The Knesset's Finance Committee has started a hearing on communications infrastructure sharing. Ministry of Finance Deputy Budget Director for Communications Shira Greenberg was the first to present. Greenberg said, "In terms of market share, we are talking about 68% controlled by Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) and 30% by HOT Telecommunication Systems Ltd. (TASE: HOT). Even in terms of Hot's infrastructure - 40% of it pass through Bezeq."
"Bezeq reaps 96% of profits in the sector and makes a 60% operating profit," She said. "When it’s a matter of a company like Bezeq, this makes it extremely difficult for competitors to enter the market and compete, and the goal is to enable communications companies that do not operate in many market sectors due to Bezeq's monopoly - we want Knesset members to enable an increase in competition, investment in technology and service improvement, technological services and lower prices; therefore, we propose opening Bezeq's 'nests' - its passive infrastructure, and enabling all companies to use each other's infrastructure, in order to encourage competition in the market."
"Today, everyone already understands that no one is going to lay infrastructure all over Israel. This is what the municipalities are asking for - this is also highly unlikely in terms of environmental protection, costs and feasibility and therefore the actual goal is to enable more fiber, more progress, using the conduits already existing today." Greenberg said
As for the optic fiber project, Greenberg said, "We believe that the vision for the future world of communications includes communications groups that will promote competition. Therefore, we believe that there should be companies interested in laying fiber optic cable, such as Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) and Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL), which are interested in entering this field, particularly following the cellular reform."
Finance Committee Chairman MK Eitan Cabel said that he intends to do whatever is possible to pass this bill and called on all Knesset members to vote as public servants, without political interests.
MK Yaakov Perry asked Ministry of Communications representatives why they do not enforce Hot's license and why are they do not exercise strict supervision, for example regarding Hot's universal deployment obligation.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 22, 2016
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