Fire-IT Enterprise Microwave Solutions Agreement

This agreement applies when you take a licensed microwave internet service from Fire-IT on a CX point to multipoint link or a CX+ point to point link. The product, the bandwidth, the monthly price and any once-off charges are the values shown on this proposal at the time of signing, and together with this proposal they form the agreement between you and Fire-IT (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2012/173035/07, VAT number 4610272165, of 36 Regency Dr, Route 21 Business Park, Centurion, Pretoria, Gauteng 0178. Fire-IT plans, installs, owns and supports the radio equipment at your premises and manages the link end to end.

Fire-IT sells licensed microwave in two shapes and this proposal says which one you are taking. A CX+ point to point link is a dedicated radio path between your premises and a Fire-IT high site: the radios at each end serve your building and nobody else's. A CX point to multipoint link is carried on a sector antenna at the high site that serves several premises at once, so you have a guaranteed minimum and bandwidth above that minimum is managed across everyone on the sector at busy times. Both carry the same 99% uptime commitment. They differ on price, on how long they take to install, on which speeds are symmetric, and on how much notice ends the service once the term has run.

Two different things get called shared here, and it is worth separating them before you choose. The first is the radio path: on CX+ it is yours, on CX it is a sector you have a share of. The second is the internet capacity behind the link, which is a separate choice shown against each option on this proposal - a contended (1:5) service shares that capacity with other Fire-IT clients at a lower price, an uncontended (1:1) service does not. CX+ is offered at both, so a dedicated radio path does not on its own mean uncontended internet. The option you pick says which tier you are taking.

Your link has two ends. One is your building. The other is a high site: a tower or a rooftop mast, almost never owned by Fire-IT, where the radio facing you is mounted. Fire-IT rents that position and the power it draws from whoever owns the site, under an agreement with its own term, its own notice period and its own annual increase. On a CX+ point to point link that space, power and spectrum are committed to your link alone, for the length of your term, from the day the order is placed. That single fact sits underneath most of what makes CX+ different: it is why the link takes up to eight weeks to deliver, why the notice period is three calendar months rather than one, why moving it is quoted case by case instead of at a standard price, and why the charge can move with the site owner's costs. It is not a formality on our side either. Fire-IT is committed to the site owner for your link whether you use it or not. On a CX point to multipoint link you take a share of a sector that is already on the site and already serving other premises, so the commitment behind your link is smaller and its notice period is correspondingly shorter. Where a survey finds no high site with usable line of sight to your building, the link cannot be delivered at any price, and that is the answer a survey exists to give.

Read the speed on your chosen option carefully, because the upload and the download are not always the same number. Every CX+ point to point tier is symmetric: the upload matches the download. On CX point to multipoint, the 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps tiers are symmetric. Above those the upload is lower than the download, and the exact upload allocation for your tier is confirmed on the service order before installation. If a symmetric upload matters to you, for hosting, for a site to site link, for backups leaving your premises or for video conferencing at scale, say so before you sign and Fire-IT will quote the option that delivers it.

A licensed microwave link carries a 99% monthly uptime commitment. Business fibre carries its own availability commitment under the Fire-IT Business Fibre Services Agreement; home fibre and LTE are supplied on a best-effort basis and carry no such commitment. Where the link does not meet it, credits are calculated as follows. Down for 7 or more consecutive days: a credit equal to 3 days of the monthly service charge. Down for 14 or more consecutive days: a credit equal to 7 days. Cumulative downtime in a calendar month above 10%: a credit of 5% of the monthly service charge, calculated as total downtime hours divided by total hours in that month, multiplied by the monthly service fee. The total credit in any month is capped at 20% of that month's service charges. Credits are applied against a future invoice and are not paid out in cash, and an outage has to be reported to Fire-IT for it to count towards one.

Downtime from the following does not count towards uptime or towards a credit: scheduled maintenance for which notice was given; weather beyond Fire-IT's reasonable control; power failure at your premises, including loadshedding on your side of the link; refusal of or delay in giving Fire-IT access to your site or to the equipment; radio frequency interference originating outside Fire-IT's network; and force majeure or regulatory events. Interference deserves a word of its own. Licensed spectrum is protected, but a new transmitter, a new building or the growth of trees in the path can still degrade a link that worked perfectly the week before. Fire-IT will investigate and, where it can, re-plan the link, but the time that takes is not downtime for which a credit is due.

Every link starts with a site survey and a radio frequency plan. Fire-IT confirms line of sight from your mounting position to the high site, plans the frequency, installs and commissions the equipment, aligns the antenna, and holds the spectrum licence and the regulatory compliance for the link. A price quoted before a survey is subject to that survey. If the survey finds there is no usable line of sight, or that a workable path needs a mast, a different mounting position or additional equipment, Fire-IT tells you in writing what is needed and what it costs before any work starts, and you may withdraw at that point at no charge. Lead times differ by product. A CX point to multipoint link is typically installed within 1 to 4 weeks of order, depending on the survey and on equipment availability. A CX+ point to point link typically takes up to 8 weeks, because it needs space and a contract at the high site, regulatory approval, and access arranged with more than one party. These are estimates and not commitments, and they run from the date the order and any site preparation on your side are complete.

