Pele-Phone signed an agreement with Sunnycom, a subsidiary of Sunny Telecom, to set up a cellular portal called Go Next. The portal will provide Internet information services, content, e-mail, e-commerce, and various applications to subscribers to Pele-Phone's digital network.
Pele-Phone will hold 51% of the shares in the portal, and Sunnycom will hold 49%. The new company's board of directors will include three directors each from Pele-Phone and Sunny. Sunny will invest $3 million in software and hardware for the portal, and Pele-Phone will invest a similar amount. Pele-Phone is slated to appoint the company's general manager, but has yet to do so.
This is the second cellular portal to be announced in Israel. The first portal was set up by Partner and Walla!. The set-up of Go Next has already commenced, and will be based on technology from the South Korean company Samsung, which uses HTML protocol.
The portal will begin operating next month. It can be surfed using a Palm Pilot. The full version of the portal will go on the air in April, when Pele-Phone begins marketing Samsung phones, which have Internet surfing capability.
Ilan Ben Dov, general manager of both Sunny Communications and Sunnycom, told "Globes" that negotiations with content providers are taking place for marketing through Go Next.
Sunny Communications represents Samsung in Israel in the field of cellular telephones.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on January 17, 2000