Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon has decided that the tender for a new mobile carrier will not be postponed, and will be published on September 15, even though the hearing on inland roaming will not be completed by then.
The Ministry of Communications believes that it will be difficult to publish the tender without first anchoring the issue of inland roaming. However, because the mobile inter-network connectivity rates will be published within a few days, it was decided that it is possible to publish the tender without waiting for the conclusion of the hearing, and that the bidders will know this in advance.
Mirs Communications Ltd., owned by Patrick Drahi, has formally announced that it intends to bid in the tender, and that it is only waiting for the tender to be published. The company has begun preparations for setting up a network and is on the verge of publishing a tender for equipment.
Mirs warned, however, that Ministry of Communications support on inland roaming was a critical factor, because the company must buy services from the current mobile carriers as it lacks enough antennas of its own. The price that Mirs will have to pay the current mobile carriers to lease their cellular antennas (inland roaming) is derived from the connectivity fees.
Since the new connectivity fees will be published either tomorrow or on Sunday, it will be possible to publish the tender for frequencies without completing the hearing on inland roaming. No date for the hearing has been published yet, due to disagreements within the Ministry of Communications.
Inland roaming is anchored in a cabinet decision as part of the 2011-12 economic arrangements bill. The problem for bidders is therefore uncertainty, and they will have to rely on Kahlon's word.
Kahlon views the tender for a new mobile carrier as an opportunity that will not be repeated to boost competition in the cellular market in the most effective way.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 1, 2010
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