I just had an email from kogan saying Telstra is cutting Kogans 3g access as they are taking too much of the market. Another big company trying to kill the competition, like Coles and Woolys. There should be a law against this anti competition strategy. Oh, well,Back to Telecoma as you have no real choice if you want coverage.Sucks a bit, in my opinion. Bill
-- Edited by bill12 on Tuesday 20th of August 2013 09:50:10 AM
EllenajoeL said
01:43 AM Aug 20, 2013
Hi Bill
for info/considerartion
(BTW I don't necessarily support this mob or otherwise, I simply get your point about competition, Telstra etc)
Well at least Aldi looks safe as have negotiated direct with T.
Telstra Wholesale has been advised that ispONE has appointed Ferrier Hodgson as a voluntary administrator and the administrator has cancelled ispONEs contracts for the supply of Telstra Wholesale pre-paid 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 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 and Medion (who sells mobile service through the ALDIMobile brand), utilising the Telstra Wholesale pre-paid mobile product.
Telstra Wholesale Group Managing Director, Stuart Lee, confirmed that given the relationship with ispONE for pre-paid 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 pre-paid 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 ALDI Mobile.
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 industrys 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.
I still think it sucks that Telstra can close down a competitor just because they down like the competition.It reeks of big brother to me, and should be stopped. Telecoma has Always had bad customer relations ,in my experience , and you only use they because of the coverage. They are also the most expensive. Surely the ACCC should be looking into this one. Bill
Roving-Dutchy said
04:09 AM Aug 20, 2013
Why not get a dual sim phone then one sim can be from Aldi using Telstra on the $15 12 month pre paid expiry plan and then a sim from one of the many other companies that use Optus, such as Savvytel with their prepaid that never expires and very cheap per minute rates and if you are in an area where you don't have Optus coverage you can swap to Telstra till back in Optus range.
I have found that Optus coverage has improved greatly in the last couple of years and I can get coverage in most areas.
Oh by the way Bill 12 was that link to [competition It] a fluke or intentional.
Cheers
David
Cupie said
09:09 AM Aug 20, 2013
It's always a risk when you shop on price alone.
It seems to me that ispONE in trying to be the lowest cost retail supplier got its sums wrong. Read that the administrator quoted debts as $30m. (No mention of its assets though). With Telstra being its primary supplier then you would expect that a large chunk of that would be debt to Telstra (they claimed some $12m in the courts).
IMHO it is perhaps not a case of the big fish gobbling up the sprats but rather the big fish looking to get paid for the services that they provide.
We have seen lots of ISPs go to the wall over the years ... remember the Onetel fiasco?
It was my experience (albeit some 15years ago) that some ISPs were great at grabbing price sensitive customers but less good at managing their business.
-- Edited by Cupie on Tuesday 20th of August 2013 09:11:14 AM
bill12 said
11:25 AM Aug 20, 2013
Its no fluke that telecoma doesn't like competition. All the big companys are the same. Just look at Coles and Woolys. In fishing and business, Big fish eat small fish.Thats just the way it works. Bill
brickies said
03:18 PM Aug 20, 2013
The problem has I read things is not Telstra being a bully it is the fact the the people Kogan and Aldi were getting access from ispOne has gone broke , Maybe Kogan and Aldi could buy ispOne
bill12 said
05:00 PM Aug 20, 2013
Perhaps Kogan should deal straight to Telecoma. I don,t like thear chances, though. My dealings withTelstra have been Not the best, so perhaps I am biased.Having A monolithic big company control any industry is not good, in my opinion.Just look at the food and the petrol industry.A bit of completion in the marketplace is a GOOD thing,Even if some big companies don,t like it. Bill
brickies said
06:25 PM Aug 20, 2013
A friend has just called to say Aldi is still in the picture but Kogan has drop out and she is changing from Kogan to Aldi . Has a share holder of Telstra I enjoy great service from telstra and good return for my money a great company
dazren said
11:54 PM Aug 20, 2013
Yep I agree with Bill12, // Anyone who thinks Coles/Woolies, Petroleum Companies, AND TELSTRA, Have the Consumers Interests at Heart are '' A few Bob short of a Quid''
tiger5 said
04:15 PM Aug 21, 2013
All companies sml & large plus governments are no different to us . They want as much as they can get and we want it cheap as we can get .
