مجموعة الاتصلات » mobile

Hot Mobile gains most new subscribers in Jan

ola — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 08:09:04 +0000

HOT Mobile’s NIS 40 a month two-line cellular package

helped attract 40,000 new subscribers.

HOT Mobile Ltd. rode its “couples bargain campaign” (a two-line cellular package for NIS 40 a month) to success in January 2015 with 40,000 new subscribers. Golan Telecom Ltd., the usual leader in new subscribers, added only 27,000 new subscribers.

HOT Mobile launched its new campaign after Cellcom Israel Ltd.(NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) announced the launching of its new television services. Cellcom, which recently attempted to halt its loss of subscribers with a package combining television and three cellular lines for NIS 199, has had no success thus far. On the day following the launching of this package, Golan Telecom offered a package for NIS 37 a month for the first line and NIS 2 for each additional line.Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) immediately responded with a lifelong cellular package on 012 Mobile at NIS 39 a month. Alon Mobile followed with a package for NIS 15 a month, and Walla Cellular also chimed in with an improved package. In response to the renewed liveliness in the market, the shares of veteran operators Partner and Cellcom plummeted, with shareholders losing hundreds of millions of shekels on their investment.

What caused the success of HOT Mobile’s campaign? It was the right bargain at the right price at the right time. The campaign also proved that the cellular market stands apart from other markets; those who linked it other sectors, such as Internet, landline telephony, or television, did not achieve the effect they hoped for. Israeli consumers prefer their attractive cellular package to be independent of other services. That is also the reason why other comprehensive bargains in the past were unsuccessful.

A bad month for the veteran companies

The veteran companies came off poorly in the results of customer churn. The figures show that Cellcom lost the most subscribers (27,000). Despite its bargain campaign, Partner shed 23,000 subscribers, followed by Partner with an 18,000 subscriber loss. Walla Cellular, which surfs on the Pelephone network, therefore could have expected better results in the figures for new subscribers. Its figures, like those of 012 Mobile, are not included in the subscriber mobility statistics. There were not many changes among the virtual operators: Rami Levy recruited far more subscribers than its virtual competitors, thanks to an aggressive bargain campaign, while YouPhone continued to lose subscribers, despite a particularly attractive offer.

YouPhone recently asked the Ministry of Communications to intervene in the matter of fictitious subscriber churn. The company said that it noticed this month that a certain company in the market had recorded fictitious churn of thousands of customers. These were new previously uncounted prepaid customers. This phenomena has created a gap in YouPhone’s churn and number of subscribers.

HOT Mobile, Golan Telecom extend offers until Thurs

ola — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 07:25:06 +0000

Tens of thousands of subscribers have switched from

the veteran operators.

HOT Mobile Ltd. and Golan Telecom Ltd. have extended their bargain offers until tomorrow, due to strong demand from customers. As reported by “Globes” in mid-January, the two companies’ bargain campaigns have shaken up the market, and tens of thousands of subscribers have left the veteran cellular companies and switched to the new players.The encouraging figures for new subscribers led Golan Telecom and HOT Mobile to prolong their offers until the end of the week.

HOT Mobile’s campaign, called the “Couples Campaign,” offers two lines for NIS 40 a month for a year for a cellular package. Golan Telecom’s campaign offers a first line for NIS 37 and a second line for NIS 2 per cellular package. The cellular market is very concerned that continuation of the bargains is eventually liable to make the market contract, and cause one of the players to collapse. One of the biggest concerns is continued layoffs and personnel cuts caused by intensified competition.

018 Xfone to become sixth Israeli mobile operator

ola — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 08:01:06 +0000

Hezi Bezalel’s 018 Xfone bought a frequency band in the 4G

tender that was completed yesterday evening.

The tender for fourth generation (4G) mobile telephony frequencies ended last night, after Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd.(TASE: BEZQ) unit Pelephone Communications Ltd. decided to buy only three frequency bands instead of the four it had planned.

