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Short, and long-term, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out…
http://www.zdnet.com/au/ispone-sues-telstra-to-stop-mobile-s…
19/8: Gizmodo:ispONE Cancels Telstra Contract, Calls In Administrators
ispONE in adminstration, Kogan Mobile to shut down, Aldi Mobile OK with interim agreement
[Deactivated] on 12/08/2013 - 17:31
Last edited 19/08/2013 - 18:16 by 1 other user
Last edited 19/08/2013 - 18:16 by 1 other user
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Inside word is that the Medion (Aldi) and Telstra arrangement is close to becoming permanent. Whether this will see Aldi continue to offer a cheaper price than Boost for the reduced network access and speed or increase prices seeking to match stats remains to be seen. Considering the size of the Aldi group, it was always going to be the case that Telstra would work with them.
Kogan, in all fairness, did a great job negotiating at the start. They convinced ispONE to connect customers and charge a per-user rate. They also got a cut of the recharge, reducing ispONE's share further. The issue was Telstra charge based on usage and ispONE grossly underestimated how many people would snap up a sim and use it to it's max (hence the daily cap on data.) If only they had come here and seen how quickly we snap up a free lump of plastic or $1 shiny things!
Top concise summary phluffed - you capture the whole show quite well.
… and you put the bracket after the full stop, as you're meant to (i'm old school, and recalcitrant).
I may be even more old-school than you, albeit oddly more flexible and interpretive of language and grammar than I once was.
As regards parentheses, and punctuation (and I'm not going to argue nuance regarding your use of the word 'brackets'), I personally would regard the example you point to as a continuation of a sentence, rather than a sentence in and of itself. I would have placed the full-stop after the parentheses. But that's just me. (There you go - beginning a sentence with a conjunction. I did mention that I was flexible!)
As will you need to be - going forward - in applying sunscreen to all the areas you need to (in order,of course, to avoid further freakin' freckling).
Oh, God.
The imagery…It's Friday.
I need a drink.Yeah, a conjunction, wodeva that is.
Spelling stuff i can handle - however grammar stuff was never one of my strong points.
Parentheses - that 'th' freaks me out a bit too.
$75-$95/month. Wow. Harder ball than i expected if true.
Gizmodo has a new article piecing together "inside information".
The plan that saw Kogan able to offer unlimited service and 6GB of data to customers for $29 per month was allegedly offered back to Kogan by Telstra Wholesale at a cost of between $75 and $95 per month. That would mean the pricing Kogan would have had to offer to customers to make the business remotely profitable would have been well in excess of $100 per month, which customers just wouldn’t accept, and neither would Kogan Mobile.
…..
So where does Aldi Mobile fit into the scenario? ispONE sold to both Kogan Mobile and Aldi Mobile for cheap MVNO services. Kogan Mobile has been forced to see its 120,000 customers out the door, while Aldi Mobile stays in business thanks to an “interim agreement” with Telstra, sans middle-man.
Sources have told Gizmodo that Aldi Mobile is able to continuing service thanks to an eleventh-hour deal struck with Medion Australia under what we understand to be the same or similar terms to what was offered to Kogan Mobile: an unlimited plan with similar inclusions would cost between $75 and $95 per month as a wholesaler. Surely that means that Aldi Mobile will now be running at a loss, right? It all comes down to the cost of a relationship.
Medion has a multi-million dollar agreement for the supply of products to Aldi stores around the world, and reportedly wants to preserve the relationship with the profitable Australian arm. As a result, Medion — the same company that Telstra made the interim agreement with for the continued supply of 3G to Aldi Mobile — is happy to wear the cost of the extra services for the sake of the ongoing Aldi relationship.
It's still unknown what Telstra was charging ispOne.
Seeing an earlier comment I made, and another I posted in a Gizmodo article yesterday, vindicated by those insiders, is all well and nice - but I had no idea it was this horrendous. $75 to $95. Scandalous.
For the sake of us all - ultimately - I hope that Kogan doesn't leave things to rest. Hopefully - ultimately - there'll also be some genuinely useful role for the ACCC in this.