It is strange that you don't hear all the share holders complaining. I wonder why that is?
brickies said
05:11 PM Aug 21, 2013
That because why invest in a company that does not give you a return , Company must make a profit if they don't they would close there doors and then were do we get services from which we all want , Maybe go back to smoke signals
rockylizard said
07:38 PM Aug 21, 2013
Gday...
Perhaps the Title of this thread should be -
ispONE goes belly-up with debts exceeding their assets. Telstra responds to minimise any further losses to their shareholders.
Cheers - John
jetj said
10:39 PM Aug 21, 2013
There is lots of information on line. Hard to know what is speculation and what's fact. I am forming my own opinions of this whole situation from my experience, caught up in the middle of it. What happened happened and it's all about how it is handled from here on including refunds that will determine the good guys and the not so good. I'm not so sure we can blame the big telco in this case. But it does suck that 120,000 people are faced with this problem.
I can't speak highly enough of Aldi and how they are trying to help those of us affected.
-- Edited by jetj on Wednesday 21st of August 2013 11:44:44 PM
-- Edited by jetj on Wednesday 21st of August 2013 11:54:11 PM
brickies said
11:04 PM Aug 21, 2013
John spot on
bill12 said
12:36 AM Aug 22, 2013
I just got another email from Kogan, saying exactly what I have been saying. They are being monstered by Telstra.If you want I will post the email online, but gist as I understand it is because they quickly had over 100000 customers, the big boys got greedy and shut them down.So much for fair competition.As I said-it sucks! Bill
brickies said
02:18 AM Aug 22, 2013
Bill that may be what Kogan is telling there customers but Kogan did not have a agreement with Telstra , It was ispOne who had the contract with Telstra , Kogan was a client of ispOne , Lets be fair if the deal is to good to true there is allways an bad outcome , Remember storm in Townsville
Hylda&Jon said
02:43 AM Aug 22, 2013
When we can pick up Optus properly without having to walk out into the middle of the street letting the whole neighbourhood hear the call then I may have a bit of respect for their so-called coverage (BTW we live in a moderately flat area in the suburbs of South Grafton & Grafton is suppose to be classified as a small city.
Roving-Dutchy wrote:
I have found that Optus coverage has improved greatly in the last couple of years and I can get coverage in most areas.
Cupie said
05:06 AM Aug 22, 2013
bill12 wrote:
I just got another email from Kogan, saying exactly what I have been saying. They are being monstered by Telstra.If you want I will post the email online, but gist as I understand it is because they quickly had over 100000 customers, the big boys got greedy and shut them down.So much for fair competition.As I said-it sucks! Bill
Doesn't come as a surprise that they would say that.
Be interesting to see how Aldi or their agent deals with 'the monster'.
I would suspect that a significant percentage of these customers could have been from other networks like say Vodafone with their low cost low performance/coverage network. They may see the opportunity to get onto the quality Telstra (3G) network at a low price.
Perhaps none of us (including me) have sufficient data to be sure of the actual situation.
For my part I rely on extensive first hand experience working closely with resellers, but am perhaps just a little bit biased.
I have now signed up for several of the Business Spectator news letters.
I love keeping up with this sort of stuff (the Communications/Technology bits in particular) possibly as a dose of nostalgia.
Takes me back to my working days I suppose. I used to get a report every morning that summarised every article on Communications in the previous day's media ... A 'cutting service' I think they called it that had been commissioned for Telstra.
rockylizard said
02:23 AM Aug 23, 2013
Gday...
It certainly seems the Business Spectator article is painting a very different picture than Kogan (and perhaps ispONE) is painting.
These plans always remind me of the well-worn, but very true, statement ... there is no such thing as a free (or very cheap) meal.
Someone has to pay, and if they don't ... ya lose ya tucker.
