Kogan claims ispONE tried to renegotiate pricing

Kogan Mobile took legal action against ispONE after the Telstra reseller threatened to withhold SIM cards unless changes were made to Kogan Mobile’s rate schedule, the court case between the two parties has heard.

Kogan Mobile and ispONE are facing off in court over a disagreement about the suspension of customers from Kogan Mobile for overuse.

Kogan executive director David Shafer took to the witness box on Tuesday and was questioned extensively about a meeting that took place on April 4 between himself, Ruslan Kogan, and ispONE's founder Zac Swindells and commercial director Mark Klose.

During the meeting, Shafer alleged Swindells said the arrangement could not continue as is and Kogan would not recieve the SIM cards.

Shafer said Swindells gave three alternatives: to revise the wholesale pricing provided by ispONE to Kogan, transfer from Telstra to another carrier, or transfer from a prepaid offering to a postpaid offering.

Counsel representing ispONE denied the reseller planned not to deliver the SIM cards unless the rate schedules were renegotiated.

After receiving advice from counsel, ispONE admitted it had in some instances breached the suspension policy agreed between the two parties by flagging some users in error.

However, ispONE argued that flagging a customer, preventing them from topping up their prepaid service, did not equate to suspending them from the network.

“We were of the belief we could flag customers,” ispONE cpmmercial director Mark Klose testified.

He said the Acceptable Use Policy on Kogan Mobile’s website talked about flagging one percent of the top users, and claimed Ruslan Kogan had made previous comments about not wanting high users, such as taxi drivers, on the service.

 The case continues.