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netTALK / Iristel: What We Now Know Now That This Appears To Be Over [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on January 21, 2016 by itnerd

Now that it appears that 75,000 Canadian netTALK customers have their phone service back, I think it’s time to take a look at this whole situation and see what we now know from this experience.

The first thing that we now know is that netTALK’s as a company isn’t on stable ground. And that comes through by its own admission in documents filed with the SEC. In fact, a lot of their dirty laundry got exposed as part of this, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. That combined with the fact that Walmart and Best Buy have allegedly stopped selling their products in Canada (Please note that I am still awaiting confirmation of that) and all the negative press they’ve received means one simple thing: They will have trouble retaining customers and attracting new customers will be difficult, if not impossible. Now to be fair, they have promised to compensate Canadian customers who were affected by this outage, but that may not mean much if they aren’t around to follow through. And it may be too late as many of those consumers are considering other VoIP options. And that may hasten netTALK’s demise. One other thing that’s worth considering is the fact that netTALK is now in bed with Primus who just went into Chapter 15 bankruptcy. That has to give one cause to pause.

The second thing that we know is that a company by the name of Iristel exists. Prior to this episode I have never heard of this company, and I am sure the average Canadian hadn’t heard of them either. But as part of looking into this matter, I ended up talking to their PR guy, their VP of Operations, and trading Tweets with their CEO. On the upside, they came across for the most part as straight shooters, and everything they said was on the level for the most part. The downers in this were the fact that they let netTALK run up a $2 million bill before pulling the plug and starting this whole nightmare. That was likely not the smartest thing for them to do. Though I suspect, the prior relationship of Samer Bishay with netTALK as he was at one time the President of netTALK and is now the CEO of Iristel has something to do with that. Not to mention that Bishay’s bombastic style of tweeting rubbed people the wrong way. On that front, my advice to him is to get someone else to do his social media for him. In any event, this company is now on the map. But I suspect not in an entirely positive way. They will have some fence mending to do with the Canadian public going forward. Good luck with that.

The third thing that came of this is the CRTC and the CCTS and their lack of will and ability in terms of making sure that Canadians have reliable telecommunication services. I discovered that the CRTC threatened netTALK with “enforcement action” back in 2013 because they didn’t join the CCTS. But here we are in 2016 and no “enforcement action” appears to have been taken. You have to wonder why that was and if it could have stopped this whole gong show from happening? Plus during this whole debacle, you never got the sense that the CRTC had no ability or will to resolve this other than putting out a few Tweets saying that they were talking to the parties involved. As for the CCTS, I got numerous e-mails, comments, and even a complete chat log from a reader where he recorded a conversation between him and the CCTS where the CCTS said that they couldn’t help in this situation. That means that both of Canada’s telecommunications regulatory bodies are broken and are in desperate need of reform. Something that frequent readers of this blog know that I have been saying for years. This episode highlights the fact that Canadians need change in that area and we need it now. I hope that the Federal Government is listening and will take action on that front because Canadians deserve better.

The final thing that came out of this is the fact that you have to choose your VoIP provider carefully. People go to VoIP to save money as these are very difficult economic times. I get that. But you have to do your homework. First of all, see if the provider that you want to use is a part of the CCTS participating providers list. Though the CCTS is kind of useless, at least a provider on this list is trying to be a reputable player in the Canadian telecommunications industry. But that isn’t the only place to look. In this regard, the search engine of your choice is your friend. Everything I found out about netTALK and Iristel was found via Google very easily. You can really find out a lot about a telecom provider just by spending the time to look. Finally, if the price is too good to be true, it likely is. After all, being a telecom isn’t a low cost business. The price that you pay has to reflect that. So If the VoIP service that you’re considering is substantially lower than others, that should make you say “hmmmm.”

Finally, I would like to say thanks to all the people who read this blog and follow me on Twitter. A special thanks go to those who sent me feedback and tips on this issue. The tips that you provided allowed me to follow this story and uncover new information for you. I really appreciate each and every single one of you and I hope I’ve been of service to you in this matter. I also hope to be of service to you going forward.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging and reviewing of everything from smartphones to cars. I hope.

