[Israel]: ISP to Compensate Customers for P2P Traffic Shaping

Two years after a class action lawsuit was filed, judge Ester Shtemer, from the Lod District court, ruled against 012 Smile (subsidiary of Partner Israel), one of Israel largest ISPs for its traffic shaping policy (see the full decision below, Hebrew).

The plaintiff claimed that the 012 did not provide an appropriate speed to its subscribers, when P2P file sharing programs were used, and asked for a compensation of over NIS70M (~$20M).

012 Smile said that they are not committed to provide any specific speed, and they use traffic management policies to prevent P2P program to takeover all available bandwidth, as file sharing is different from interactive web browsing. 012 admitted that file sharing users were discriminated, that they over-subscribe their infrastructure. However, they did not participate in the Glasnost (see "Glasnost: These ISPs are Shaping Traffic!" - here) tests that were presented as evidence by the plaintiff.

[Related post: "Israel: Carriers Must Disclose Broadband CIR" - here and "[Israel] ISPs Respond to the CIR Regulation - What do they Promise?" - here]

012 Smile CEO, Uri Wertman (left the company earlier this year), testified that they have 500,020 subscribers; an estimated 25% were using P2P file sharing applications, and 45% of them were discriminated - a total of 56,252 customers were affected.

The result?

• Smile 012 will provide 9 months of free speed upgrade to each customer asking for it (worth $2/month)
  
• 012 smile will deploy a control system that will ensure that the network will provide 98% of the accumulated demand (95% at peak hours) of all customers. 

Israel: Will ISPs have to Send Detailed Surfing Records to Subscribers?

Gilad Erdan,Minister
of Communications 

Earlier this month, Israel's Ministry of Communications (the local regulator) published 2 calls for hearing about new parental control services to be provided by broadband ISPs (here) and MNOs (here, both in Hebrew).

According to the documents, only a small number of the subscribers have signed for the filtering services of harmful sites. These services should be provided by all licensed ISPs and MNOs for free.

Related posts:

• [Israel]: Why were ISPs Fined for not Promoting Free Parental Control Services? - here
• [Israel]: ISPs will have to Offer Free Web Filtering Service - here
• UK: How do ISPs Implement Network Based Parental Control Service?  - here

In order to increase public awareness to the risks, and to the SPs solutions, the Ministry is considering requiring SPs to add the following services to the filtering service:

• Allowing subscribers to manage the time of day and duration of surfing, with an option for flexibility and changes
   
• The SP will send, on a daily weekly or monthly basis, a report by Email a report on all sites visited by the subscriber
   
• The SP will allow the use of "user names" on a single device, enabling the service to some of the user names
   
• The filtering service will not affect the browsing QoE
   
• The subscriber will be able to select between a device based or a network-based service 

And again - all the above is expected to be provided for free!!!

Israel: Wi-Fi Offload Allowed!

A year ago the Israeli Ministry of Communications decided that MNOs will not be allowed to offer Wi-Fi offloading in public areas (see "Israel: MNOs won’t Offload to Wi-Fi" - here).

This has changed today, and the Ministry announced (here, Hebrew) that any organization may offer such services, in any location (private or public). Some municipalities, such as Tel Aviv, are offering free Wi-Fi services for sometime now.

MNOs will not be able to charge extra from their customers for the Wi-Fi access, and will not be able to count the usage towards their monthly quota.

Afternoon Experience: Rockets Over my Head

I thought I'd shared with my readers the recent events in Israel.

I took the picture below half an hour ago, during my Friday afternoon walk in Tel-Aviv. These are rockets, fired from Gaza by the Hamas terrorist organization, against civilian targets in Israel. This happens 2-3 times a day in Tel-Aviv, and much more in areas closer to Gaza (and there, they get an early warning of 15 seconds to take cover, vs. 90 seconds here).

The intercept system, Iron Dome, has a phenomenal success rate of 90%, resulting with almost no causalities, despite the hundreds of rockets launched so far.

These acts are the reason for the recent Israeli Defense Forces activity (Protective Edge) against the terror operatives in the Gaza strip.

Israel: Network Sharing Conditioned by Net Neutrality

The Anti-trust Authority in Israel approved a netwrok sharing agreement between Partner Israel and Hot Mobile, 2 of the 5 MNOs in Israel. Such sharing is required (beyond its obvious economic benefits) due to a shortage in LTE frequencies that does not allow all 5 MNOs to deploy their own set of antennas. As a result, the Ministry of Communicators published a new policy (here, Hebrew - some is translated in Partner press release - here), defining 5 levels of network sharing (from passive sharing of base stations and antennas to backhaul sharing.

