Earlier today we brought you the news about ispOne appointing administrators and cancelling their contract to resell Telstra Wholesale mobile services.
ALDIMobile customers may have dodged the bullet, with news breaking that Medion Australia has reached a deal directly with Telstra to see the continuation of services for ALDIMobile customers, the news for Kogan Mobile customers is not quite so good.
In fact, it’s decidedly worse.
Telstra has posted a statement which, amongst other things, says:
- Kogan Mobile has not reached a deal with Telstra, and will no longer be able to provide mobile services.
- Kogan customers will no longer be able to recharge their services or sign up for new services.
- Kogan customers will be transitioned — within the next 30 days — to an interim 7 day plan to be provided by Telstra.
- This interim service will allow 20 SMS per day, and 20 minutes of calls. After the interim plan expires, Kogan customers will no longer be able to make any calls or send any SMS from their service.
- This interim plan will be progressively applied to Kogan customers from today, and once the plan is applied, no data can be used. Kogan customers have been advised to port out their services.
- Customers have been warned that the likely large number of Kogan customers porting out to another service provider will impact the responsiveness of the Mobile Number Portability system, and porting for any customers may be delayed over the next month.
The full statement, taken from Telstra Wholesale’s website, is below:
ispONE’s voluntary administrator has cancelled supply of Telstra Wholesale Pre-Paid Mobile
ispONE has been a customer of Telstra Wholesale for mobile products, as well as broadband and a relatively small number of fixed line voice products. ispONE on-sold these products and services to retailers and in some instances to the public. For example, ispONE supplied two companies, the online retailer Kogan Mobile and Medion (who sells mobile services through the ALDImobile brand), utilising the Telstra Wholesale Pre-Paid Mobile product.
Telstra Wholesale has been advised that ispONE has appointed Ferrier Hodgson as a voluntary administrator and the administrator has cancelled the contract for the supply of Telstra Wholesale Pre-Paid Mobile products. Post-Paid Mobile, fixed and broadband (other than Pre-Paid Mobile broadband) services have not been impacted by the appointment of the administrator.
Telstra Wholesale has entered into an interim agreement with Medion Australia for the supply of wholesale Pre-Paid Mobile services. Medion is the supplier to ALDImobile.
How are Pre-Paid Mobile services affected?
Because Medion has entered into a direct supply agreement with Telstra Wholesale, Telstra is able to continue to supply Medion to support their ALDImobile customers.Given the Pre-Paid Mobile relationship with ispONE has ended, and in the absence of any direct contractual relationship with Kogan Mobile, Telstra 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 pre-paid mobile services from Kogan Mobile, so that they have time to choose their next steps. The interim service will be provided at Telstra’s cost.
We will progressively deactivate Kogan Mobile services according to the transition plan described below. Through this managed process, we aim to ensure that everyone can transfer their mobile phone number to another provider if they wish to do so.
Transition plan to help those with Kogan Mobile services
To minimise any inconvenience, Telstra Wholesale will provide limited interim services. If you have an active pre-paid service with Kogan Mobile, Telstra Wholesale will enable a limited service to give you time to choose your preferred retailer and, if necessary, move your number to that retailer.What service is available?
Telstra Wholesale will send an SMS to users of Kogan Mobile services as follows:
“An important message from Telstra Wholesale about your mobile service. Kogan Mobile services are no longer supported. You can’t recharge but your number remains active for voice calls & SMS. Find out at http://goo.gl/9qYEEOabout how you can keep your number & transfer your mobile service to another provider. Contact Kogan Mobile for support.”From today, you cannot recharge. Regardless of your plan’s expiry date, existing voice, SMS and data balances will be available for up to a maximum of 30 days from 19 August 2013. If your current plan adds a data allowance each month, this allowance will no longer be added.
Over the next 30 days, Telstra will progressively move all active Kogan Mobile services to a limited 7 Day Plan. There are limits to the whole industry’s capacity to implement mobile number porting requests. If large numbers of people try to port out at once there may be some delays.
The time you have left to consume any existing voice, SMS and data balances will depend on when you are moved to the 7 Day Plan. This could be any time during the next 30 days. We will prioritise those with no or low credit balances or time left on their plan, consistent with our aim to keep the mobile number porting process working efficiently.
What is the limited 7 Day Plan?