UPDATE: Primus reached out to me tonight to say this:

Just wanted to clarify one point in your blog where you write:
“One other thing that’s worth considering is the fact that netTALK is now in bed with Primus who just went into Chapter 15 bankruptcy. That has to give one cause to pause.”
Primus is seeking creditor protection in both the U.S. and Canada to facilitate its sale to Birch. Primus is not bankrupt, which you’ll appreciate is a very different legal condition and undertaking. 
Okay. Point taken.
UPDATE #2: Best Buy Canada has confirmed that they aren’t selling netTALK products:

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Is The End To The netTALK /Iristel Nightmare In Sight? [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 20, 2016 by itnerd

At the moment, 75,000 Canadians are hoping that this Tweet from Iristel head honcho Samer Bishay signals a end to then nightmare that they’ve been suffering by not having phone service since Friday:

The only other detail that I have besides this Tweet is this:

On the surface, it looks like Canadian netTALK customers are about to get phone service again. Though it appears the issues between netTALK and Iristel may not be over quite yet. I’m monitoring this situation and I will update this when I get additional info.

UPDATE: Here’s some early additional info. I am receiving reports that netTALK customers are having their phones come back online. This Tweet is an example of this:

https://twitter.com/LucJeanson/status/689988396681465856

I am working on getting further confirmation. Please stay tuned.

UPDATE #2:

I am currently in touch with a netTALK customer in Toronto who does not have their phone service back as yet. But I am getting e-mails from people who have had their service restored. So it looks like this is truly happening. It’s just a matter of when, not if it appears.

More as it comes.

UPDATE #3: I can confirm that the customer in Toronto now has phone service. Plus I am getting additional confirmation from others:

netTALK confirms that service has been restored:

Though, not for everyone:

https://twitter.com/calrodg/status/689994905188487173

I suspect that this might take time to get everyone up and running.

Now let’s see if netTALK can make up for this. To that end, I asked netTALK this question:

If they respond, you’ll see it here.

UPDATE #4: It looks like the troubles are not over quite yet:

I have confirmed that many are getting the fast busy signal. It seems that netTALK still has work to do.

UPDATE #5: This seems to be an intermittent problem. I guess they are sorting out all their issues. I’ll continue to monitor the situation and post updates if required.

UPDATE #6: netTALK has confirmed that they are working with Primus, who just declared Chapter 15 bankruptcy today as per The Globe And Mail:

What could possibly go wrong? I’ll be keeping an eye on this for sure.

UPDATE 7: netTALK has sent a statement out to their users and the same statement was sent out to me as well:

To our valued netTALK Canada customers,

We are very pleased to announce that, effective immediately, all netTALK Canada telephone numbers and services are live and fully functioning.

According to Anastasios Kyriakides, CEO of netTALK, “We cannot sufficiently express our thanks to our customers for their patience and loyalty, to the relevant Canadian regulatory authorities for their guidance and assistance, and to our telecommunications partners in Canada for their invaluable efforts to finally bring this to a conclusion. Working together, we reached the right result.”

We will be in touch with each of you to provide any necessary further details, and to compensate you for your inconvenience.  And most importantly, we truly appreciate your loyalty to, and trust in, netTALK.

Sincerely,

The netTALK Team

I’ll be watching to see what steps they take to make up for this fiasco. Though, judging from the stuff that I am seeing online, it may be already too late for that as many people are moving to other VoIP providers.

UPDATE #8: Iristel just put out a press release. It’s very much worth reading as they apparently didn’t get all of the $2 million that is owed to them. Plus they drop a few interesting facts on this whole episode as well.

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Samer Bishay Tweets Regarding netTALK / Iristel…. Again [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 20, 2016 by itnerd

First some housekeeping. Yesterday, I ran a story about the fact that Iristel head honcho Samer Bishay claimed that a telco named Primus was going into creditor protection, and that would help users of netTALK who have been without phone service since last Friday. I spent most of today trying to find out if this was true or not and the fact is, there is nothing that supports the claim that Bishay made yesterday. So unless someone comes to me with hard evidence that says otherwise, I’m filing this one under “busted.”

