Subscriber churn in the cellular market in February 2017 highlights the major efforts by Golan Telecom Ltd. to halt its subscriber losses. These efforts, however, have been only partially successful. The hemorrhaging has been slowed, but it appears that Electra Consumer Products (TASE: ELEK), which has acquired the company, will have a lot of work to do in order to bring the company's recruitment back to what it once was, a task that currently appears virtually impossible.
The leader in subscriber recruitment was once again HOT Mobile Ltd., with 5,000 new subscribers, evidence of the success of its package of unlimited surfing for NIS 49. 200,000 customers have already subscribed to this package, and the veteran operators are having difficulty in competing with the offer. There are many reasons for this, but it appears that such a package is likely to prove costly to the operators, and they are concerned about a mass abandonment of subscribers seeking packages of this type.
Also noteworthy in February was the massive recruitment by Telzar, which is doing very good work in its target markets, among foreign workers, and among new customers in the private market, where it is gradually penetrating.
Among the veteran operators, Pelephone Communications Ltd. lost the fewest subscribers in February, but was subjected to employee sanctions last week. It does not appear in the monthly figures, but the weekly figures show that more customers reacted last week, and even abandoned the company.
Cellcom's subscriber losses in February were relatively minor, while Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) had the biggest subscriber losses of the three veterans, as indicated by the churn figures. Partner is also recruiting fewer subscribers, due to its more conservative offers. It continues to offer two-line packages at NIS 50 a month through 012 Cellular.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on March 1, 2017
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