Telstra: statement from Wholesale director Stuart Lee.
“Telstra Wholesale has been advised that ispONE has appointed Ferrier Hodgson as a voluntary administrator and the administrator has cancelled ispONE’s contracts for the supply of Telstra Wholesale prepaid mobile products.”
ispONE is the provider of mobile phone connections for Kogan and ALDIMobile.
ALDIMobile users are currently safe as Telstra has entered into a temporary direct agreement to continue to provide services.
Kogan Mobile however are NOT safe, and Kogan users won’t be able to top up their balance on their account once it runs out. The phone number will then be deactivated.
Telstra will begin to transfer Kogan users to Telstra accounts, but for who choose to transfer to another immediately there are many other options.
Kogan Notice:
Kogan Mobile customers who have remaining credit at the time their services are terminated by Telstra will have their entire remaining balance refunded to them by Kogan Mobile. The refund amount shall be calculated as the pro-rata amount remaining on the date of deactivation of service.
Telstra Official Statement:
“Telstra Wholesale has been advised that ispONE has appointed Ferrier Hodgson as a voluntary administrator and the administrator has cancelled ispONE’s contracts for the supply of Telstra Wholesale prepaid mobile products.
Telstra Wholesale has entered into an interim agreement with Medion Australia for the supply of wholesale prepaid mobile services. Medion is the supplier to ALDIMobile.
ispONE had been a customer of Telstra Wholesale for mobile products as well as a broadband and a relatively small number of fixed line voice products. ispONE onsold these products and services to retailers and in some instances to the public. For example, ispONE supplied two companies, the online retailer Kogan and Medion (who sells mobile service through the ALDIMobile brand), using the Telstra Wholesale prepaid mobile product.
Telstra Wholesale Group Managing Director, Stuart Lee, confirmed that given the relationship with ispONE for prepaid mobile services had ended, Telstra would not be accepting any requests for new Kogan Mobile services from ispONE, although people with existing services would have the opportunity to switch to other providers.
“For mobiles, we will not be accepting new activations, number port-ins or processing credit recharges from ispONE on behalf of Kogan Mobile. An interim service will be available for a fixed period of time for people who have active prepaid mobile services from Kogan Mobile so they have time to choose their next steps,” said Mr Lee.
“Because Medion and Telstra Wholesale have been able to negotiate a direct supply agreement there will be no changes to the services for ALDIMobile.
People who have services through ispONE and its retail partners, such as Kogan Mobile, are not customers of Telstra.
“We do not have their account information and we cannot provide them any customer service support. For any questions about their service, people should contact their retail service provider,” said Mr Lee.
There are limits to the industry’s capacity to implement mobile number porting requests and requests to churn fixed line voice and broadband services. If large numbers of people try to switch providers at once there may be some delays across the industry.
“People who want to change providers should approach their service provider of choice who can request the number port, but we would ask for patience as there are limits on how many ports the industry can undertake in addition to normal sales and activation activity. To provide for a smooth transition we are providing interim voice services across the impacted mobile and fixed line services.”