General Terms & Conditions

1. Definitions

These definitions shall apply equally to all documents which form part of the Agreement:

1.1. "Acceptance Date" - means the date on which the Customer accepted the Agreement and this may include acceptance in writing, telephonically or electronically, such electronic acceptance includes clicking “I agree” on a web page or on your mobile device;

1.2. "Agreement" means:
1.2.1. these Terms and Conditions;
1.2.2. the FTTH Terms and Conditions;
1.2.5. the Application Form completed by the Customer in order to contract for the Services and Products with Smerno; and
1.2.6. any addendum concluded by Smerno and the Customer.
1.3. “Application Form” means the documents, including in an electronic form, on which the Customer, amongst other things, applied for the provision of the Services and Products by Smerno;

1.4. “AUP” means Smerno’s Acceptable Usage Policy which shall form part of this Agreement and which policy the Customer agrees to adhere to;

1.5. “Business Days” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday officially recognised as such in the Republic of South Africa;

1.6. “CPA” means the Consumer Protection Act, 68 of 2008;

1.7. “Customer” means the person referred to as such on the Application Form and who utilises or has applied to utilise Smerno’s Services and Products and who is bound to the Agreement;

1.8. “Effective Date” means the date on which Smerno gives the Customer access to and/or enables the Customer to use the Services and Products;

1.9. “Equipment” means any device, equipment or hardware used to access the Services and Products or used in conjunction with the Services and Products and which shall include the router;

1.10. “FNO” means a fibre network operator who, amongst other things, builds and owns the physical infrastructure that is used to deliver fibre;

1.11. “FTTH” means fibre to the home;

1.12. “FTTH Terms and Conditions” means the terms and conditions which are applicable to the Customer’s use of the FTTH;

1.13. “FUP” means Smerno’s Fair Usage Policy which shall form part of this Agreement and which policy the Customer agrees to adhere to;

1.14. “Installation Fee” means the fee payable for installing the FTTH line and which fee will differentiate between the specific FNOs;

1.15. “Intellectual Property Rights” means patents, registered designs, trademarks (whether registered or otherwise), copyright, trade secret rights, database rights, design rights, service marks and other intellectual property rights;

1.16. “ISP” means Internet Service Provider;

1.17. “Juristic Person” means a company, close corporation, a body corporate, partnership, association or trust;

1.18. “Malicious Code” means anything that contains any computer software routine or code intended to:

1.18.1. allow unauthorised access or use of a computer system by any party;

1.18.2. disable, damage, erase, disrupt or impair the normal operation of a computer system;

1.18.3. and includes any back door, time bomb, trojan horse, worm, drop dead device or computer virus.

1.19. “Parties” means Smerno and the Customer collectively and “Party” shall mean either of them as the context may dictate;

1.20. “RICA” means the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act, 70 of 2002;

1.21. “Router Fee” means the fee payable for the FTTH router;

1.22. “Smerno” means Smerno Group (Pty) Ltd, a private company registered as such in South Africa;

1.23. “Smerno’s System” means equipment operated together as a system by Smerno to provide any Services and Products, including, without limitation, servers, peripherals, routers, switches, cables, software, databases, generators;

1.24. “Services and Products” means the provision of internet services, information technology services and any other products or services related thereto, provided by Smerno to the Customer and as specifically applied for by the Customer on the Application Form;

1.25. “Service Fee” means the amount payable by the Customer to Smerno for the Services and Products;

1.26. “Terms and Conditions” means these General Terms and Conditions as stipulated herein;

1.27. “Uncontrollable Event” means, inter alia, any fire, flood, earthquake, elements of nature or acts of God, riots, civil disorder or any other cause beyond the reasonable control of Smerno including the termination or suspension of a service or product provided by an FNO and / or a third party supplier, that may result in a delay or a failure to provide any Services and Products;

1.28. “VAT” means value-added tax charged in terms of the VAT Act;

1.29. “VAT Act” means the Value-Added Tax Act, 89 of 1991.