That would be nice. For a change.
Haven't received the second text from Telstra but my 3G doesn't work already… What the hell! Now just waiting for the text so I can port to yatango for the 30 days to wait and see what happens next. Will be going to Aldi once 30 days is over, fingers crossed they reached a permanent agreement with Telstra within the 30 days free trial.
"The plan that saw Kogan able to offer unlimited service and 6GB of data to customers for $29 per month was allegedly offered back to Kogan by Telstra Wholesale at a cost of between $75 and $95 per month. That would mean the pricing Kogan would have had to offer to customers to make the business remotely profitable would have been well in excess of $100 per month, which customers just wouldn’t accept, and neither would Kogan Mobile."
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/08/exclusive-inside-the-take-…
Does not make sense, since Aldi is still offering a product very close to what Kogan was, unless:
Telstra is treating Kogan in an unfair and discriminatory way, or
Telstra is selling to Aldi at a huge loss, or
Aldi is selling to the public at a huge loss, or
All of the above.
The one thing that is not happening is Telstra running at a loss. They may not be charging the full 'between $75 and $95 per month' but that is NOT what they need to charge to make money.
What very few here seem to realise is that Telstra do want to open up their 3G network to third part suppliers. They're actively rolling out their 4G (LTE) network which is already available in the major cities and over the next few years will become Oz-wide. So what do they do with their 850mhz 3G network, dismantle it or use it to earn them even more revenue? Of course it's the latter. However, the way ispONE their wholesale distributor went about selling this increasingly spare capacity was not how Telstra had intended it to happen. For example Telstra 4G is not rolled out in provincial towns and their 3G towers were getting pinched by Kogan cheapy users, they wanted to nip this in the bud, by ispONE not being able to pay their bills they were presented the perfect opportunity to do this.
So why aren't the worried about Aldi cheapy users?
Because as posted above Aldi's mobile supplier (Medion Mobile) is happy to wear the cost.
Is Boost also happy to wear the cost? Their retail price is also far lower than the wholesale price Telstra allegedly offered Kogan.
The arrangement with/ownership of, Boost, remains very murky.
Philart, in keeping with a number of the previous comments I have made, I believe that Telstra actually regret the decision to wholesale the non-NextG part of their 3G network, because - by way of the Kogan and Aldi deals - it has created an expectation in consumers that they can get a decent amount of data, in an unlimited call and text plan, for a reasonable price.
This is NOT in keeping with Telstra's business model.
If it is true that Aldi was offered the same $75 to $95 deal that Kogan was offered - or maybe slightly lower than the 75, given the 1gig reduced, and the interim nature of the deal - it is still unsustainable long-term.
Aldi head-office may be willing to subsidize things for now - but that won't last.Either Telstra has a decency mind-shift (unlikely), the terms get a little more tenable for Aldi/Medion - but in the context of a reduced plan (4 or maybe 3GB data maybe but with inbuilt OS call allowances to differentiate - beyond NextG access - from Boost) - or Aldi go with another telco. Or get out completely.
If only for public relations at this point, Aldi would no doubt like to hang on to current mobile customers, even if it does mean changed terms for new sign-ups.
Even in the context of a reduced data model ongoing , most current customers would probably stay. That may be enough for Aldi.
Saving a few bucks, still being on the Telstra network and the hassle of changing, may be 'enough' for most customers.All still up in the air, of course. IspONE failings notwithstanding - nasty/lousy times - ultimately courtesy of Telstra.
I can see aldi's prices going up within a month.
Aldi replaces Savvytel.
(12c/min)- Probably about it.From what I've read, it does sound a little tentative, but Savvytel appear to be back in the game. People are able to recharge their accounts again - for the time being anyway.
WHAT! Has Savvytel made any official announcement about wtf is going on? It's my understanding that they are in liquidation.
If true the low end segment may find a home in new Savvytel / Aldi mk2 ; mid tier might find something in Boost; whilst high end may flow on to Yatango / TPG, or even WOW — all whose values might have rocketed overnight, apparently.