During the 7 Day Plan the service will be limited to 20 voice call minutes and 20 SMS messages to Australian numbers, while data services, international calls and MMS will be excluded. Voice call durations will be rounded up to the next whole minute and the 20 minutes allowance includes calls forwarded to voicemail.Unplayed voicemail messages are held for 10 days. Played voicemail messages are held for 7 days. Played and stored messages are held for 10 days. Voicemails can be played until their expiry. Voicemail retrieval will not use up your 20 voice call minutes during the 7 Day Plan. Current voicemails cannot be retrieved after you transfer your mobile phone number to another service provider.
When will the 7 Day Plan start for me and how will I be notified?
Over the next 30 days, Telstra Wholesale will progressively send out another SMS message, confirming that start of your 7 Day Plan.We will send this SMS message in batches every day over the next 30 days and we will prioritise those with little or no remaining credit balance.
What happens after the 7 Day Plan?
After the 7 Day Plan, and for a period of 6 months, the service will no longer be able to make calls, although it will still receive calls and you’ll be able to make emergency 000 calls. If the service has not ported out after the 6 month period, the service will be cancelled and the number placed in quarantine.If you lose outbound service before your 7 Day Plan
You may lose your outbound voice and SMS service if your credit, plan or monthly recharge expires before your 7 Day Plan begins. Data top up will also no longer be available.You will not be able to recharge, so if you lose your outbound service, we advise you to transfer your service to another provider immediately.
Transferring to another mobile provider
If you are affected by this situation you may want to move to another mobile service provider. You can keep your existing mobile number when you change to a new service provider. This is known as mobile number porting.Mobile service providers will act on porting requests from anyone wishing to transfer their mobile number to the supplier of their choice. There are limits on how many ports the industry can process in addition to normal sales and activation activity, so please be patient. Telstra has briefed the industry group that ensures the efficient operation of Mobile Number Porting to prepare for increased volumes of transfers as a result of this event.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) publishes a factsheet on mobile number portability here.
Contact your service provider for support
Please contact Kogan Mobile for customer service support and for any other matters.Customers of Kogan Mobile are not customers of Telstra. If you are a customer of Kogan Mobile, we do not have access to your personal information and we cannot provide you with customer service support. The company that sold you your service is your retailer and your best point of contact.
Are you a Kogan mobile customer? How are you feeling about all this? Do you think Kogan will strike a deal to see your services continue, or are you feeling left out in the cold?
Kogan Press Release:
http://www.kogan.com/au/km/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130819%20AU%20IMPORTANT%20update%20about%20your%20Kogan%20Mobile%20Service&utm_content=20130819%20AU%20IMPORTANT%20update%20about%20your%20Kogan%20Mobile%20Service+CID_711a499b504e80c80ae16b03746103ce&utm_source=MailList&utm_term=here
And there.
My daughter got The Telstra SMS today. She’s on voice and SMS only now.
You don’t have a month folks. It’s happening pretty much immediately.
So what SIMs are everyone going off to buy today?
I think I have 3 Boost SIMs in my near future.
I suspect Kogan ruffled too many feathers in the industry and Telstra were looking for any way they could to shut them down. Too many customers leaving Telstra and the other telcos for Kogan/Aldi where they could get almost the same service for far less cost. Not to mention plenty of upset Telstra customers on plans who could now see just chow much they were getting ripped off! With ISPOne going into administration, Telstra saw a way to kill off Kogan without any potential costs or blame coming back to them. I suspect Aldi is on borrowed time until Telstra… Read more »
I suspect Kogan ruffled too many feathers in the industry and Telstra were looking for any way they could to shut them down. Too many customers leaving Telstra and the other telcos for Kogan/Aldi where they could get almost the same service for far less cost. Not to mention plenty of upset Telstra customers on plans who could now see just chow much they were getting ripped off! With ISPOne going into administration, Telstra saw a way to kill off Kogan without any potential costs or blame coming back to them. I suspect Aldi is on borrowed time until Telstra… Read more »
Yeah. They offered too good a deal.
If you are going with Boost, they have a $20 offer on the web which they will surely kill quick. first month $20 so it recovers some lost $$ and you get your SIM hopefully quickly.
And no nano sim poor iPhone users.
One word. Starting with F.
I think its time for Ausdroid to either update the old article of best prepaid package or they should review it once again to compare and recommend from the current available products.
A good idea, thanks Usman.
I think I made a wise move to switch to ALDI Mobile when I was looking for better prepaid mobile deal.