The price is NIS 35 million for a five megahertz frequency band. This means that Pelephone will pay about NIS 100 million for the frequencies, and all the bidders in the tender will buy one frequency band. Hezi Bezalel, owner of 018 Xfone, bought a frequency band and will be the sixth player in Israel’s mobile telephony market. He will negotiate with one of the veteran carriers to set up a joint network with it. It is believed that the carrier in question will be Pelephone. A condition of the tender is that in order to set up a joint network, each operator must have at least one frequency band.

Veteran mobile cos battered by intensified competition

ola — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 07:57:21 +0000

Cellcom, Pelephone and Partner have lost 25,000 subscribers to

Hot Mobile and Golan Telecom in the past two weeks.

In the past two weeks, since competition intensified after (Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) launched television services on December 29, and the data are calculated from December 28 for the sake of convenience, until the end of last week, Golan Telecom Ltd., for example, recruited a net 14,459 customers, while HOT Mobile Ltd.recruited 9,145.

Cellcom lost a net 7,966 subscribers since its television launch. Despite the gloomy picture, Cellcom’s measure cannot be assessed yet; more time must pass before it can be judged as either successful or unsuccessful, because the customers have not yet fully realized that Cellcom is now in the television market.

Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), whose special offers through its discount 012 unit, set off the plunge in the communications companies shares, lost 8,968 net subscribers in two weeks, meaning that its bargain campaign is a failure, and has contributed nothing to the company; it did not stop the churn in its subscribers, and the company’s share fell 15%, equivalent to NIS 500 million in market cap.

Despite its efforts to keep its market share, even if it means losing money, Pelephone Communications Ltd. lost 7,648 net subscribers. Here, too, it can be seen that Walla! cellular, Pelephone’s marketing arm that offers cheap packages, was of no help.

Despite losing fewer subscribers than Cellcom and Partner, Pelephone has been hit just as hard as those two companies, taking into account the fact that it is the smallest of the three veteran cellular operators in terms of subscriber numbers. At the same time, it should be noted that Pelephone itself decided not to take part in the “New Year celebrations” by responding directly to the bargains offered by its competitors.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 13, 2015

Walla! to enter mobile phone market

ola — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 07:51:34 +0000

Walla! will become a marketer for sister Bezeq unit Pelephone,

and this could start a new price war.

Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) group companies Pelephone Communications Ltd. and Walla! are in talks about cooperation in the cellular field, sources inform “Globes.” The two companies plan to join forces to make Walla! a kind of MVNO (mobile virtual network operator). In the first stage, Walla! will become a marketer for Pelephone, but as of now, it is unclear whether it will apply to the Ministry of Communications for a license.

Sources inform “Globes” that the companies plan to take advantage of the digital marketing power of Walla!, which will enter the mobile sector and begin selling cellular packages, as is currently done by companies like 012 Mobile, which uses the infrastructure of Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR). 012 Mobile is a subsidiary of 012 Smile, owned by Partner. 012 Mobile is a sub-brand, through which Partner sells mainly cellular packages at low prices through a special cellular website, and through which customers order a line and select their preferred cellular package. Pelephone and Walla! plan to cooperate in the same way.

An important strategic move Walla!’s entry into the cellular market is expected to intensify and deepen competition in it, and cause some companies in the sector real distress as a result. Prices as low as NIS 37 a package can already be found in the market, and even prices of NIS 20 below the line (packages not offered to the public in advertisements). The entry of another player like Walla! in combination with Pelephone is likely to give the market a real shakeup. Cooperation between the companies in a way that makes Walla! a marketer requires no approval from the Ministry of Communications, and it therefore cannot be ruled out that another and unexpected price war will take place in the market. Walla!’s entry could also affect the decision of new players whether to enter the cellular market, because as one of Israel’s leading websites, the company has enormous marketing power.

This is an important strategic measure for Pelephone in preparation for 2015, expected to be a very difficult year for all the players in the sector. Pelephone will lose Hot Mobile, which will use the former’s network until the end of 2014, but will switch to Partner’s network starting in 2015. The entry of Walla! into the cellular market is designed to partially compensate Pelephone for the loss of revenue, and help it capture market share. Pelephone’s strategy is aimed at preserving its market share, while aggressively cutting its marketing expenses. Up until now, the Bezeq group’s companies have not openly cooperated with each other. In view of the intensified completion the cellular field, however, Pelephone is searching for strategic advantages at the group level, and Walla! is just such an asset for it.