As Hot mobile is part of the Hot group, a cable operator of TV and ISP services, as well as content provider, the permission by the Anti Trust Authority also requires Hot to conform to very strict Net Neutrality rules on its fixed services [See also "[Israel]: The Parliament Approves Net Neutrality (Fixed and Mobile) Law" - here]:

"Hot will not impose or enforce any restriction on the volume of fixed internet consumption of any customer; will not set the cost and quality of service based on accumulated volume .. will not limit or block the use of any service or application provided on the internet at any time, directly or indirectly, including by setting rates or use of technological means .. Hot's internet services will be sold and provided on equal terms to all customers, whether they buy additional services from Hot or not" (here, Hebrew).

[Israel] ISPs Respond to the CIR Regulation - What do they Promise?

Last month I reported about a new regulation in Israel (see "Carriers Must Disclose Broadband CIR" - here).

It turned out that this also applies to ISPs (the internet service in Israel is separated into the network access (DSL/Cable) and the ISP service), and yesterday I got an email from by ISP, Bezeq International, informing me about their "minimum commitment".

It was no surprise to learn that the CIR is 0.01 Mbps. Yes - 10 Kbps. A slow dial-up modem did better in the old days. It is symmetrical, though.

Israel: Carriers Must Disclose Broadband CIR

A new level of transparency is now required from the network providers in Israel. This relates to the two providers of broadband service - Bezeq (DSL) and HOT (Cable).

In Israel the internet service is separated into access and ISP functions, so the customer has to negotiate twice and get two bills. The new rules regulate the access providers only and as such do not mean much to the subscribers.

The Ministry of Communications published corrections to Bezeq and HOT's operator licenses (here and here, Hebrew) with a new section - "service advertising". The new section says that the service  advertisement has to be "real, accurate, fair and conforms to the license" and should include all the following items - maximum download rate, minimum download rate (available at all time to the subscriber) and the same for upload rates.

Both carriers should disclose the above, in writing, to all subscribers in 30 days.

Special Post: My City, Tel Aviv

Sights of my home town, Tel Aviv. By Noam Armonn.

[Israel]: The Parliament Approves Net Neutrality (Fixed and Mobile) Law

The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, voted in favor (17:0) of a new Net Neutrality law. This is the first of 3 votes needed for the law to be approved (here, Hebrew).

The new law (a previous one referred to wireless services only - here) prohibits all licensed ISPs to limit or block any service or application provided over the internet netwrok and limit or block the customer's ability to use end device capabilities.

See also "Israel Expands Net Neutrality to Fixed Networks" - here).

See also the Ministry of Communications announcement -  "Knesset plenum approves Telecom Network  Neutrality bill in first reading" - here.

[Israel]: Why were ISPs Fined for not Promoting Free Parental Control Services?

 
The Israeli Minster of Communications, Gilad Erdan [pictured], announced [here, Hebrew] that two local ISPs - Cellcom (also an MNO) and Bezeq International were fined for not informing their customers properly on the free parental control service they must offer all subscribers.

ISPs must offer free filtering against harmful content, and among other things, send printed (!) flyers and announce it in their web sites. Cellcom was fined $83,000 and Bezeq International (39% of the ISP market) $47,000. Maximum fine is $161,000. See the detailed message (Hebrew) here and here.

While the regulation requires ISPs to offer a free and "effective" filtering service, they all offer a value-added service parental control. I am sure you'll be surprised to see that Bezeq's iKeeper (product of PureSight) service ($3/month) is promoted on the web site! Bezeq even has a video (see below) explaining it. If just 1,300 customers chose to use it instead of the free service, the fine was covered in one year.

[Dean Bubley]: "Carrier Wi-Fi is a complex area"

  

My post on the upcoming carrier Wi-Fi regulation in Israel (here) seems to have made some impression on my colleague, Dean Bubley (pictured).

His recent post to Disruptive Analysis states that he "didn't see this coming at all", and while "it's worth commenting that there is free WiFi pretty much everywhere. Any restaurant or bar, as well as the airport, a lot of shopping malls and other public places, had free WiFi - either totally open or with a code provided for those who ask", Dean raises several points regarding this surprising act of the regulator.

