The Ministry of Communications is trying to calm things down in the battle between Telzar 019 and Golan Telecom Ltd., but the Telzar CEO announced in another widely distributed e-mail that he had no intention of stopping until the Minister of Communications steps in and prevents Golan Telecom from evading payment for international calls made by its customers through Internet providers.
Telzar and Golan Telecom began their dispute when Telzar decided to step up its struggle against Golan Telecom, which Telzar says owes it millions of shekels it is unwilling to pay. Telzar's lawsuit is currently being heard in court.
Golan Telecom sells SIM cards for NIS 9.90 (a bargain plan), and allows its customers to use them to make overseas calls. In addition to calls through Golan Telecom, however, customers also make calls through overseas calls providers like Telzar, for which Golan Telecom is supposed to collect money from the customers and pay it to the international providers. This is not happening, however, because Golan Telecom says that the collection obligation does not apply to it when the customers do not pay it directly.
Golan Telecom has regular collection agreements with most of the providers, but there is no agreement with Telzar, and Golan probably does not want one. The result is that Golan Telecom is unwilling to pay for millions of call minutes by its customers going through Telzar. It takes a long time for Telzar to block the call routes for those customers, and meanwhile the company is losing millions of shekels.
The Ministry of Communications supervision department yesterday asked that the public correspondence be halted after it was reported in "Globes": "The matter will be examined, and you will receive a response. At the same time, I ask you (both Telzar and Golan Telecom) to desist from sending widely distributed e-mails. If you have complaints, there is a procedure and method for sending us queries," the supervision department wrote.
In response, Telzar managing director Azarya Sela replied in another widely distributed e-mail message, "The truth is that I am surprised at the request to stop the e-mails. The messages will not stop until Golan Telecom's uncontrolled behavior stops. It is unacceptable for Michael Golan to do whatever he wants, while we sit back and suffer. Do you think it is right for Mr. Golan to allow 800,000 subscribers to make overseas calls without taking responsibility? Every prank has a limit. It is not acceptable for the Ministry of Communications to stand aside and watch people getting hurt on the street without doing anything. There are open complaints against Golan Telecom, and no one is doing anything. The Ministry of Communications director general wrote in a letter that payment must be made, and Golan Telecom is not paying. How long? Until when? We have run out of patience."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 12, 2015
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