The installation price on this proposal is for a standard build. That covers the radio, the antenna, the mount, and up to 100 metres of cabling between the outdoor unit and the indoor termination point. Anything the site needs beyond that is quoted to you in writing before the work starts and is for your account: cabling longer than 100 metres, surface conduit, pitched-roof or specialised brackets where the landlord requires the equipment in a particular place, and any specialised access equipment such as a cherry picker, scaffolding or abseiling, along with any non-standard health and safety requirements your building imposes. None of it is charged without your written approval first.

Every link starts with a survey, and a survey is chargeable work. Where it finds the link is feasible and you then decide not to proceed, the survey is invoiced at R1,950 excluding VAT; where you do proceed, that amount comes off the installation. If you ask for a change after the survey has been done, such as a different mounting position, a different termination point or a different cable route, a further survey is needed and is charged at R1,950 excluding VAT per visit. Survey, installation and decommissioning appointments must be confirmed by 15:00 on the business day before, and are carried out between 08:00 and 17:00 on business days. Work outside those hours is charged at 1.5 times the standard rate, and on Sundays and public holidays at twice the standard rate. If our team cannot do the work on the agreed day because of access, availability or a restriction on your side or your landlord's, that visit is charged at R1,500 excluding VAT and the rescheduled one is charged in full, along with another day's hire of any access equipment already booked for it. Time lost on site waiting for access is charged at R750 excluding VAT per hour. Where the delay is on our side, none of this applies.

Please check your own side first: power to the equipment, the cabling into the building, and your own network. Where a technician is sent out and the fault turns out not to be on Fire-IT's equipment or on the link, the call-out is charged at R1,500 excluding VAT, and time lost on site at R750 excluding VAT per hour. Every figure in this section is the cost Fire-IT is charged for that visit, passed on rather than marked up, and each one is confirmed on your service order.

Every microwave link Fire-IT supplies runs on licensed spectrum. Fire-IT holds the spectrum licence for the link, pays the licence fees, and carries responsibility for compliance with ICASA's requirements for it. You do not need a licence of your own and you must not apply for one for this link. Licensed spectrum is the reason this service can carry an uptime commitment where unlicensed wireless cannot: the band is protected, so a neighbour installing their own equipment cannot lawfully sit on top of your link. It also means the link may not be modified, re-tuned or re-pointed by anyone other than Fire-IT, because the licence is issued against a specific path, frequency and power.

The radio, the antenna, the mounting hardware, the power injector and the cabling Fire-IT installs remain Fire-IT property for the life of the service, unless this proposal states that you are buying them outright. You may not remove, relocate, re-aim, dismantle, open, repaint or otherwise interfere with any of it, and you may not permit anyone else to. This is not a formality. The antenna is aligned to a fraction of a degree against a high site that may be kilometres away, so moving it by hand takes the link down and needs a technician to restore. If the equipment has to move, for a new roof, a building alteration or a change of premises, tell Fire-IT before anything is touched. Relocating a CX point to multipoint link is R15,000 excluding VAT, being R5,000 to decommission the existing link and R10,000 to reinstall it, and assumes the new position is a standard installation. A CX+ point to point link is quoted case by case, because it depends on whether the high site serving the new address has space, power and a line of sight to it, and on the agreement Fire-IT holds for that site. Either way a fresh survey is required, and any specialised access equipment is quoted on top. Microwave equipment is expensive, and what it costs to replace depends on which radio the site needs. On current values that runs from R3,000 excluding VAT for a standard radio in the nearer coverage zone to R15,000 for one in the outer zone or on a premium link, with the indoor unit at R1,500. The figure that applies to your link is confirmed on your service order. You are liable for its loss or theft and for damage caused by anything other than fair wear and tear or a fault in the equipment itself, including damage from lightning, storm, fire, flood, building work and vandalism. Fire-IT strongly recommends that you insure it under your own policy as equipment in your care: it sits outdoors on your building, and your insurer rather than ours covers what happens to it there. On termination Fire-IT will arrange to recover its equipment and you must give reasonable access for that. Equipment that cannot be recovered because access is refused is invoiced to you at its replacement value.

You can move up but not down. An upgrade to a faster speed can be requested at any time during the term and is implemented subject to feasibility, because a higher speed has to be achievable on your path and there has to be capacity for it on the high site. A downgrade is not available during the term: the link, the equipment and the capacity committed at the high site were all sized and priced against the speed you chose, so the term runs at that speed or above it. If your needs change, ask us before you sign rather than after. Changes to the network configuration of a live link, as opposed to its speed, are charged at R750 excluding VAT per change.