However, it seems that Mr. Bishay won’t stop Tweeting. Here’s his latest one:

So, I’ll ask the question that 75,000 Canadians are likely asking. What does that mean? I haven’t got a clue. But because I am…. well…. no longer going to take his word on it, I called him on it via Twitter:

If he responds, I will let you know. But the fact is that Mr. Bishay isn’t exactly helping the situation with his ill advised Tweets. He may find that by working towards a solution he can be of greater help to the 75,000 people in Canada who have no phone service.

UPDATE: Readers have pointed me towards documentation that confirms what Bishay was saying about Primus being in creditor protection.

And:

And even netTALK pointed this out to me:

So… Let me answer this question:

Let me go back to what I said on this yesterday:

Primus is a Canadian telco that’s a couple of steps down the food chain from telcos like Rogers and Bell. They offer home and residential business phone and Internet services. But they are also a CLEC which stands for competitive local exchange carrier. In other words they can offer the service that Iristel offered to netTALK as I explained in this article. Specifically, connecting Canadian phone numbers to netTALK’s back end hardware. The word on the street is that netTALK was going to move all the Canadian numbers that they have to these guys and continue operations. Except that when they tried, Iristel wouldn’t release them. Now this Tweet implies that Primus has entered creditor protection. That would mean that netTALK would have nowhere to go and have one foot in the grave when it comes to their Canadian operations. It may also give Iristel leverage to get paid.

So we will see how this plays out given this event.

On a related note, I am man enough to say that Mr. Bishay was right on this specific issue. But his style of Tweeting doesn’t make it easy to take him seriously. Perhaps he might want to adjust that accordingly.

UPDATE #2: The Globe And Mail has more on the Primus situation.

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What Is The CRTC Doing In The netTALK / Iristel Dispute?

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on January 20, 2016 by itnerd

A consistent question that has been asked since the start of the netTALK / Iristel dispute is what the CRTC is doing. After all, they are supposed to be the guys who regulate Canada’s telecom industry to make sure that all is as it should be. But the closest thing to a comment that the CRTC has made is a Tweet like this one:

That’s it. That leaves many people wondering what that means? Are they working towards a resolution? If so, is there a timeline on how long it will take to resolve this? After all, it’s estimated that 75,000 Canadians are without proper phone service. That’s not a trivial number of people. Thus you’d think there’d be some sort more robust comment from Canada’s telecom regulator if for no other reason to put minds at ease.

What likely doesn’t help the situation is the fact that I’ve found that the CRTC threatened netTALK with an “enforcement action” back in late 2013 because netTALK didn’t join the CCTS which is the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services. But it seems that no “enforcement action” was ever taken. So I’ve been wondering if this could have been headed off earlier. I am also wondering if it makes the CRTC look like a toothless tiger. As a result, I’ve asked the CRTC questions like this via Twitter:

As of yet, I have had no response.

What’s really needed here is the CRTC is to step up and say something like “We are aware of the issues with netTALK and Iristel. These are the things that we’re doing to resolve it. This is how long we think it will take. And we have other options from an enforcement standpoint if things drag on.” Then they need to say something like “We’ll look at what happened in 2013 to see what happened there and how we can improve things to stop a situation like that from happening again.”

So how about it CRTC? Will you explain what your path to resolution is to the 75,000 affected by this fiasco, as well as to the many many others who are watching this situation closely?

Remember, Canada is watching.

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netTALK Customers Find Choosing New Numbers To Be Problematic [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 20, 2016 by itnerd

When this dispute between netTALK and Iristel first broke, one of the things that netTALK said was that they would offer up a new number to customers for free and they could keep it if they liked it. I was tipped off a few minutes ago via Twitter that this process is problematic:

After that Tweet came in, others followed:

https://twitter.com/aherdofllamas/status/689853238733099014

https://twitter.com/aherdofllamas/status/689854418771185664

To find out what the deal is, I sent netTALK this Tweet:

If I hear anything from them, I’ll update this story. But as it stands right now, this appears to be a #fail of epic proportions.

UPDATE: netTALK sent me this Tweet:

I would be interested in hearing from people who are trying to generate new numbers if you are still having trouble. Please e-mail me, leave a comment, or Tweet me.

