Telcos prepare for Kogan Mobile mass exodus

The Communications Alliance's Mobile Number Portability Administration Group has said that it is putting on extra resources to cope with the influx of 115,000 Kogan Mobile customers porting to other telcos in the wake of the company's wholesale provider ISPOne entering administration.

After the agreement between Telstra and ISPOne over the provision of wholesale services on Telstra's 3G network was terminated this week, and ISPOne entered administration, Telstra announced that while it had signed an agreement to keep Aldi's customers on the service, Kogan Mobile's approximately 115,000 customers have 60 days to make alternative arrangements.

Seizing on this opportunity, Telstra, Optus, Amaysim, and Yatango, among others, have already offered deals to Kogan customers who are trying to find a new telco, but customers wishing to keep their existing number will need to port it over to the new provider.

The Communications Alliance said that around 150,000 customers port their mobile numbers every month, but the industry is expecting the number of customers porting to be significantly higher during the next few weeks as a result of Kogan Mobile's service coming to an end.

Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton said that porting is usually completed within three hours, and the resources added to the porting service should minimise delays.

"The extraordinary measures put in place by industry should act to minimise any inconvenience to customers during what will be an understandably hectic period," he said in a statement.