The IT Nerd

Hot off the heels of getting an exclusive interview with Maged Bishara who is the VP of Operations, I turned my attention to getting some sort of interview or statement with netTALK. Yesterday, I posted a Tweet to netTALK:

@The_IT_Nerd Yes, someone will be contacting you shortly

— NT CONNECT (@ntconnect_) January 18, 2016

Today I got a statement from netTALK. I have reprinted it in full below:

Dear IT Nerd

We at netTALK are aware of all of the stories you have written so far
regarding netTALK and Iristel.

We also understand that you would like to hear from us.

Rest assured that we are working on the problem and hope to have it
resolved very soon. This situation is not something we’ve taken lightly.

It is our hope and intention that all Canadian customers will not lose
their existing phone numbers

It is just going to take us a bit of time to sort this out so please be
patient.

We will send you a statement on our progress on this in the next 24-48
hours.

In the meantime, Canadian Customers will be offered an additional number
and six months of free service . When they receive an email from us in the
next 24-48 hours, all they have to do is click on the link to renew for
free. And If our customers like the new number they receive they can
keep it or they can choose a new one from the CONNECT portal
<http://sendy.nettalk.com/l/5pbh763Lde7IYLcbX763fxKODA/bgLBGsBOJyyuRDJIqCqZVw/fK763z2YeJcVKAn8HwhQ1rPA >,
Again, we want to reiterate that we are working on the problem and hope to have everything resolved soon.

Now I did have some very specific questions for them. They were:

• Can you answer the accusations that Iristel has made that you owe them money and that is the genesis of this situation?
• Can you comment on your SEC filings which indicate that you may not be a going concern for much longer? The reason for this question is that it directly influences whether customers should stick with you as a VoIP provider.
• Finally, can you comment on the fact that the CRTC has been trying to get you to join the CCTS without success since 2013 which violates Canadian law?

Here are the answers that I got, starting with the first question:

The money they say we owe is primarily because they refused to port
out the numbers in October, 2014, when we repeatedly requested it. They
planned all along to use those numbers as leverage, only hurting Canadian
consumers.

Next up is the question about the SEC filings:

On the “going concern” issue, that is an accounting classification that signifies that assets and revenues are not completely sufficient to satisfy all liabilities. It is typical for early-stage public companies, who are still fund raising, to have this notation, and many that have gone on to be extremely profitable started with such a notation.

Finally, there’s the CRTC question:

Our counsel speaking to CRTC <SIC>

There’s one other thing that I’d like to point out. In the statement that netTALK has provided me, they said this:

In the meantime, Canadian Customers will be offered an additional number
and six months of free service .

Here’s the problem. When netTALK started Tweeting to customers, they said this:

@The_IT_Nerd @iristel We apologize that Iristel continues 2 use u as a pawn in its dispute with netTALK. You'll be able 2 get new# & FREE yr

— NT CONNECT (@ntconnect_) January 18, 2016

So the Tweet says 1 year free. But their statement says six months. Clearly their PR person doesn’t talk to the person who has the password to their Twitter account. Perhaps the two of them should have a conversation so that they’re singing from the same song sheet as the optics of this are craptastic for them.

I will continue to monitor the situation and I will post any updates that come to my attention as this is a very serious issue that affects many Canadians.

This entry was posted on January 19, 2016 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Iristel, netTALK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.