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A Potential End To The netTALK / Iristel Nightmare? [UPDATED x3]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 20, 2016 by itnerd

In the last couple of minutes, a very interesting Tweet appeared that caught my attention:

https://twitter.com/conexiant/status/689817325210435584

So… Who are these guys? Conexiant Telecom is based in Denver Colorado and they provide a rather long list of services. Including the ability to port numbers and the like. I can only assume that they’re going to try and help netTALK get Canadian customers back online by leveraging those services. But in the interest of getting the full story, I responded to their Tweet:

If I hear anything, I will update this post. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I did some further digging on Conexiant. JGG@conexiant.net is most likely Gregory Giagnocavo. I found his LinkedIn profile and he describes himself as a serial entrepreneur and in a twist that will interest Canadians, he went to school at the University of Western Ontario. I am continuing to dig, but so far I am finding nothing that jumps out at me.

UPDATE #2: This Tweet just appeared from netTALK’s Twitter account:

I’m not sure how to read that. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

UPDATE #3: I just had a conversation with Gregory Giagnocavo of Conexiant. He has no comment at this time. So we’ll have to see how this plays out.

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The netTALK Situation Becomes Even More Cloudy [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 19, 2016 by itnerd

House Of Cards has nothing on the story of netTALK vs. Iristel. The latest twist in this story came via a Tweet from Samer Bishay who runs the show at Iristel, but used to be at netTALK (which you can see the story behind that here). Here’s the Tweet in question:

I’m pretty sure you’re wondering what in blue blazes does that mean. No problem. Here’s what you need to know.

Primus is a Canadian telco that’s a couple of steps down the food chain from telcos like Rogers and Bell. They offer home and residential business phone and Internet services. But they are also a CLEC which stands for competitive local exchange carrier. In other words they can offer the service that Iristel offered to netTALK as I explained in this article. Specifically, connecting Canadian phone numbers to netTALK’s back end hardware. The word on the street is that netTALK was going to move all the Canadian numbers that they have to these guys and continue operations. Except that when they tried, Iristel wouldn’t release them. Now this Tweet implies that Primus has entered creditor protection. That would mean that netTALK would have nowhere to go and have one foot in the grave when it comes to their Canadian operations. It may also give Iristel leverage to get paid.

There’s only one problem with all of this. I can find no evidence that Primus has filed for creditor protection. I’m not saying that it is not true. Only that I have no proof of this one way or the other. So, why did I post this when I can’t confirm or deny this? Simple, a person who is at the center of this whole debacle has made a statement that can quality as a bit of a bombshell. Some people may take it as fact and it’s my job to wrap some context around this while getting to what the actual facts are. To that end, I am reaching out to Primus to see if I can get some answers in this regard.

More as it comes.

UPDATE: This turned out to be fact. See here for details.

 

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BREAKING: Iristel “Guarantees” netTALK Customers Will Get Their Phone Numbers Back [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 19, 2016 by itnerd

Another plot twist to the netTALK vs Iristel dispute comes in the form of this release from Iristel which I have reprinted in full below:

MARKHAM, Ont. January 19, 2016 – Iristel President and CEO Samer Bishay continues working with the regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, to determine a solution with regard to the phone numbers of netTalk customers in Canada.

“We want to do what’s right for the Canadian consumer,” Mr. Bishay says, adding he hopes the numbers will be back to consumers within days, not weeks. “When netTalk was disconnected by another Canadian carrier in 2014 for non-payment – and Iristel stepped in to help netTalk customers – that disconnect lasted 10 days. We do not want it to last that long. But the CRTC must ensure, for the consumers’ sake that once the numbers are returned they do not run into this trouble again with netTalk refusing to pay for service.”

Iristel makes this guarantee: ALL CONSUMERS WILL GET THEIR PHONE NUMBERS BACK and be able to port them with a reputable Canadian service provider once a CRTC-sanctioned solution is achieved. In other words, if you sign up with a different Canadian service provider now, you’ll receive a new telephone number which you will be able to switch back to your long-held number currently held in reserve. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We know this has been difficult for everyone, but please bear in mind that Florida-based reseller netTalk has refused to pay Iristel for almost two years while using our CRTC-licenced telecommunications infrastructure for its customers. And netTalk did this despite collecting money from Canadian consumers.

