the following.

Reselling and onward supply

(a) Reselling, resupplying or otherwise making a Voice Service available to anyone outside your organisation, unless you hold a wholesale agreement with us that permits it.

(b) Carrying calls that originate from or terminate with a third party's customers, staff or systems rather than your own.

Automated and generated calling

(c) Auto-dialling, predictive or progressive dialling, robocalling, or any other machine-generated origination of calls.

(d) Broadcasting pre-recorded messages.

(e) Using a Voice Service as a contact centre or outbound campaign calling platform, unless the service you take from us is sold for that purpose or we have agreed that use with you in writing. We sell services built for that purpose and are happy to talk about them.

Routing other people's traffic

(f) Continuous, permanent or unattended call forwarding, diverting or bridging, including arrangements that leave a call path open when nobody is on the call.

(g) Any arrangement that uses a Voice Service to route, aggregate or hand off calling that is not your own.

Account sharing

(h) Sharing a single user or resource account between multiple people, or using one user's service to carry another person's calling, where a plan is charged per user.

Unlawful and abusive use

(i) Calling that is unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, harassing, threatening or deceptive, including scam calling.

(j) Presenting a calling line identity you are not entitled to use, or otherwise disguising the origin of a call.

(k) Artificially generating or inflating traffic to a destination, including traffic to numbers that pay a share of revenue back to you or to a party you are connected with.

Harm to the service

(l) Any use that damages, disrupts or degrades our network or platform, or the service other customers receive.

4.2 You are responsible for use of your Voice Service by your personnel, contractors and end users, whether or not you authorised it.

5. How we assess use

5.1 We look at the nature of the use, not only its volume. Heavy calling by a business whose people are on the phone all day is ordinary use. The same volume generated by a dialler is not.

5.2 Where we assess use under this policy, we consider what is normal for a business of comparable size and type, the pattern of the calling, and whether the calling is consistent with the matters in section 4.

6. What we will do

6.1 If we believe a Voice Service is being used in a way this policy does not allow, we will contact you, explain what we have seen, and give you a reasonable opportunity to put it right.

6.2 If the use continues, or if you do not respond within a reasonable time, we may do any of the following, in each case after telling you:

(a) bar calling to particular destinations or restrict particular features;
(b) move the affected Voice Service to a plan or service that suits the use, from the start of the next billing period. Where your plan applies to your whole account, the move applies to the whole account;
(c) apply our published rates to the affected calling from the date we tell you;
(d) suspend the affected Voice Service; or
(e) cancel the affected Voice Service.

6.3 We will take the least disruptive step that addresses the problem, and we will not go further than we need to.

6.4 We will not charge you retrospectively. Where we apply published rates to calling under clause 6.2(c), we apply them from the date we tell you, not from the date the use began.

6.5 We may act immediately, without the steps in clauses 6.1 and 6.2, where we reasonably believe it is necessary to deal with fraud, a security incident, unlawful use, a threat to the integrity of our network or platform, or a requirement imposed on us by law or by a regulator. Where we do, we will tell you as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards and explain why.

6.6 Nothing in this policy limits our rights under your agreement, including our rights in relation to fraud, security and unauthorised use.

7. If we restrict or move your service

7.1 If we take a step under clause 6.2 and it has a material adverse effect on you, you may cancel the affected Voice Service, without paying an early termination charge, by telling us within a reasonable time of our notice.

7.2 Clause 7.1 does not apply where we act under clause 6.5, or where the step we took was a response to your breach of section 4.

8. Wholesale partners

8.1 Where you take a Voice Service from us to supply your own customers under a wholesale agreement, this policy applies to you in respect of the aggregate use of the services you take from us.

8.2 You must impose terms on your own customers that are at least as protective as section 4, and you must enforce them.

8.3 Where use by one of your customers breaches this policy, we will raise it with you rather than with them, and the steps in section 6 apply to the affected services.

9. Changes to this policy

9.1 This policy is versioned and dated. The version in force on the date of your order, or the version most recently notified to you, is the version that applies to you.

9.2 We may change this policy. We will give you notice of a change in accordance with the variation clause of our General Business Terms and Conditions, which sets out the notice we give and how we give it.

9.3 If a change has a material adverse effect on you, you may cancel the affected Voice Service, without paying an early termination charge, by telling us before the change takes effect. This does not apply to a change we make to meet a legal or regulatory requirement.

9.4 Previous versions of this policy are available from us on request.

10. Other documents

10.1 This policy sits alongside your agreement, your order form, your plan and pricing schedule, our General Business Terms and Conditions, our emergency calling terms for the country your Voice Service is supplied in, and our numbers and porting terms. Where this policy conflicts with your agreement, your agreement prevails.