LTE Services Enabled in Israel - See my Speedtest Results

Earlier this week, Israel's Ministry of Communications allowed all existing MNOs to enable 4G/LTE services (here, Hebrew). 

The MNOs cannot charge subscribers for using LTE, nor they can't discriminate MVNOs or roamers using their networks.  

Partner Israel (using the Orange brand) announced that "As of  July 15, 2014, the Company will enable its customers that own handsets which support the 4G technology to benefit from advanced services based on this technology in areas in which the 4G network is already deployed, without any additional  payment for these services until the completion of additional frequencies allocation by the Ministry of Communications as part of the 4G frequencies tender that was published on July 2, 2014 [see "Ministry of Communications Publishes Tender to operate Fourth Generation Cellular Networks" - here]. The allocation of the additional frequencies will enable the realization of the full 4G technology advantages" (see "Partner Communications announces the launch of 4G services in Israel" - here). 

I tested today Partner's performance in Tel-Aviv - Speedtest shows download speed of close to 100 Mbps - although I was probably the only user around. 

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).

Join Us at IMA's 7th 4G Israel Event

This year I was honored to join IMA 4G Israel event's advisory board, and would like invite everyone to attend the one day conference, in Tel Aviv, on January 9th.

   

4G Israel is the largest wireless technology event in Israel, attracting hundreds of thought-leaders and decision-makers from across the country.The conference program provides a vertical view – from business and technology to infrastructure and applications, with case studies of deployments and monetization models.

Among the speakers this year are two of my frequently mentioned industry analysts - Dean Bubley (here), Founder of Disruptive Analysis and Shira Levin (here), Directing Analyst Service Enabelment & Subscriber Intelligence Infonetics Research.  Both will provide their views on the industry and opportunities for MNOs in the LTE era.

Other speakers are from Sprint, Partner (Orange) Israel, Merrill Lynch, NSN, Ericsson, F5, Alactel-Lucent and Mellanox - including a keynote by Dr. Ron Marquardt, VP Technology, Sprint.

See my posts from last year's event:

• Partner (MNO, Israel) on OTT: "We are Crying at Night"; Presents Shopping List - here
• [Cisco Acquired] Intucell CEO Speaks about SON Opportunity  - here.

Registration (through Eventbrite) - 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)

Competition Leads Partner [Israel] to Offer Reduced Speed Mobile Internet Instead of Overage Fees

 
Until recently, there was almost no competition in the Israeli cellular services market. 3 operators (Partner, Cellcom and Pelephone) of similar size + a smaller one (MIRS) offered similar, high prices to the consumer market.

Recent government regulation changed the market, leading to increased competition that shifts gear this week with the first MVNO operator, Rami Levy (a chain of discount supermarkets, publically traded in the Tel Avis Stock Exchange - RMLI).

Although Rami Levy operates as an MNVO (reselling Pelephone services) it announced a very low pricing strategy (compared to the existing plans) based on actual consumption rather than a commitment to packages of minutes, SMS and data.

The incumbents response is due this week, and Amitai Ziv and Ruty Levi (pictured), The Marker reveal Partner (branded as Orange, although not part of the Orange Group) plans.

In addition for estimated 40% reduction compared to existing plans, Partner will offer customers that exceed their data quota a reduced speed service for the rest on the month, rather than paying overage fees (which were very expansive).

Story here, Hebrew.

Israeli MNOs - Do They Keep the Net Neutrality Law?

  

Amitai Ziv (picture) has a story today in the Israeli news site, TheMarker, on Net Neutrality.

As Israel has a Net Neutrality law for wireless services (see "Net Neutrality [Israel] - Parliament Approved Wireless Neutrality" - here), it is interesting to see the comments he got by the 3 mobile operators:

• Pelephone (here): "we study the subject and will act according to the law"
   
• Cellcom (here): "we act according to the law"
   
• Partner (here): "we keep the net Neutrality principle and operate according to regulation and our license terms. We do not prevent access to any network service. As guided by the regulator, we use systems to optimize network resources and prevent malicious activities by the subscribes"

See - here (in Hebrew). I was also interviewed to the article.

Israel: ISP (Partner) Vs. Carrier (Hot) on QoS

   

The Israeli business site, Globes, reports today that Partner (branded as "Orange" - with no affiliation to the global Orange group) claims that Hot (cable netwrok operator) prevent it from delivering quality service to their subscribers.

See the article (Hebrew) - here.

According to the article, Hot's new "UFI" (Ultra Fast Internet) network does not allow Partner to allocate an IP address per subscriber, so it may set an individual QoS policy.

Israeli regulation separates between the fixed network service (DSL or cable) and ISP services - therefore subscribers need to have relations with 2 providers. Wireless operators offer both the network connection and the ISP service.

Behind all this is the fact that Partner provides VoIP and VOD services, therefore competing with Hot's basic cable triple play service.

This is a little more sophisticated than the classical Net Neutrality debate..

See "Net Neutrality in Israel: Targeting Voice over Mobile" - here