Cheers - John
Willow said
04:31 AM Aug 23, 2013
So what now Bill? I'm in the same boat as you. We don't have Aldi anywhere near us and they don't sell on line. Telstra is too expensive and like you I don't want to feed the monster. I'm thinking of changing to Boost. At 40 bucks a month it's a bit dearer with a little less data.Have you found anything better?
jetj said
05:37 AM Aug 23, 2013
I've been following whirlpool pretty closely and most seem to be going for Boost or Aldi. Some are going to Woolworths as well (Optus) with the idea of porting again to Aldi later.
Seems lots of problems porting numbers atm. Some are stuck after the second email without any service, trying to port their number unsuccessfully.
If there's a bargain to be had anywhere those fellas will usually find it.
Good luck Willow, Bill and anyone else caught up in this.
brickies said
04:28 PM Aug 23, 2013
We have a Telstra mobile and an Optus mobile / TPG , We have found we can get coverage with optus when no signal with Telstra and also the other way round so have found usefull to have both . Have bee with TPG for 4 years great price Sim only no contract
jetj said
05:57 PM Aug 23, 2013
I have Amaysim on Optus as well, prefer Telstra network though. Currently have 3 phones with different providers with 3 numbers excessive me thinks. I had 2 prior to this mess with Kogan Mobile.
Willow Aldi connections can be done online and they are very contactable over the phone. Someone on Whirlpool asked about buying sims online and the answer they received was should be able to from Monday.
Cupie said
12:59 AM Aug 24, 2013
Hi .. Looks like someone's making a grab for those disaffected mobile users.
Got this from the excellent Business Spectator newsletter ... thanks jetj
Received an email with the offer from Yatango but it's on the Optus network. Coverage is poor around here on Optus. I ordered a SIM from Boost today ($2) but they are out of stock.Thanks for the info about Aldi going on line jetj. I have tried to ring them but can't get past the robots. I'll try again next week.
I just had an email from kogan saying Telstra is cutting Kogans 3g access as they are taking too much of the market. Another big company trying to kill the competition, like Coles and Woolys. There should be a law against this anti competition strategy. Oh, well,Back to Telecoma as you have no real choice if you want coverage.Sucks a bit, in my opinion. Bill
-- Edited by bill12 on Tuesday 20th of August 2013 09:50:10 AM
Hi Bill
for info/considerartion
(BTW I don't necessarily support this mob or otherwise, I simply get your point about competition, Telstra etc)
https://www.aldimobile.com.au/
Telstra Wholesale has been advised that ispONE has appointed Ferrier Hodgson as a voluntary administrator and the administrator has cancelled ispONEs contracts for the supply of Telstra Wholesale pre-paid 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 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 and Medion (who sells mobile service through the ALDIMobile brand), utilising the Telstra Wholesale pre-paid mobile product.
Telstra Wholesale Group Managing Director, Stuart Lee, confirmed that given the relationship with ispONE for pre-paid 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 pre-paid 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 ALDI Mobile.
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 industrys 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.
Gday...
Some reading for anyone affected by this -
http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/mobility/61191-kogan-mobile-goes-nogan-nobile-optus-responds
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/mobile-customers-adrift-after-wholesaler-goes-into-administration-20130819-2s6xy.html
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/524051/business_usual_aldi_mobile_despite_ispone_collapse/
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/kogan-muscled-out-by-telco-heavies/story-fn3dxiwe-1226700112928
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-19/kogan-mobile-users-shut-off-after-collapse-of-ispone/4897652
Cheers - John
I have found that Optus coverage has improved greatly in the last couple of years and I can get coverage in most areas.
Oh by the way Bill 12 was that link to [competition It] a fluke or intentional.
Cheers
David
It's always a risk when you shop on price alone.
It seems to me that ispONE in trying to be the lowest cost retail supplier got its sums wrong. Read that the administrator quoted debts as $30m. (No mention of its assets though). With Telstra being its primary supplier then you would expect that a large chunk of that would be debt to Telstra (they claimed some $12m in the courts).
IMHO it is perhaps not a case of the big fish gobbling up the sprats but rather the big fish looking to get paid for the services that they provide.
We have seen lots of ISPs go to the wall over the years ... remember the Onetel fiasco?
