"Bezeq is extorting consumers and opposing reform in telephony because of its high profits on the service. Telephony costs NIS 65 monthly from Bezeq, and on the wholesale market it will cost NIS 10, and that's what explains Bezeq's attempts to delay the reform," says Ministry of Communications director-general Avi Berger, talking to "Globes" after writing to the company today.
In his letter, Berger sets out to disprove all Bezeq's claims about its inability from an engineering point of view to enable competitors to use its telephone network, as required by the reform in the fixed-line market. Berger's remarks to "Globes" bring home how hard the feelings are in the Ministry of Communications over Bezeq behavior towards it and over the fact that the company continues to try to obstruct the reform.
Berger, who does not often give interviews, essentially states that Bezeq's attempts to delay the reform stem from one thing only: an attempt to preserve the company's high profitability at the expense of competition and the consumer.
In his letter to Bezeq, Berger sets out why he rejects its arguments and why he believes that the company could launch the service on May 17, as the ministry stipulated it should. Berger presents Bezeq with three set of solutions for telephony, showing why its claims do not hold water and why it can in fact meet the timetable laid down for it.
Berger presents the letter as part of the confrontation following the decision by the High Court of Justice that the ministry must listen to Bezeq's claims and discuss them. Bezeq claims that the ministry is not conducting the dialogue with it that it would like to have, and the High Court of Justice therefore ordered the parties to meet and talk. Bezeq, however, is taking the discussion ordered by the High Court of Justice in a legal direction. That is to say, if the High Court of Justice asked the parties to come back to it after 60 days of talks, then as far as Bezeq is concerned it is allowed not to start to provide the service on May 17. The court handed down its decision about a month ago.
Berger sees matters completely differently, and as far as he is concerned, as long as the court does not issue an injunction, Bezeq is obliged to meet the deadline of May 17. The letter sent today is designed to prove to the High Court of Justice that the company received an opportunity to air all its claims, but that it is still possible to use its telephone network for the benefit of competition, and that the company's motive is to preserve its high profitability.
Bezeq said in response, "The Ministry of Communications fully controls and exclusively determines the price of Bezeq's telephony services. It is therefore strange that the director-general of the Ministry of Communications should choose to point an accusing finger at Bezeq, when he bears the entire responsibility. Bezeq would be happy if the Ministry of Communications were to remove price regulation from it and enable it to offer more attractive prices to its customers."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 20, 2015
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