Under CRTC rules, as carrier of record, Iristel cannot reach out and contact netTalk customers directly, unless they contact Iristel. This has added to the confusion because netTalk has repeatedly messaged its customers with distortions and untruths about this current situation.

“I’ve been asked many times if I was leery about netTalk two years ago when we stepped in to help with their non-payment disconnect by another carrier back then,” Mr. Bishay says. “And my answer is that I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and help their Canadian customers. Hindsight is 20-20 and had I known then what I know now, we would not have stepped in.”

Iristel cannot continue to allow netTalk to collect money from Canadian consumers and not pay its suppliers. And without a CRTC-sanctioned solution, netTalk could try to continue to abuse Canadian consumers and other suppliers. netTalk has run up fees of nearly $2 million to Iristel and such business practices must stop.

We are truly sorry for this inconvenience to netTalk customers and assure them that Iristel is not trying to put them in the middle. However, they have already paid netTalk for telephone service, yet netTalk has not paid the proper Canadian companies for customers to stay connected. netTalk’s behavior when it comes to paying its vendors was discussed publicly by employees in the past on forums:http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29027673-General-NetTALK-Forum.

This meshes with what I got from my exclusive interview with Maged Bishara who is the Vice President of Operations at Iristel. I’ll be watching to make sure that this “guarantee” gets delivered.

UPDATE: Theo Markou reached out to me via Twitter to say that his Uncle has been able to transfer his netTALK phone number to another VoIP provider. But it sounded like a painful process:

https://twitter.com/mediacapitalist/status/689621635788337152

https://twitter.com/mediacapitalist/status/689622320265203712

If you’ve tried to port your netTALK phone number to another VoIP provider, please let me know how it goes.

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netTALK Responds To My Request For An Interview

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 19, 2016 by itnerd

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:

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:

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.

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EXCLUSIVE: A Conversation With Iristel VP Maged Bishara

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 19, 2016 by itnerd

Since the story netTALK versus Iristel began for me on Sunday night, I’ve been looking to get to the truth. Or at least as much of that as I could. To that end, I was very fortunate to get in touch with Maged Bishara who is the Vice President of Operations at Iristel to get his side of this story as this is a story that has a whole lot of moving parts to it.

The first thing that Mr. Bishara wanted to express to me is that he completely understands the anger that is out there. He gets that he’s affected the lives of 75,000 Canadians by disconnecting them from netTALK and he understands why people are upset. But he was left with little choice as he’s owed $2,000,000 by netTALK and he cannot provide a service under those conditions. He also points out that this started two years ago, and that netTALK has done this before. The former point matches the information that I have researched and I have found evidence of the latter point. He also disputes netTALK’s claim that they tried to work with him to port the numbers over before the deadline that he had set with netTALK. Bishara contends that if they did want to port the numbers across to another provider before their deadline, he would have done it.

Mr. Bishara also mentioned that he is working closely with the CRTC to resolve this (it’s also worth noting that according to him that netTALK is not at the table with the CRTC and Iristel). The reason for him going this route to resolve this issue is that he is not allowed to speak to netTALK customers directly as Iristel are acting as a CLEC for netTALk. CLEC stands for competitive local exchange carrier. The non-nerd explanation is that they interface Canadian numbers with the netTALK service. If you want a more nerdy answer, check out this Wikipedia article. Because of this he has to get assistance from the CRTC to make this happen. When they get direction from the CRTC, they will allow the numbers to be ported to any carrier that the customer desires. In other words, netTALK customer’s phone numbers are safe and will be able to be moved to another provider. However, to nobody’s surprise netTALK will not be one of those carriers. Bishara recommends that consumers choose their carrier carefully to avoid this situation. What’s the timeline for this? It could happen at anytime and when it does, I will get something online to let you know.

I want to thank Mr. Bishara for taking the time to speak to me, and also I would like to thank Bob Brehl for setting this up. My next task is to write a story on netTALK’s side of the story. I will have that online later today.

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