The ghost of ispONE still haunts Australia’s telco industry. Most of that failed telco’s customers were acquired by Melbourne company CONEC2 when ispONE lost its high profile court battle with Telstra (CommsWire, 10 September 2013).
The assets acquired by CONEC2 included 29 employees and 61,000 customers, along with ispONE’s iBOSS (Integrated Billing Operations and Support System) platform and the customers of ispONE’s brands ONEseniors, One Mobile and One Telecom.
The more than 50,000 customers that CONEC2 acquired, which included those connected under the over 55s ONEseniors brand, were promised superior service with CONEC2.
They have not received it. CONEC2 subsidiaries AsiaPAC Communications, iBOSS and One Telecom were placed into administration last week. The companies were subsequently acquired by Vocus Communications, but there customers could not be reconnected because of “the complexity of the web of companies of the previous owners and the lack of support of the other telecommunications suppliers.”
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The voice customers, including all ONEseniors client, are still without connections. Vocus has advised them to go elsewhere, and M2 subsidiary iPrimus has announced an arrangement to accommodate them.
Most of the Internet only customers will go to VISP (virtual Internet service provider) Aussielinx, formerly known as AussieDial. “We are talking to many of the ISPs impacted by loss of services and have been able to provide solutions to restore services,” said Joel Clarke, general manager of Net Open Access, which is a provider to Aussielinx.”
Net Open Access builds wholesale optical and VDSL networks throughout Australia, focusing Payce and Sekisui House, and into brownfield areas not serviced by the NBN.
Bus Clarke said some ISPs affected may not be able to recover due to the commercial arrangements in place with iBOSS resulting in services to the ISP billed in advance and disconnected without notice.
Aussielinx provides Internet services to its customer base through Net Open Access and other wholesale networks, and is able to move many affected ADSL and NBN services away from iBOSS. But it says “The fate of some smaller VISPs still remains uncertain.”
