Cellular service provider Partner Communications (Nasdaq:PTNR; TASE:PTNR; LSE:PCCD) has won a tender issued by the Association for Well-being of Israel's Soldiers to supply handsets and service to IDF regular army soldiers. Partner replaces Pele-Phone, which had the contract for several years. The contract is considered a very large one, providing service to 140,000 subscribers.
According to the new contract, Partner will charge a fixed connectivity fee of NIS 0.39.9 per minute of airtime; short messaging service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) will cost NIS 0.18.
It will cost soldiers NIS 9.9 per month to buy a handset. Soldiers will also receive a 25% discount on peripherals.
Partner will pay the Association for Well-being of Israel's Soldiers NIS 35 per new subscriber. The association believes that 5,000-6,000 soldiers will subscribe each month, for an estimated total of 200,000 solider-subscribers.
Telecommunications market sources believe that as rival companies Pele-Phone and Cellcom both have subscription packages for soldiers, the subscriber rate for Partner will be significantly lower than the current number of soldiers subscribing through the Association for Well-being of Israel's Soldiers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Thursday, June 09, 2005