Hope for ONESenior customers

Vocus Communications has announced that Telstra has "revised the advice given" regarding old telephone numbers of disconnected ONESenior customers.

"Contrary to yesterday’s news, Telstra today confirmed that customers can ask their new providers to transfer existing numbers," reads a statement from Vocus released yesterday.

"In the majority of cases, Telstra should be able to extract those numbers from quarantine; ensuring customers can retain existing landline numbers with new providers."

Customers of troubled brands ONESenior, One Telecom and iBoss were informed last week by the rescue buyer Vocus that services could not be restored and that signing up with a new provider was the only option.

Vocus blamed the "the complexity of the web of companies of the previous owners" and "the lack of support of the other telecommunications suppliers (other than Telstra)" for the failure to reconnect.

Earlier this week, Vocus announced that clients still with ONESenior had lost their numbers permanently: "Their existing number is lost and cannot be recovered.  Any new services with a new supplier will require a new number."

Yesterday's statement from Vocus reverses that situation.

"This is a win for customers and good news for those still to put new supply arrangements in place," said the statement from the communications provider.