It was my experience (albeit some 15years ago) that some ISPs were great at grabbing price sensitive customers but less good at managing their business.
-- Edited by Cupie on Tuesday 20th of August 2013 09:11:14 AM
Yep I agree with Bill12, // Anyone who thinks Coles/Woolies, Petroleum Companies, AND TELSTRA, Have the Consumers Interests at Heart are '' A few Bob short of a Quid''
All companies sml & large plus governments are no different to us . They want as much as they can get and we want it cheap as we can get .
It is strange that you don't hear all the share holders complaining. I wonder why that is?
Gday...
Perhaps the Title of this thread should be -
ispONE goes belly-up with debts exceeding their assets. Telstra responds to minimise any further losses to their shareholders.
Cheers - John
There is lots of information on line. Hard to know what is speculation and what's fact. I am forming my own opinions of this whole situation from my experience, caught up in the middle of it. What happened happened and it's all about how it is handled from here on including refunds that will determine the good guys and the not so good. I'm not so sure we can blame the big telco in this case. But it does suck that 120,000 people are faced with this problem.
I can't speak highly enough of Aldi and how they are trying to help those of us affected.
-- Edited by jetj on Wednesday 21st of August 2013 11:44:44 PM
-- Edited by jetj on Wednesday 21st of August 2013 11:54:11 PM
Doesn't come as a surprise that they would say that.
Be interesting to see how Aldi or their agent deals with 'the monster'.
I would suspect that a significant percentage of these customers could have been from other networks like say Vodafone with their low cost low performance/coverage network. They may see the opportunity to get onto the quality Telstra (3G) network at a low price.
Perhaps none of us (including me) have sufficient data to be sure of the actual situation.
For my part I rely on extensive first hand experience working closely with resellers, but am perhaps just a little bit biased.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/8/21/technology/charting-collapse-kogan-mobile-and-ispone
Some info here.
Thanks for that.
I have now signed up for several of the Business Spectator news letters.
I love keeping up with this sort of stuff (the Communications/Technology bits in particular) possibly as a dose of nostalgia.
Takes me back to my working days I suppose. I used to get a report every morning that summarised every article on Communications in the previous day's media ... A 'cutting service' I think they called it that had been commissioned for Telstra.
Gday...
It certainly seems the Business Spectator article is painting a very different picture than Kogan (and perhaps ispONE) is painting.
These plans always remind me of the well-worn, but very true, statement ... there is no such thing as a free (or very cheap) meal.
Someone has to pay, and if they don't ... ya lose ya tucker.
Cheers - John
So what now Bill? I'm in the same boat as you. We don't have Aldi anywhere near us and they don't sell on line. Telstra is too expensive and like you I don't want to feed the monster. I'm thinking of changing to Boost. At 40 bucks a month it's a bit dearer with a little less data.Have you found anything better?
I've been following whirlpool pretty closely and most seem to be going for Boost or Aldi. Some are going to Woolworths as well (Optus) with the idea of porting again to Aldi later.
Seems lots of problems porting numbers atm. Some are stuck after the second email without any service, trying to port their number unsuccessfully.
If there's a bargain to be had anywhere those fellas will usually find it.
Good luck Willow, Bill and anyone else caught up in this.
I have Amaysim on Optus as well, prefer Telstra network though. Currently have 3 phones with different providers with 3 numbers excessive me thinks. I had 2 prior to this mess with Kogan Mobile.
Willow Aldi connections can be done online and they are very contactable over the phone. Someone on Whirlpool asked about buying sims online and the answer they received was should be able to from Monday.
Hi .. Looks like someone's making a grab for those disaffected mobile users.
Got this from the excellent Business Spectator newsletter ... thanks jetj
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/8/23/technology/kogan-mobile-customers-handed-lifeline?utm_source=exact&utm_medium=email&utm_content=395631&utm_campaign=ts_daily&modapt=
Received an email with the offer from Yatango but it's on the Optus network. Coverage is poor around here on Optus. I ordered a SIM from Boost today ($2) but they are out of stock.Thanks for the info about Aldi going on line jetj. I have tried to ring them but can't get past the robots. I'll try again next week.