The legal battle between Telstra and network wholesaler ispONE that may bring down some of Australia’s cheapest and newest MVNOs saw a major development late last night: one that will keep the contract between the two court rivals alive for the immediate future.
For those not playing along at home: Kogan Mobile and AldiMobile on-sell Telstra’s wholesale 3G network, but not direcly though Telstra. Telstra on-sells the service through a wholesaler called ispONE, which then flogs the service to the MVNOs.
This week, Telstra and ispONE landed in the Federal Court, with the wholesaler alleging that Telstra would move to cut off 280,000 services over a billing dispute. Telstra was alleging that ispONE hadn’t been paying its bills, while ispONE alleged that Telstra fibbed about data rates.
ispONE told us last night that the Federal Court had granted an injunction sought by ispONE that will reportedly restrain Telstra from cancelling approximately 280,000 accounts due to an alleged billing dispute.
The injunction will hold between now and the official trial date, when presumably another injunction will need to be bashed out or a fast settlement will need to be reached between the two feuding telco parties.
Gavel image via Shutterstock