"I believe that the Ministry of Communications will approve the passive network sharing agreement with a limited active component for which we will jointly apply with Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL), because this will serve the public interest of removing 1,000 cellular antennas," Pelephone Communications Ltd. CEO Gil Sharon told "Globes".
Sharon spoke in response to the publication of the Ministry of Communications' policy statement, which leaves an opening for network sharing by Pelephone and Cellcom, but no sharing of frequencies. The carriers have initiated negotiations on a new network sharing agreement on the basis of the policy statement, which they will submit to the ministry and the Antitrust Authority for approval.
The Antitrust Authority has not yet responded to the carriers' previous agreement for full network sharing, including frequencies, but given the Ministry of Communications' policy statement and the Antitrust Authority's statement of the network sharing agreement between Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) and Hot Mobile Ltd., there is no chance that the government will approve full network sharing.
The Ministry of Communications' policy statement was not coordinated with the Antitrust Authority, which disagrees with the ministry on this matter. If the ministry is prepared to show greater flexibility for passive network sharing by the two carriers, the Antitrust Authority's position is still an open question.
Pelephone and Cellcom are seeking passive network sharing with an active component in order to greatly reduce the number of antennas each carrier owns. This is a critical matter for the carriers, as well as for Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan, who is urging the reduction of networks to three: Hot Mobile-Partner; Cellcom-Golan Telecom Ltd.; and Pelephone. The ministry discriminates against Pelephone because it is the only carrier without a partner to share costs of building a 4G network.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 1, 2014
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