Telstra taken to court over ispONE service termination

Telstra has terminated its supply of prepaid mobile service to ispONE due to an alleged failure by the reseller to pay its invoices, according to ispONE.

In response, ispONE has filed an urgent application with the Federal Court to restrain Telstra from terminating its service. In a statement, the reseller said it expected the case to be heard at 2.15pm today.

The service termination affects more than 100 retailers that sell ispONE prepaid and 280,000 customers of fixed line, mobile phone and Internet services, a statement from ispONE said.

“Telstra claims it has a right to terminate the services due to the failure by ispONE to pay invoices issued by Telstra by their due date,” the statement said.

“However ispONE claims that no amount is presently due and payable, and that Telstra owes it money based on Telstra's incorrect rating of data pricing for prepaid mobile services.”

The reseller alleged that Telstra breached their agreement, engaging in “misleading and deceptive and unconscionable conduct.”

The company is seeking damages “based on the significant problems experienced with Telstra's mobile prepaid platform, which earlier this year left many consumers without service as there were delays in porting numbers to Telstra.”

Earlier this year, ispONE lost a court case in the Victorian Supreme Court against its customer Kogan Mobile after ispONE suspended Kogan users from its network for overusing a service marketed as “unlimited.”

A Telstra spokesman said the telco has "met all our contractual obligations to" ispONE.

"We can't comment on matters before the court other than to say we will exercise all our legal rights in this case," he said. "We have not made any changes to the arrangements with ispONE at this time.”

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