The link needs a few things from your premises, and they are your responsibility. A mounting position with clear line of sight to the high site, and clear of anything that will grow into the path. Mains power at the mounting position or at the indoor unit, and a UPS or an inverter if you need the link to survive loadshedding: the high site runs on backup power, so a link that goes dark during loadshedding is almost always the client end. Safe access for Fire-IT technicians to install and to maintain, including access to a roof or a mast where that is where the equipment sits. Protection for the indoor equipment from water, dust and heat. Where your premises are leased, any permission your landlord requires for the installation is yours to obtain before the installation date.

Fire-IT tests the link before handing it over: connectivity, throughput and stability, against the speed on the option you chose. You receive a Service Confirmation when it passes. Billing starts 5 business days after the Service Confirmation on a new installation, and on the same day for a change or an upgrade to a link that is already live. The service is billed monthly in advance, so your first month is charged pro-rata from the billing start date. Invoices are settled by debit order, or on payment terms agreed with you in writing. Prices for this service are stated excluding VAT, and VAT at 15% is added on the invoice. Where a technician is dispatched to your site and no fault is found on Fire-IT's equipment or on the link, a call-out fee as set out in the service order is billed to you.

Your monthly charge has two halves. Fire-IT's own half - the service, the support, the capacity we carry for you - is fixed for the term and does not move. The other half is third-party infrastructure the link cannot exist without: the high site rental, the power drawn at that site, and any third-party reticulation into your building. Fire-IT does not own those and cannot fix their price for two years. They are reviewed annually and adjust with inflation or with the site owner's own escalation, and where that happens Fire-IT passes on the increase and no more, with at least 30 days' written notice showing what changed and why. The upstream carrier may also adjust for a material movement in exchange rates or in its own infrastructure costs, on the same 30 days' notice. Nothing else in the monthly charge changes during the term: not the speed you are paying for, not Fire-IT's margin, and not the once-off charges already quoted. If an increase is ever one you are not willing to carry, say so when you receive the notice and we will look at the options with you rather than leave you to find out on an invoice.

If a debit order is returned unpaid or is reversed, you are liable for an administration fee of R150 excluding VAT, plus the bank's charges, on the terms set out under late payment below. The fee is added to your next invoice and is payable with it.

The month is paid for before you use it. If payment for the new month has not reached Fire-IT by the 7th of that month, we may suspend the link until the account is settled in full. There is no charge to reconnect. Suspension does not pause your bill: Fire-IT carries the high site, the spectrum licence and the equipment for as long as the link exists, whether it is passing traffic or not, so you continue to be billed throughout. A service still unpaid when the next billing cycle begins may be cancelled by Fire-IT for breach of this agreement, which does not clear what you owe. You remain liable for the unpaid amount and for the notice period set out below.

Fire-IT carries international traffic over more than one international link and fails over between them, so a single international break does not take your internet access away. It can still slow it down. When a large international link goes down, the traffic it was carrying moves onto the remaining capacity, and while that lasts international traffic may be shaped so that every client keeps a working service rather than a few sessions consuming what is left. Local and South African traffic is not affected. Undersea cable breaks and the time taken to repair them are outside Fire-IT's control, and no credit is due for the period a failover is in place.

This link is supplied for the contract term stated on this proposal, and it cannot be cancelled during that term. Please read that sentence before you sign, because it is the part clients are most often surprised by: the notice periods below are what ends the service once the term has run, not a way out of it. A microwave link is built for you - a site survey, a radio and antenna installed and aligned, and capacity and spectrum committed at the high site - and that commitment is made for the whole term on the day the order is placed.

When the term expires the service continues month to month on the same charges until either side ends it, and the notice period then depends on the link type.

A CX+ point to point link requires three (3) calendar months' prior written notice. A CX point to multipoint link requires one (1) calendar month's prior written notice. The longer notice on a point to point link follows the dedicated path and the spectrum held for you at the high site, which take longer to release.

Notice runs on a calendar month basis. It commences on the first day of the calendar month immediately following the one in which Fire-IT receives your written notice, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the final calendar month of the notice period. Written notice goes to accounts@fire-it.co.za and is only effective once Fire-IT has acknowledged it in writing, so if you have not had an acknowledgement, assume the notice has not started running. Service charges remain payable in full for the entire notice period, whether or not the service is used during it.

If you need to end the service before the term is up, Fire-IT will always try to find a workable answer with you, but an early termination is a charge rather than a notice period. What becomes payable is the balance of the term, together with any once-off charges not yet recovered and the cost of decommissioning and recovering the equipment. The amount is calculated on the term and charges on this proposal and is confirmed to you in writing before anything is cancelled. The same applies to an order cancelled after it has been placed but before the link goes live, because the survey, the equipment and the high site capacity have already been committed by then. Moving the link to a new address is a relocation rather than a cancellation, and is quoted separately; where the new address has no usable line of sight the link cannot move and these terms apply instead.