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UBS: Competition still weighs on Israel’s mobile cos

ola — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:32:22 +0000

UBS Analyst Roni Biron sees the sector continuing to struggle

without mergers being permitted.

UBS Communications Analyst Roni Biron published a position paper this morning, in which he predicts that Israel’s mobile market will face a difficult year, due to the continued competition in the market. Biron says that there is an inherent problem in the mobile market, which will not be solved so long as the Ministry of Communications does not allow mergers, so there will be fewer operators.

The problem, according to Biron, is that there are too many players in the market, and another problem is that Golan Telecom Ltd. pays a fixed price to Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) for use of its infrastructures – which allows it to continue to be aggressive with pricing – “And I don’t view this as a temporary phenomenon,”says Biron.

Biron maintains a “neutral” recommendation for Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) and Cellcom, due to the drop in share prices, which have reached a low level. “We should take positive note of the companies’ abilities to generate cash flow and reduce debts,” says Biron. “They invested more in end-user equipment, and improved their margins on it, and there will be a reduction in costs for Partner and Cellcom as a result of infrastructure-sharing, so not everything is bad. I believe that the wholesale market, not necessarily television, but Internet and telephony will bring them revenue.”

Answering the question of why he did not issue a “buy” recommendation, Biron said, “I think that, in the end, the price race will not end so long as the Ministry of Communications does not allow a number of players to merge. It looks like we will see continuing pressure on subscriber prices in the coming quarters, and the ability to reduce costs and minimize working capital is becoming exhausted.”

Court orders Hot Mobile to pay Histadrut NIS 1m

ola — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 07:01:28 +0000

The Tel Aviv Labor Court found that Hot Mobile had unlawfully

tried to prevent its workers from unionizing.

Wireless telecommunications company Hot Mobile will pay the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) NIS 1 million compensation, after taking a series of steps designed to frustrate the unionization of the company’s employees. Among other things, Hot Mobile sought to dismiss three of the five members of the employees’ executive committee, because of the unionization moves, Tel Aviv District Labor Court judge Neta Ruth and the public representatives on the court found in a ruling on the collective dispute between the two sides. The penalty is the largest ever imposed on a company in Israel for infringement of the right of employees to form a union.

The court also found that hasty steps taken by Hot Mobile, which has 500 employees, to restructure the company and transfer the field sales workers to sister company Hot Telecom, were also designed to prevent unionization.

The Labor Court thus accepted the Histadrut’s demand that Hot Mobile should be recognized as a separate bargaining entity for the purposes of unionization. As a result, the Histadrut was determined to be the representative workers’ organization at Hot Mobile, since more than one third of the company’s employees had signed Histadrut membership forms.

The court said that only a significant financial penalty would deter and eliminate the phenomenon of unlawful interference by employers in unionization by their employees with the aim of damaging and frustrating it. “The appropriate sum of compensation in the extraordinary and extreme circumstances of the case has to be one million shekels,” the court found.

Hot Mobile is owned by Altice Group of France.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 28, 2014

Mobile carriers to operate 4G immediately

ola — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 07:02:13 +0000

Cellcom and Partner have frequencies available;

Pelephone will borrow 5 MHz.

Israel’s Ministry of Communications will allow existing mobile carriers to operate fourth generation (4G) networks using LTE technology even before the tender for 4G frequencies takes place. Pelephone Communications Ltd. will be able to obtain 5 megahertz on loan, while Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) andCellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) will be able to operate their networks on 5 megahertz that they already own.

At a meeting of Ministry of Communications professionals last week, the idea was raised of allowing all the existing carriers to operate 4G networks in a limited format before the tender was held. Partner and Cellcom both submitted requests to the ministry to use frequencies they had themselves freed up for this purpose, and Pelephone, which does not have frequencies of its own available, requested frequencies on loan. The recommendation of the ministry’s professional staff to minister Gilad Erdan was to allow all carriers to launch 4G services on an equal basis, in order to avoid a situation in which carriers with frequencies available would gain a marketing advantage over carriers without frequencies, such as Pelephone.

