and ends at 4 PM.

Amidst threats by employees of the veteran cellular companies concerning the results of the Ministry of Communications’ policy, which they say is liable to lead to lay-offs, the tender for 4G cellular frequencies is scheduled to take place tomorrow.

The procurement administration at the Ministry of Finance Accountant General department is conducting the tender online. It will be opened at 10 AM, and is likely to be completed the same day, although an additional day may be necessary if the parties continue raising their bids.

Today, at the last minute, Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq:PTNR; TASE: PTNR) asked the Ministry of Communications to reconsider its tender terms. The veteran operators contend that the tender is highly discriminatory in favor of Golan Telecom Ltd. andHOT Mobile Ltd. because it makes concessions to them that will enable them to continue their cutthroat bargains aimed at crushing their competitors in the cellular market.

In its petition, Partner asserts that the new cellular companies should not be afforded protection as an “infant industry,” because they are backed by “international tycoons in no need of help from the Israeli regulator.”

Better surfing experience on cellular Internet

The tender is designed to provide operators in Israel with frequencies that are essential for their continued functioning, because Israel is lagging far behind the rest of the world in anything pertaining to 4G. Allocating the frequencies will make possible a better surfing experience on cellular Internet, and help the operators cope with their customers’ growing need for available high-speed communications.

Six bidders will compete in the tender: three veteran companies (Partner, Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL), and Pelephone Communications Ltd.), Golan Telecom, HOT Mobile, and a new player seeking to enter the market – Hezi Bezalel, through 018 Xphone.

Eight five-megahertz bandwidths and one three-megahertz bandwidth in the vicinity of 1,800 megahertz will be allocated in the tender. The operators are being required to show NIS 100 million in equity, and to put up a NIS 10 million guarantee. The winners must put up half of their price bid within 45 days, and provide guarantees for the remainder.

Golan Telecom, HOT Mobile, and Xphone enjoy an advantage: for each percentage of market penetration, up to NIS 50 million will be deducted from their bid.

The starting bid in the tender will be NIS 10 million for each megahertz. A round will be conducted every 10 minutes, during which the operators can revise their bids.

Cellcom can buy two frequency bandwidths of three megahertz, because it already has frequencies suitable for 4G. Partner can also buy two bandwidths for the same reason, while Pelephone can buy up to four bandwidths, because it has no 4G frequencies at all, and the same is true of the new players.

The limit for an independent network is 20 megahertz.

It’s a disgrace for the Communications Ministry that the

tender has not yet been published.

Are we nearing the much-anticipated 4G tender publication? “Globes” has obtained information indicating that Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan plans publishing the tender next month, and holding it in September. Sources say that all the companies will participate in the tender, and will compete for 5 Mbps deployments on a 1800 MHz frequency. Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) and Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) will be limited in the number of deployments they are able to purchase, and all the other players will be able to purchase up to 20 Mbps. In total, there are 34-37 MHz for distribution, and it is not clear whether the Ministry of Communications will allocate frequencies for the railways. The tender will also include 2600 MHz frequencies, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has made available.

subscribers on existing copper lines.

Alcatel-Lucent has won a tender for upgrading Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd.’s (TASE: BEZQ) network. The tender is worth tens of millions of dollars, over several years. The upgrade will make 100 mbps Internet communications available to most users all over Israel.

Alcatel-Lucent will provide Bezeq with VDSL2 Vectoring solutions to upgrade its existing network. Most carriers worldwide have chosen this solution, because it enables them to offer high speeds using existing copper wire infrastructure. At the same time, carriers are gradually replacing this infrastructure with fiber optic cable, but this is a much lengthier and more expensive process, and so Bezeq’s copper wire lines will continue to serve its customers for many years to come.

Alcatel-Lucent’s solution will enable Bezeq to deal with several problems, first and foremost with the fact that the company is currently incapable of providing 100 mbps speeds to all users, but only to a minority, because of the distances between subscribers and telecommunications cabinets. The company promises speeds of up to 100 mbps in its publicity, but in fact speeds generally reach 40-50 mbps at most, and even that cannot be provided to all subscribers, because the further the subscriber is from the cabinet, the greater the noise on copper lines, adversely affecting performance.

As far as Bezeq is concerned, the upgrade is vital for dealing with the technological limitation, which is also a marketing and image limitation, since rival provider HOT Telecommunication Systems Ltd. (TASE: HOT) brands itself as providing 100 mbps through the country. Bezeq also needs the solution following the launch of Israel Electric Corporation’s fiber optic venture, which will start to operate next year.

It is believed that, although Bezeq has selected Alcatel-Lucent, it will in fact ultimately work simultaneously with two vendors, the second one being Adtran, which bought Nokia-Siemens’ fixed-line broadband access business. Adtran, however, does not yet have a working product, and Alcatel-Lucent is a world leader that has already installed its solution on the networks of many European carriers.