The company will have to postpone its application by two months, until its market share is reduced to 85%.
Bezeq (TASE: BZEQ) will have to delay its application to provide VoIP services by two months. The Ministry of Communications is due in the coming days to disclose the company's market share for March, which will probably show that it has still not fallen below the mandatory 85% following which it may apply for a VoIP license and be eligible for incentives.
Ministry figures show that Bezeq had market share of 86.9% in February, 0.7% less than in January, after falling 0.6% in December. This means that Bezeq's churn rate is slower than was expected following the start of number portability. The company said last week that it lost 90,000 subscribers to Hot Cable Systems Media Ltd. (TASE: HOT) and 012 Smile.Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq:SMLC; TASE: SMLC), since the number portability program went into effect on December 1, 2007 - an average of 15,000 customers a month.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 25, 2008
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