Director General of the Ministry of Communications, Liran Avishar Ben-Horin: “The wholesale market is a cornerstone of competition in the telecommunications market and we take seriously any attempt by infrastructure players to make it difficult, delay or discriminate against ISPs that seek to use it. We make it possible to create healthy competition in the communications market. “
The wholesale market reform has enabled the development of competition in various sectors and is one of the most significant reforms in the telecommunications market in recent years. The purpose of the reform is to enable competition in the field of fixed infrastructure and through it, service providers without stationary infrastructure in broad retirement, can lease infrastructure segments from infrastructure owners – Bezeq or Hot, and market consumer services based on them, in order to overcome existing barriers in infrastructure deployment They have to compete.
According to the Minister of Communications’ decision of November 2014 regarding the regulation of wholesale services, Hot Telecom had to start allowing wholesale market activity on its network starting in May 2015. In practice, and even after regulated tariffs for services were set during 2017, Hot began providing services only during 2018 , And even after it began, difficulties were discovered that did not allow service providers to properly provide services to consumers.
As part of the supervision procedure, the firm found that Hot Telecom’s conduct did not allow for normal wholesale market activity on its network in a way that effectively led to the exclusion of competitors from its network and to prevent the development of competition. The ministry considers this type of conduct serious and therefore informed the company of its intention to impose a financial sanction in the amount of approximately NIS 6 million, subject to a hearing.
The amount of the financial sanction is determined, among other things, in accordance with the extent of the competitive harm, the benefit accrued from Hot Telecom, the duration of the violation, the percentage of subscribers exposed to it and other parameters in accordance with the criteria set forth in this matter.
In this context, the ministry believes that the competitive harm does not amount to a lack of subscribers to the wholesale market, but to a long-term harm that also has implications for the development of advanced competitors’ networks, which are seen as an engine of economic growth.
The Ministry of Communications will continue to work to increase competition in all branches of communications, and in addition, in cases where communications companies violate the provisions of the law, the Ministry will act with all the tools at its disposal to deal with violations.