No experienced user will submit to $75/mo $900/yr for a voice apps, that's simply delusion
I also won't be surprised if the 16hrs voice/20G byte data i procured this week by X4 WOW Mob w/ half a year, vouchers, supply a greater ROI faster access than the crimped down G network they'd have aldi sell @a mere 100 a month 'commercial'.
Shaybisc, I just had a look at the Savvytel website. The announcement can be seen there that they're accepting recharges for existing customers again. I tried both the pre and postpaid sign-up pages and they do load. Whether they will let you proceed beyond a certain point is another matter.
State of flux. I assume Savvytel has at least done a deal with Optus (like Redbull did with Vodafone)(even for the 365) to honour existing recharges. in the event that they themselves drop off the perch.
Wouldn't it have been nice if had Telstra done that for Kogan customers?
Thought I'd post this pro-tip for people porting to ALDI, who seem to have a very short 'divert to voicemail' time. Also works for other providors. Its a bit old-skool.
To change the amount of ring time before diverting to mobile, on your handset, dial;
** 61*61141 ** 25#
that will divert your calls to voicemail (141) after 25 seconds.
**61 = divert
* 61141 * = destination (in this case voicemail including 61 Auscode, but could be any number eg: 61412345678 to divert to 0412 345 678
*25# = ring time, can be set as 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 seconds.
in the same manner;
**62 * 141# will divert to voicemail on unreachable
**21 * 141# will divert all calls to voicemail
**67 * 141# will divert to voicemail on busy
**61 * 141# will divert to voicemail on no answer
hash 21 hash will cancel all immediate diversions.Thanks
Just a thought:
Everyone sees ispONE as the bad guy. But consider that they perhaps tried (too) hard to bring Aussies affordable mobile deals on a stable & quality network for the first time.
It seems to me they didn't handle the problems well, but still 250,000 people probably abused the cheap deals to the max sending them broke.
I may be way off with this theory. Any thoughts?
'abused' the deals by using an unlimited plan as much as they liked? And there wasn't abuse when they were cut off without Kogan's knowledge?
Ispone simply failed to do their accounting and research properly and kogan chose to turn a blind eye towards this incompetence.
250,000 people probably abused the cheap deals to the max sending them broke
Unfortunately you are not going to get unbiased opinion on OzBargain :)
I think to some degree all ISP oversells. No one provides service at 1:1 contention, and ispONE knows very well themselves what their cost are, and how much they should sell to make a profit. Lowering the price or selling more than you have might be great ways to expand your market share, but it does attract one kind of buyers, who might actually take up your offer and use it as advertised. Let's just call them "ozbargainers" :)
Bruce, PresidentClinton & scotty.
Thanks for replies.
Actually my point wasn't about wrongly using an offer to its limits (I do that often). Just that ispone may have tried to do a (generously) good deal, and misjudged costs.
As stated above it was "Just a thought".
Cheers.
Kogan hasn't actually posted about how to get a refund. Has anyone got a refund from Kogan yet?
Even allowing for the amount of work involved in processing refunds, the motivation to delay refunds for as long as they think they can get away with it, is high. Money in the bank, earning interest.
The fact that Kogan sent - in red type - an email to people urging them not to port their number until the conclusion of the end-stage 7-day (data-free) Telstra access, is disturbing. Claiming that this was a way for people to 'maximise' their pro-rata refund, smells like a nasty lie.
If Kogan do try to squib people on a week's refund courtesy of them remaining to the end of the useless, data-free, Telstra 7-day plan, Kogan will be crossing a very fine line with already very unhappy customers.
How do we actually go about getting the refund from Kogan?
From the Kogan Mobile Website -
2 September 2013: Kogan Mobile Refunds
If you have transferred your Kogan Mobile service to another provider prior to the end of your pre-paid access period, you may be eligible for a pro-rata refund. You do not need to do anything to receive your refund. Your refund will be automatically processed within 21 days of your Kogan Mobile service deactivation date.
Please note: There is no need to contact the Kogan Mobile team regarding your refund as we are already working hard on processing all refunds as quickly as possible. Your refund will be returned to either your PayPal account, or the credit card used to pay for your Kogan Mobile Access plan.