See Dean's arguments - "Is Israel about to ban carrier WiFi offload?" - here.

Israel: MNOs won’t Offload to Wi-Fi

Gad Peretz reports to Globes (here, Hebrew) that "Gilad Erdan [pictured], the Minister of Communications is going to ban Communication service providers from using unlicensed frequencies for Wi-Fi services. The decision follows a long public consultation process.

The reason for banning the use of Wi-Fi is spectrum shortage, and letting CSPs to use these frequencies will limit the public access to the internet. Nevertheless, municipalities and other public organizations will be allowed to offer free public Wi-Fi services".

Tel Aviv, Israel's main city, announced recently its intention to provide free Wi-Fi services along the city's main streets (here, deployed by Motorola Solutions).

[Israel]: More Illegal Download Sites are Blocked (or not)

 

ZIRA's Notification on blocked sites

The Israeli press reports (Calcalist, here - Hebrew) reports that local ISPs are now blocking two more pirate video streaming downloading sites - nako.me and gozlan.me. 

 

The two are from few remaining illegal download sites, following the shutdown of other sites during the recent months. 

ISP are now blocking these sites based on DNS names, after an initial block by IP addresses failed. The court order issued to the request of ZIRA (Hebrew acronym for "Internet Copyrights"), a coalition of major local media and broadcasting organization.
 
Nevertheless, although my ISP is mentioned in the story as blocking the two sites, I can access both sites (which have new names now - Deniro and loka - the latter even ask the visitors to sign a petition against ZIRA).

Sprint, ALU and IXIA to Support LTE Acceleration Lab in Israel

Sprint announced "..its plan to support an LTE acceleration lab in Tel Aviv, Israel, later in 2013. In collaboration with the Israel Mobile & Media Association (IMA), the LTE lab will add significant momentum to the Israeli-based ecosystem of startups and developers. Well-known for its prowess in the high-tech industry, Israel is ranked second behind Silicon Valley among top startup ecosystems"

" .. At the LTE lab, startups will be welcome to work on their ideas, collaborate with other companies, and see what evolves, with minimal carrier direction. Although Sprint will benefit from having an early look at the technology that may result from this collaborative effort, Sprint has an open approach to development and support for the environment .. the equipment will be provided by Alcatel-Lucent, and the lab will collaborate with their ng Connect Program, an Alcatel-Lucent-founded multi-industry ecosystem dedicated to the creation of the next-generation user experience for connected consumers".

LTE acceleration LAB founders -  Sprint, IMA, Alcatel-Lucent and IXIA

IXIA is also supporting the lab and announced that "Acceleration Lab will employ IxLoad and IxNetwork to enable secure and reliable application delivery for participating startups .. The lab is equipped with high-end testing gear for load, conformance, quality of service, and interoperability and LTE network testing, and is facilitated with Orange Israel and Telefonica network APIs. In addition, it contains a pool of more than 2,000 handsets and other technical services and capabilities. Now, with IxLoad and IxNetwork, startups and developers have the data needed to eliminate guesswork about the performance and security of their applications" (here).

Stephen Bye, announcing Sprint support for the LTE acceleration Lab

Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint said at the  4GIsrael (organized by IMA)  “As a complement to our efforts to unlock innovation in the United States, this Sprint-sponsored LTE acceleration lab will allow startups and developers in Israel valuable access to dramatically speed up their time to market .. We are committed to an open developer environment, creating opportunities for innovative services, products and technologies to be developed and launched on the Sprint LTE network”.


See "Sprint to Support Launch of IMA LTE Acceleration Lab for Startups in Israel" - here.

Partner (MNO, Israel) on OTT: "We are Crying at Night"; Presents Shopping List

 
The CTOs of Cellcom and Partner, two of the leading MNOs in Israel (out of 5 operators, two were established during 2012) participated in a panel during the 4GIsrael (organized by IMA) conference yesterday.

Eran Jacoby, VP head of research, DS Brokerage (left) hosted Eyal Iluz (middle), CTO Partner (goes by "Orange") and Lipa Ogman (right), CTO Cellcom.

The interesting question was about how the two are going to handle OTT traffic, as they serve content providers, invest in network infrastructure but do not enjoy the revenues.

"We are crying at night" said Mr. Iluz.

Due to the strict regulation (after years of non-competition between 3 MNOs of equal size) that opened the market, reduced monthly fees by more than 50% ($25 for unlimited call and 1-3GB of data), the local MNOs are not doing anything that may upset (again) the public opinion and regulators.

