Telstra has denied that it has done a deal with electronic goods retailer Ruslan Kogan who yesterday claimed he is launching a low cost mobile phone service using Telstra’s mobile network.

As tech journalist Trevor Long was gushing on about Kogan’s mobile service on A Current Affair claiming it was a “Win Win” service, Telstra was claiming that the service was “not on their 3G or 4G networks”.
 
Telstra claims it has no relationship with the Kogan brand.

“Telstra Wholesale is not in partnership or any other direct relationship with Kogan,” a Telstra spokesman said.

Ruslan Kogan now doing mobile

Ruslan Kogan, who has a reputation for loud mouth spruiking, was the same guy who said Apple was set to pull out of retail stores such as JB Hi Fi in 2013; he also solicited consumers to pre order a new iPhone ahead of Apple putting the device on sale. The only problem was that he failed to deliver in time for several customers who took him at his word.

When asked about the Telstra relationship Kogan said he had no comments to make despite being labelled a “loudmouth” when it comes to spruiking publicity for his pet projects, which this time happens to be mobile phones.

Kogan is claiming that he is offering 30-day deals at $29, 90 days for $79, and a full year for $299, according to yesterday’s media release. The deals are said to include unlimited phone calls, SMS and MMS messaging and 6 gigabytes of data per month.

There’s also a data-only plan; 2GB of data for $9.99 a month.

His press release claimed Kogan Mobile was hitching a ride on Telstra’s mobile network.

Some observers claim the serve may be on an old 2G/3G network which if so could result in users getting limited coverage and extremely slow data connections. 

Mr Kogan said discussions with Telstra had been ongoing for several months, despite the carrier’s denial.