I was kicked off the network on to the useless Telstra 7 Day plan on the 20th of August (from memory may have been a day before or after) and I haven't heard a thing since.
No refund, no message. From my count they have until the 10th of September to refund my remaining some 129days of credit, if it hasn't happened by then I will not be impressed at all. $105.67 pro rata, make it happen already Kogan!As expected, Kogan has tried it on with the pro-rata refunds - at least they have in my case.
Despite sending an email to Kogan on the day their plan ceased and the transfer to the useless Telstra 7 day 'plan' took place - stating clearly that I had removed the sim from my phone - and that I expected a full refund of the eleven out twelve months of their plan unused - I received the Paypal refund email yesterday for the sum of just $265 plus change.
Despite successfully porting my number well within the 7 day Telstra access period, and despite the email I sent to Kogan, I have effectively been dudded for about $8. The same fate awaiting others, no doubt. Not happy, Ruslan.
I'll try to ring at some point in the next couple of days - assuming the 'Kogan Mobile' team ever start answering phone calls again. If - unlike attempted Galaxy S4 buyers - I get any 'joy', I'll let you know.
Aldi sims are like hens teeth atm.
They're selling on Ebay if you're desperate.
Quick search - there's someone selling them for $8.85 delivered.
Looks like Aldi have Updated their AUP
It'd be interesting how they define "continuous connections".
No always on/connected email? No streaming audio? No IM? No VOIP?
I understand the 400mb/day limit, but that should be it.https://www.aldimobile.com.au/sitedocs/acceptable_use_policy…
Apart from the
- ACCEPTABLE USE OF THE SERVICE
5.1. The Service is provided for personal use; it is not designed to replace your home Internet
connection and is not suitable for business use, excessive usage or continuous connections.
5.2. We will monitor your usage on a rolling 30 day basis. The following is deemed to be unacceptable
use where your service is used to do any of the following over a 30 day period:
i) make more than 2,500 minutes of voice calls;
ii) send more than 2,000 SMS;
iii) send more than 500 MMS;
iiii) download or upload more than 400MB of data on your 2GB data bolt-on on a single day on
three or more occasions.
We will attempt to contact you and give you warning notifications to let you know when you are close to
breaching these limits.
5.3. We will monitor your usage on a daily basis. The following is deemed to be unacceptable use and a
severe breach of this Policy where your service is used to do any of the following per day:
i. make more than 480 minutes of voice calls;
ii. send more than 500 SMS;
iii. send more than 100 MMS;
iiii. download or upload more than 1000MB of data
5.4. We may also monitor your usage in other ways and may deem the following usage to be
unacceptable where your service is used to do any of the following over three consecutive days:
i. make more than 300 minutes of voice calls per day;
ii. send more than 300 SMS per day;
iii. download or upload more than 400MB of data per day
People who signed up to Aldi to avoid the data-download related threats of the ispONE/Kogan plan must be thrilled…
Inevitable I suppose, and a case of nasty déjà vu for people who ported from Kogan.
- ACCEPTABLE USE OF THE SERVICE
Posted on Kogans Facebook page
"FREE OFFER: Want 30 days FREE Unlimited Talk & Text + 6GB Data?HURRY - Offer is limited to the first 3000 people to register.
Claim offer here: www.yatangomobile.com.au/kogan-offer/YTNGKGN
Promo Code: YTNGKGN"
I see Yatango uses the Optus network
Yep currently I'm half way through it before back to Woolworths. ..If only it had more economical data (5+ gb). But Brilliant option YTNG mobile - doesn't cut out like broadband challenged Dodo, no stupid 0.4gb.day either. Plus easy signup.
Oh did you sign up with dodo too?
I did & they up'd their 1Gb from $5->$10/mth and their data sessions seem to be wither 1.024Mb or 10.24MbOh well when I use up my recharges, Woolies it is.
Oh bugger - i didn't know that…
The times, they are a changin'.
DELAYS UP TO 72 HOURS IN PORTING FROM KOGAN TO ALDI