You may use the service only for lawful purposes, and in line with South African law including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act. You may not transmit, store or distribute content that is unlawful, that constitutes child pornography, obscenity, hate speech or incitement to violence, or that discriminates on racial, gender or religious grounds. You may not defame, harass, stalk or threaten anyone, including Fire-IT staff. You may not infringe intellectual property rights, including downloading or distributing pirated software or media. You may not collect or share personal information without consent, engage in fraud, pyramid schemes, impersonation or phishing, or breach exchange control regulations. You may not send unsolicited bulk email, maintain mailing lists without consent, or continue mailing a recipient who has asked to be removed. You are responsible for securing your network and your account against unauthorised access and misuse.

This service is supplied for use at the address on this proposal, by your business at that address. You may not resell it, and you may not use it to provide network services to anyone else, including operating as a wireless internet service provider or extending the connection to neighbouring premises or to a separate business. Where you need to carry a second site, ask Fire-IT to quote a link for it: a point to point or point to multipoint path added properly is supported, and one improvised off an existing link is not, and puts the licence for the link at risk.

You may not do anything that jeopardises the operation, security or integrity of Fire-IT's network or of any third-party network. That includes attempting unauthorised access or bypassing security measures, using the service to circumvent authentication on any host, network or account, forging TCP/IP or email headers, accessing another person's computer, software or data without their consent, denial-of-service attacks, network flooding, unauthorised scanning or probing, distributing or linking to viruses, trojans, worms, malware or botnets, monitoring traffic on Fire-IT's network without our written consent, running services with known vulnerabilities such as open recursive DNS or open SMTP relays, failing to secure a mail server against public relay, and failing to act promptly on a denial-of-service attack once notified.

You may not use the service to harm or attempt to harm a minor, including by hosting, possessing, distributing or transmitting unlawful material such as child pornography.

Fire-IT has no control over content carried over the internet, and is not liable for any loss arising from your use of or reliance on it. Our network is a conduit to third-party websites and services that we do not control, and you assume the risk of what you access through it.

A Fire-IT invoice is prima facie proof of the amount you owe. Amounts are due and payable by the due date shown on the invoice. An extension may be granted in writing at Fire-IT's discretion and cannot be applied unilaterally by you. Fire-IT issues invoices periodically, normally monthly, and you remain liable for payment whether or not you received an invoice. To the fullest extent the law allows, payments are made free of exchange, without deduction or set-off, by debit order from a bank account you nominate or by another method Fire-IT determines.

If you do not pay an amount by its due date, that amount bears interest from the due date until it is paid, at 2% a month on the amount outstanding, which is a rate of 24% a year, and it is not compounded. Where the law sets a lower maximum rate for your account, that lower maximum applies instead. No separate penalty or late payment fee is payable. Interest, together with any fees and collection costs, stops accruing once it equals the unpaid capital that was owed when you first fell into default, and starts running again only once you have brought the account up to date. A failed debit order attracts an administration fee of R150 excluding VAT, plus the bank's charges; where the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 applies to your account, that fee and any collection costs are limited to the maximum that Act and its regulations allow. If an amount remains unpaid, Fire-IT may suspend the service until it is paid in full, and minimum charges continue while it is suspended. Fire-IT may also hand the account over for collection. Before Fire-IT reports any adverse information about you to a credit bureau it will give you at least 20 business days' written notice of its intention to do so, and it will not report the information if you pay the arrears within that period, if you have disputed the amount in writing on reasonable grounds, or if the debt has prescribed. These are the same rules as clause 5 of the Fire-IT Standard Terms and Conditions.

Fire-IT may amend the acceptable-use terms of this agreement, and will publish the current version. Fire-IT may act against anyone breaching this agreement or acting unlawfully, to the fullest extent of the law, and may investigate and act on forms of abuse not listed here. Fire-IT may monitor user and network traffic to protect the security of its systems, may suspend or terminate a service where the safety or integrity of its resources is at risk, and may remove content it regards as unlawful. Fire-IT does not guarantee the security of data transmitted over its network; you are responsible for safeguarding your own data. If Fire-IT does not enforce a term, that is not a waiver of its right to enforce it later.

South African law governs this agreement. The parties consent to the jurisdiction of the Magistrate's Court or the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, where applicable. Fire-IT's liability for this service is limited to the fees paid for it in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim. Fire-IT is not liable for indirect loss, loss of profit, loss of data, business interruption or consequential damages. If any provision is found invalid, the rest of the agreement remains in force.

This agreement applies together with the general terms that cover every Fire-IT service. Read the Standard Terms and Conditions.