Mobile phone retail chain Allphones has been placed into voluntary administration with the immediate loss of 69 jobs after the company's owners admitted failure in their attempts to turn the struggling business around.

Hundreds of other jobs at the national retailer hang in the balance as administrators attempt to sell-off the remaining network of stores.

The company, which calls itself "Australia's largest independent telecommunications retailer", was purchased in May last year by a Canadian shareholder.

It owns 25 of the stores, seven are operated by franchisees and the remainder are licensed and run on behalf of other parties.

In 2014, Allphones announced it had suffered an "impairment" of $25 million after it lost a contract to run 45 Virgin Mobile-branded stores across Australia.

A spokesperson for PPB Advisory, which has been appointed as administrators for the company, said that the company's shareholders could no longer continue to fund the group's losses.

Eighteen of the company-owned stores will close immediately.

PPB Advisory's Phil Carter said his priority was ensuring the stores were able to continue to trade on a business as usual basis.

"We are today undertaking an urgent review of Allphones' business in order to stabilise the current operations and store network, and ensure that the employees impacted by the store closures today are full supported," Mr Carter said.

The ABC understands staff were briefed about the decision this morning.

The news comes a week after the future of two well-known Australian clothing ranges, Marcs and David Lawrence, was thrown into doubt by their parent company going into administration.