Israel and Russia sign mobile roaming agreement

The agreement sets out an outline for negotiations between Israeli and Russian mobile carriers, with the fixed roaming tariff between EU countries as a benchmark.

4 December 12 14:51, Gad Perez

Israel and Russia have signed a cellular roaming agreement, which will allow lower mobile phone rates for tourists from each country visiting the other. It is difficult to assess the full significance of the agreement because the sides did not provide details making it impossible to know by how much prices will fall in practice. Israeli and Russian mobile carriers will need to negotiate and agree new tariffs.Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon said, “This is a precedent setting agreement and the first of its kind for the State of Israel. Its great importance is in the fact that incoming tourism from Russia is the second largest from any country. We hope that the agreement will pave the way for similar agreements with other European countries, and that this will lower prices for Israeli tourists.”

The agreement was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman and Kahlon with Russian Federation Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Russian Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media Mark Shmulevich.

In 2011, 491,500 Russian tourists visited Israel – a figure surpassed only by the US. Since September 2008, Russian tourists have not required a visa in order to visit Israel.

The roaming agreement sets out an outline for negotiations between Israeli and Russian mobile carriers, with the fixed roaming tariff between EU countries serving as a benchmark rate.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on December 4, 2012

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