Erdan at “Globes” MAD Conference: Telcos will offer quadruple packages

Communications Minister Gilad Erdan expects Bezeq, Hot, Cellcom, Partner, and maybe Golan Telecom to offer quadruple package telecom services.

17 July 13 11:31, Yossi Nissan

“I predict that we will have four or five telecommunications groups, which will provide comprehensive services: Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ), Hot Telecommunication Systems Ltd. (TASE: HOT.B1), Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL), and Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), and I believe Golan Telecom Ltd., too,” said Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan at the “Globes” MAD (Media Advertising Digital) conference in Tel Aviv today.

“The consumption of telecommunications is rapidly consolidating on the basis of high-speed Internet. Soon, every screen will know how to give us together and simultaneously all the communications we once consumed separately. People obtain most content today via smartphones. Today’s broadcasts are based on broadband Internet, which is close to a breakthrough in Israel too. Mobile companies have begun to offer sports, news, and other broadcasts, and have declared their intention of entering the television market,” said Erdan.

As for the telecommunications wholesale market, Erdan said, “Our job is to open broadband Internet to full competition. Today, the market depends on Bezeq and Hot’s prices, and we must allow more companies to compete in Internet infrastructures. It’s true that there are high entry barriers to the deployment of nationwide physical infrastructure, and this will take years. We must now make it possible for any company that wants to use Bezeq and Hot’s existing infrastructures to compete. That is why we are establishing the wholesale market. Bezeq and Hot will be required to sell the use of their infrastructures to other companies at prices set by the Ministry of Communications.”

Erdan said that he would not require Bezeq and Hot to sell infrastructure services at a loss, but neither would he allow them to pad costs that consumers should not have to pay. He offered them a carrot, saying, “If this competition emerges, and Bezeq and Hot do not put obstacles in its way, it will be possible to remove more barriers, and allow Bezeq to sell a triple play package, and allow companies to offer a quadruple package of telecommunications services from which the public will profit much.”

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on July 17, 2013

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