The Finance Ministry believes that cellular operators are seeking to delay the tender in order to prevent the introduction of competing technology.
The Ministry of Finance is urging the Ministry of Communications to immediately publish the WiMAX tender regardless of future bandwidth allocations to cellular operators. The Ministry of Finance is critical over the delays in publishing the WiMAX policy and the discussions between the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Defense over the distribution of frequencies between cellular operators and the IDF. The Ministry of Finance believes that cellular operators are seeking to delay the tender in order to prevent the introduction of competing technology.
Publication of the WiMAX policy has been delayed because of disputes between the Ministries of Communications and Defense over the release of 100 megahertz of bandwidth in the 2.5-gigahertz range. The Ministry of Communications says that the IDF should release the frequencies by 2011, and that the frequencies committee has made a decision to this effect. The IDF says that the committee's decisions are unclear and that if it must release the frequencies in 2011, it should receive compensation.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 27, 2008
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