The upshot of the ministry’s decision is that Golan Telecom will have a problem, because it is not yet ready for a 4G launch. It is not clear whether Hot Mobile is ready or not, but in any event, Partner is expected to launch its network very soon, since it is already prepared to do so.

Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan said, “Very shortly, the companies will be able to use the advanced technology and prepare themselves for providing advanced fourth generation services to the general public. We shall insist that the investment in the advanced technology infrastructure will be the same in the periphery as in the center of the country, in such a way as to narrow social gaps. The companies will undertake not to charge customers more for use of the more advanced technology.”

Israel issues tender for 4G mobile networks

ola — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 07:28:27 +0000

New networks will boost Internet speeds up to five-fold.

Israel’s Communications Ministry on Wednesday issued a tender to operate fourth-generation, or 4G, mobile phone networks that will enable users to upload and download content at three-to-five times current speeds.

“Fourth-generation services will make possible advanced services and applications at high speeds. The new network will propel Israel forward while delivering innovative services,” said Communications Minister Gilad Erdan.

Five mobile operators now operate 3G networks. But there are not enough frequencies in 4G to support all of them, and the cost of developing frequencies is very high, the ministry said in a statement. As a result, the ministry will allow operators to share networks.

There will be at least three cellular operators in the 4G market, and all of them will have to deploy their networks equally both in the center of the country and in peripheral areas.

Any entity with capital of at least 100 million shekels ($29 million) can participate in the tender. Sept. 28 is the deadline to submit proposals.

While Israel was among the first countries to move to 3G in 2000, the transition to 4G has been delayed by bureaucracy at the Communications Ministry, which failed to allocate frequencies, and the reluctance of the mobile operators to invest in new networks, which will cost in the range of $100 million.

As a result, Israeli mobile users have very low Internet speeds of 5.6 megabits per second, compared with 25.8 megabits per second in New Zealand, which boasts the world’s fastest speeds. The global Net Index ranks Israel 63rd for mobile speeds.

Israel’s three largest mobile operators — Cellcom Israel, Partner Communications and Bezeq unit Pelephone — have been engaged in a price war since a

shake-up of the Israeli mobile industry two years ago that doubled the number of competitors. Two of the new competitors — Golan Telecom and Hot Mobile, which is owned by French cable group Altice — have their own infrastructure.

In May, Cellcom announced a 4G network-sharing agreement with Golan, and Partner said it received anti-trust approval for a network sharing agreement with Hot. Partner has already begun developing its 4G network, while Cellcom and Pelephone only recently chose equipment suppliers for theirs.

Mobile cos to end inflated overseas browsing charges

ola — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 06:40:55 +0000

Carriers will block Internet access overseas for all

customers, unless previously agreed.

Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan has formally ordered an amendment to mobile carriers’ licenses regarding roaming fees abroad. This will prevent the excessive fees charged to consumers for mobile web browsing while abroad, without the express consent of the customer. Erdan’s decision follows the hearing held for the mobile carriers.

The Ministry of Communications’ announcement today is a formality. It expresses Erdan’s decision to amend the carriers’ licenses, and to fight the phenomenon in which customers use mobile web services while abroad, without realizing that it entails inflated fees.

Mobile carriers will now block access to the Internet for all customers, free of charge, immediately upon arrival abroad, unless the subscriber has an agreement with the company that includes Internet use overseas, or the customer has specifically requested access to Internet services when abroad.

Where customers have asked for unlocked Internet services when abroad, and do not have an agreement with the mobile carrier that includes surfing, the mobile carrier will be required to send a message with information about how to block Internet services by changing the phone’s settings, or by phoning the company’s service department (free of charge).

In addition, to increase transparency for consumers, the mobile carriers will now be required to send customers who have signed up for international roaming services messages when they reach 75%, 90% and 100% of their pre-paid plan.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 31, 2014