"We need to think of something".

Before the panel, the the two CTOs presented their companies:

• Cellcom - "we will need to offload all the time, even with the LTE spectrum (which was not allocated yet!) .. we started LTE testing with Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson in several locations in Israel"

• Partner - "we need solutions to handle capacity .. whoever has solutions for content management - call us!" (see shopping list below)

Israel Prepares for Bill Shock Prevention; Opt-In for Data Roaming

The Israeli Ministry of Communications published a call for consultation (here and below, Hebrew) regarding bill-shock prevention regulation for roaming services.

The ministry plans to amend MNO licenses, following complaints it got from subscribers getting huge bills, sometimes reaching 5 figures (in Israeli currency - i.e. over $10,000). This may be also caused, according to the ministry, by data charges for "always-on" applications, such as Email and other application synchronization, that the subscriber is not aware they consume data even if not actively used.

The main suggested changes for data roaming are:

• New subscribers will be blocked for international data roaming and will have to opt-in for the service
• Existing subscribers will be blocked for international data roaming (unless they are already signed to a special service plan)
• An SMS will be sent to any subscriber reaching 50% and 85% of their data plan. At 100% the service will be blocked.
• Subscribers trying to use data roaming, without a data package will be blocked and the MNO will have to send an SMS detailing the rates and instructions for enabling the service. 

Israeli Elections: 2 Parties with Internet Management Agenda

 
Next Tuesday is Election Day in Israel - 5.6M Israelis will vote for one of 34 parties that compete for the 120 seats parliament - the Knesset.

Assuming 65% participation, the minimum number of votes (2% of eligible votes) each party needs around 74,000 votes to get in. Of the 34 parties, about 15 are expected to make it.

2 parties present an agenda that is focused on non other than the Internet (!):

• The Pirate Party (Israel) asks for internet based society, internet freedom and fast and free internet access to all people:
   

• ATID ECHAD ("One Future") has a single mission - fight Internet Pornography. They compare it to addictive drugs and ask that access to adult content on the internet will be on Opt-in basis. According to them, 70% of Israelis support this.  

[Globes]: Israeli ISPs will have to Advertise Minimum Broadband Speeds

Gad Peretz reports to Globes that the Israeli Ministry of Communications is going to add another level of transparency on ISP services.

ISPs will have to advertise, using the same font size they publish their "up-to" speeds, the minimum (committed) speed provided to the subscriber - both for downloads and uploads. 

There are no details on how these speeds are measured, including which services or severs will be used as a benchmark (see "UK: Transparency for Unlimited and "up-to" Service Speeds" - here)

See here (Hebrew).

Israel: MNOs Cannot Block, Limit or Charge for Tethering

The Ministry of Communications in Israel has determined that mobile operators cannot limit or block customers' use of mobile equipment tethering capabilities, based on the local Net Neutrality laws.

This follows the actions made by some operators, either by slowing down such traffic (by Hot Mobile) or surcharge the use of tethering (Partner/Orange).

According to the law, mobile operators cannot "Blocking or limiting any built-in features of telecommunication equipment and devices (including by way of setting tariffs)" unless it is "arising from necessity for appropriate and fair traffic management".

See the order here (Hebrew).

The Net Neutrality law is now in effect for mobile services only (here); However, the ministry proposed recently to expand it for fixed services as well (here).

Israel Expands Net Neutrality to Fixed Networks

The Israeli Ministry of Communications published a draft amendment to the Communication Law, expanding Net Neutrality regulation to fixed services.

Israel adopted NN regulation to wireless services in December 2010 (see "Net Neutrality [Israel] - Parliament Approved Wireless Neutrality" - here).

The draft proposal ("Telecommunication operators will be obliged to guarantee the principle of network neutrality and telecom equipment neutrality - here in English; full proposal here in Hebrew) demands that communication service providers of all kinds will not limit or block any service or application provided over the internet (including VoIP, file sharing and video), limit or block features of communication equipment (including by setting special fees), limit or block the use of communication equipment in any licensed network.

Exceptions are limitation or blocking of service or application done in ensure proper and fair network management, or when the Minister of Communication allowed it "in special cases".

In addition, the draft says that all importers, distributors or sellers of communication equipment will also conform to Network Neutrality and will allow consumers to use all features the equipment they sell or maintain.