Consultancy Says No Need for MVNOs in Israel

Published on: 4th September 2007

In their battle to prevent the requirement to offer MVNO access, the three top Israeli operators hired an outside consultancy to study the market, and it has concluded that the local market is sufficiently competitive to not require that MVNOs should be introduced.

The Israeli Antitrust Authority had approved the hiring of the global consultancy firm, LECG by Cellcom, Partner Communications (orange) and Pele-Phone to compile the report. The Ministry Of Communications had itself earlier hired another consultancy, National Economic Research Associates (NERA) which has reported that the market could support MVNOs and that they would increase competition in the market.

LECG compared the Israeli market with Eu markets, particularly the markets judged highly competitive by European regulators. LECG also analyzed the Israeli market by segments: SMS, prepaid, and post-paid services. LECG's report summary said that average revenue per minute in the Israeli market was fairly low, which indicated that there is sufficient competition in the market. The summary also noted that prices are falling faster than the EU average.