iBoss customers suffer reconnection failure

One Telecom, OneSeniors and iBoss customers have suffered another blow, as rescue buyer Vocus Communications announced Thursday that it has failed to restore services.

"Due to the complexity of the web of companies of the previous owners and the lack of support of the other telecommunications suppliers (other than Telstra), it is not possible to get the user services back online," said the statement from Vocus.

The reconnection failure means that One Telecom and OneSeniors clients can only have their service back online if they sign up for a new service.

A "dedicated call centre" has been created by iPrimus especially for One Telecom and OneSenior clients to register for new connections, advised the statement from Vocus. The telco warned that "to ensure continuity of services all services must be connected via iPrimus or another provider, including any services that are still active and working".

"The arrangement with iPrimus is the best outcome and represents the most simple [way] for users to get access to services again," the statement said.

Customers of iBoss received their bad news via an e-mail from Vocus on Thursday, advising to "migrate away as fast as possible because we are unable to guarantee the continuation of the iBoss software platform after 11am tomorrow".

"A third party is in control of the iBoss software, not Vocus Communications. We are currently negotiating to keep this system available for a short period to smooth transitions," said Matt Hollis, Vocus GM of sales and marketing.

Hollis also told iBoss customers: "Vocus is working on a list of companies that can assist with churns" and that "we are aware of issues churning DSL services bundled with PSTN services and we are talking to the carriers involved to try and understand the issue better".

Last Friday, CRN reported that iBoss had immediately disconnected thousands of customers after it was forced into administration, along with its sister entities One Telecom and OneSeniors. On Wednesday, Vocus stepped in with $500,000 for the wholesale and residential customers from the failed brands.

One Telecom, OneSeniors and iBoss were all formerly owned by wholesale telecommunications provider ispONE. The wholesaler went into administration last year, then was controversially purchased by Conec2. The last fortnight has seen the former chief of ispONE, Zac Swindells, take Conec2's owners to court where the less-than-conventional terms of the sale have come to light.