Executives at Israel's telecommunications companies are stunned and furious at HOT Telecommunication Systems Ltd's (TASE: HOT) new cheap monthly Internet package, which it is introducing before the launch of the new price-controlled wholesale market in infrastructures. HOT is offering a 100-Mpbs service at NIS 20 per month,
Some of the rival CEOs say that HOT is seeking to destroy competition in the telephony segment, because no other company can match the offer, due to obsolete Ministry of Communications regulations. The CEOs are lambasting the ministry of Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon, claiming that ministry officials are merely HOT functionaries.
One CEO told "Globes", "While the ministry is wasting its time on dozens of superfluous hearings, no decisions are being made, and the market has been stuck for months. HOT is exploiting this to launch a smart attack, while the ministry prevents all of us from competing against it."
Another CEO said that he was disgusted by the Ministry of Communications conduct.
018 Xfone Communications CEO Itzik Ben-Eliezer called on Ministry of Communications director general Eden Ben-Tal to block HOT's move immediately, which he said would destroy competition in the telephony market. Ben-Eliezer added that HOT was trying to thwart the planned wholesale market, which is the Ministry of Communications' proposal to create competition in the market.
Ben-Eliezer says that, under current regulations, a company with Internet access infrastructure has an unreasonable competitive advantage, even if structural separation is imposed on it. He called for a rethinking of the wholesale market to prevent the creation of a duopoly (HOT and Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ)), which would seriously harm consumers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 14, 2012
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