Golan Telecom again led the mobile carrier pack in net subscriber recruitment (joiners minus leavers) in the June figures, but Hot Mobile is ahead over the first half year.
In June, Golan recruited twice as many subscribers (net) as Hot Mobile, mainly because of the high number of subscribers leaving the latter. It is not clear why Hot Mobile is suffering from such a high churn rate, but from month to month it appears that the company is not managing, and is perhaps not trying hard enough, to stem the outflow.
Hot Mobile actually recruited more subscribers than Golan telecom last month - 33,000 versus Golan's 29,000 - but while only 13,000 subscribers left Golan, 25,000 turned their backs on Hot Mobile, giving Golan the advantage.
Among the veteran carriers, it seems that Partner's spat with Orange S.A. over the remarks of Orange's CEO about wanting to get out of Israel (where Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) uses the Orange brand) did not do it substantial damage, but Partner did recruit far fewer new subscribers in June than its two major competitors, while its losses were similar to theirs. It looks as though Partner has decided to stop competing on price, indicating that the low-price brand 012 Mobile is no longer drawing in customers, and the time has perhaps come to review its usefulness.
Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) unit Pelephone Communications Ltd. was fairly successful in June in reducing its churn rate. It recruited about the same number of subscribers as Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL), but lost fewer.
The situation among the MVNOs is much as it was in the previous few months, with YouPhone, which is for sale, continuing to lose subscribers, while Rami Levy maintains a low growth rate.
Over the first half-year, the picture is a little different. As mentioned, Hot Mobile is ahead, but not by much, having recruited 66,000 more subscribers than Golan Telecom, and it is facing an acute churn problem.
The picture is much clearer among the veteran carriers. Partner has lost far more subscribers than its competitors have: 86,000, compared with 72,000 who have left Cellcom, and just 50,000 who have left Pelephone.
Partner is also behind in new subscriber recruitment, so it remains to be seen which policy succeeds better in maintaining profitability in the companies' half-year results.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 2, 2015
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