This week Kogan Mobile announced they will ending their competitive and popular mobile SIM plans. This unfortunate event will leave around 120,000 Kogan customers looking for an alternative mobile phone service provider.
Kogan customers will have received the following text message:
“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/9qYEEO about how you can keep your number & transfer your mobile service to another provider. Contact Kogan Mobile for support.”
What will happen now to Kogan Mobile customers?
Kogan Mobile customers will no longer be able to recharge their Kogan Mobile accounts. This is regardless of when your plan expires and what existing voice and text message balances you still have. Customers, however, will not be cut off from their service immediately. The process being implemented so far is for Kogan Customers to be slowly transferred to Telstra Wholesale. Telstra Wholesale has offered an interim service called the “7 Day Plan” for Kogan customers so that the changeover process is slightly easier.
Kogan customers can use any existing credit or quotas left in their plan until they are moved to the Telstra Wholesale 7 Day Plan. However, this remaining credit will be accessible for a maximum of 30 days from 19 August 2013 regardless of whether you have been moved to Telstra Wholesale or not. After the 30 days all plans will expire and you will not be able to use your mobile plan.
What is the Telstra Wholesale 7 Day Plan?
When a customer has been moved to the 7 Day Plan they will have access to a mobile service for 7 days. The service will have many restrictions; you can only make 20 minute phone calls and send 20 text messages.
The 7 Day Plan is simply a mechanism to prevent customers from being automatically cut off without warning. The 7 day window gives the customer a chance to continue to receive phone calls and make limited calls whilst organsing to switch to another company.
After 7 days on this interim plan you will not be able to make phone calls. You will be able to receive calls and SMS and make emergency 000 calls. After 6 months the service will completely cancel and you will lose the ability to transfer your mobile number to another service.
The best thing to do is to find a new provider as soon as possible, or at least investigate other options before being moved.
Why did this happen?
Kogan Mobile has had a rocky history and has received criticism in the past for blocking customers who used too much data and recently increasing plan prices by around $10 per month. This latest controversy, however, is not Kogan shutting shop because it is too hard to maintain business. There were other forces at play.
Kogan Mobile was reliant on mobile service reseller IPSOne who acted as an intermediate wholesaler between themselves and Telstra. What this means is that ISPOne bought mobile service access from Telstra and then sold it to other companies like Kogan Mobile, and also Aldi Mobile. This week Telstra cancelled its contract with ISPOne putting an end to their 3G Prepaid services deal. This in turn meant ISPOne could no longer provide Kogan Mobile, Aldi Mobile and other customers, around 250,000 customers, with mobile service.
Aldi Mobile was able to make a deal with Telstra directly to keep their supply of service, and thus their customers have not been affected. Kogan Mobile unfortunately was not able to do the same.
What are the options now?
Kogan Mobile customers have a few options available to them. Firstly, Optus are offering Kogan Mobile customers a special deal if they transfer their number to Optus. Kogan Mobile customers who sign up to Optus Prepaid Social 4G will receive double data and double standard talk in Australia on their first three recharges of $30 or more. The Optus deal is available until 30 September, to find out more you can call 1300 137 897.
The second option is a prepaid service with Amaysim. Amaysim offer unlimited talk and text and 4GB of data for $39.90 per month. This plan is quite similar to Kogan Mobile but with less data access. If you sign up before August you can receive 50% off your first month. To sign up to this plan you can call 1300 106 571.
