Open Telecommunications put itself into voluntary administration last Friday, following the collapse of the sale of its operational support systems (OSS) business. In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, the company said it was insolvent or was likely to become insolvent in the foreseeable future.
Deloitte partner Robert Whitton, who has been looking at options to enable the company's continued trading, drew commitment from key customers Comindico and LG yesterday to continue development of their SoftSwitch technology.
Whitton has also been negotiated the continuance of an existing project for the telco's Malaysian client, Maxis.
-There will be revenue coming in from them," a spokesperson for the administrator told ZDNet Australia. This would mean that about 70 of over 200 staff that were stood down last week, would return to work in Sydney today.
However, -there are still 140-odd staff affected," the spokesperson said.
"Rob anticipated overall that he would only be able to reinstate 50-60 percent of staff," she added. "It is possible that more may be able to go back to work as well."
News of possible further reinstatements in Melbourne will come over the next few days.
There is still no further news about the future of the company's OSS business, despite there being 15 interested parties in the business as of last Friday.
-It's very difficult to tell at this stage," the spokesperson said. -The sale process could take a couple of weeks."
In a statememnt today, Whitton said he hoped to finalise the sale process by the end of August.
The company commenced a restructuring program in April, which saw 77 jobs culled and offices closed in Perth, London, the Netherlands and New Zealand. In June, Open Tel axed a further 45 staff worldwide.
