Golan Telecom Ltd. today accused established mobile carriers Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL), Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), and Pelephone Communications Ltd. of making it difficult for their subscribers to switch to it, telling them that they had to wait for the operation of the SIM cards ordered from Golan Telecom. Pelephone told "Globes" in response that Golan Telecom was in breach of the Ministry of Communications number mobility plan.
As part of the mobility process, the identity of each subscriber seeking to leave a mobile carrier must be verified. Pelephone claims that Golan Telecom was violating the details verification procedure, and that it could not terminate subscribers until the details were confirmed.
In the wake of media reports, the Ministry of Communications intervened in the details verification process for mobility, after which Pelephone announced this afternoon that it would allow subscribers to switch to Golan Telecom. "In view of the Ministry of Communications' promise to Pelephone an hour ago to immediately intervene in the matter of identification verification during Golan Telecom's mobility process, Pelephone's mobility system vis-a-vis Golan Telecom will become operational at 17:00. We reiterate that we are doing this voluntarily, and after our request to the Ministry of Communications to intervene with Golan Telecom last Friday."
"Globes" earlier reported the real mobility figures, which appear quite low, and showed that Golan Telecom was facing technical difficulties.
Partner said in response, "The company denies the accusations."
Cellcom said in response, "The company completely dismisses the accusations."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 24, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012