It looks like Aldi Mobile may be get disconnected after this news. 🙁
мy coυѕιɴ ιѕ мαĸιɴɢ $51/нoυr oɴlιɴe. υɴeмployed ғor α coυple oғ yeαrѕ αɴd prevιoυѕ yeαr ѕнe ɢoт α $1З619cнecĸ wιтн oɴlιɴe joв ғor α coυple oғ dαyѕ. ѕee мore αт… ViewMore——————————————.qr.net/kAgk
What has not been answered is Kogan has a contract to provide us with
a service for a set period of time, those that just pre-paid for 12
months expect 12 months. Our contract is with Kogan Mobile, not telstra
not ISP One.
It could go either way. The problem was ispOne not paying/disputing their bills so that really shouldn’t affect the new deal with Medion, even though it’s only an interim deal at this stage.
I’ve been with Kogan Mobile almost since the start, it’s been a good service but I’ve started looking around at new options recently so I figured I’d just see where this whole ispONE fiasco ends up. I think I’ll go to Boost before I get put on the 7 day interim package and before the mass exodus of number changes away from Kogan. I can’t go back to a non-Telstra backed carrier.
just launched kogan app on android – the “data remaining” row doesn’t show up
planning to switch to vodafone – anyone knows on how the vodafone voice and data quality are in lidcombe, nsw area?
After being very happy with my Kogan service I bought the year plan for both my private and business lines- I’m going to go to amaysim now but I don’t want to loose the $ if kogan doesn’t pay us for the unused months…
Kogan was never meant to be used for business…. clear breach of the agreement there!
In the Financial Review article about this, a very vague Kogan statement was, “A spokesman for Kogan Mobile said it would refund customers for unused credit on pre-paid plans.”
That’s good news at least.
http://www.afr.com/p/technology/ispone_calls_in_administrators_cancels_nik31BmXdIY2Dmc3vhfgMK
Damn, that is rather serious stuff. Correct me if I’m wrong, but MVNO on Telstra are rather new (Boost excluded) TPG, Internode, Virgin etc being on Optus. Interesting to see ispONE completely fold like that. You’d think they had a good business plan, quality Telstra network for less money. I wonder if Telstra will expand beyond Boost and Aldi.
I’d suggest avoiding anything that touches telstra. Kogan is dead, Aldi is on borrowed time (the agreement is temporary) and who knows if Boost are next in the firing line? Couple that with the MVNOs not being able to access the same peer level of network connectivity with telstra and you have a situation where you never know when telstra might pull the plug or change the deal. As it goes today, use the Optus network whilst you are in town, and have a special telstra phone/number if you venture into the wilds where they may be the only game.… Read more »
Boost is 100% owned by Telstra so I doubt they are in the firing line. Aldi/Medion may or may not make a permanent agreement.
Are they?
Boost used to be the Pre-Paid section in Optus stores.
And of course it is a standalone company in other countries.
I don’t know what Boost’s relationship with Telstra is.
Hmm, I had read that Telstra’s relationship with Boost was an ‘acquisition’ but after further research Telstra describe it as a ‘retail alliance’ so it is a bit murky. What is clear though is that they are not a reseller of Telstra’s wholesale network like ispOne, they have a relationship with the retail arm and resell Telstra’s full NextG service. So I still think that this will not affect them at all.
I am sure that Kogan could have reached an agreement with another Telco if they had wanted to, just like Aldi did. My conspiracy theory is that Kogan decided that they weren’t making enough money from Kogan Mobile, and decided that now would be a good time to cut their losses.
A lot of people are out of pocket, especially those that still have months to go on their 12 month contracts. I wonder if customer direct debit billing will be cancelled today by Kogan?
Can I smell a class action?
Wow what a colossal stuff-up. I was very close to going with Kogan a few months ago after my Optus contract expired, but ended up going with TPG instead (I was won over by price even though being on the Telstra network was seriously tempting).
I guess I made the right choice in the end.
What has not been answered is Kogan has a contract to provide us with a service for a set period of time, those that just pre-paid for 12 months expect 12 months. Our contract is with Kogan Mobile, not telstra not ISP One.
Kogan are too quite, as such I say another reason to NEVER EVER BUY KOGAN.
It’ll be interesting to see how Kogan deal with this from a customer relations point of view. Many customers who’ve paid them for a service, which now can’t be provided. A refund is one thing, but it’s not really a good move. I’m hoping they’ll find a way to resurrect themselves, but it doesn’t seem likely.
My conspiracy theory is that Harvey’s just did a deal with Telstra to take down kogan. Think about it…. OK its loose I no 🙂