The Information Technology Landscape in Israel

 

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Local Telephone Network

Ø       Telecommunications Market Revenues amounted to US$3.53B in 1999 and expected to climb to US$5B in 2005. (1)  

Ø       Fixed services make up approximately 53% of Israel’s total telecommunications market, followed by cellular and international long distance. See chart below.

Source: Market Research Centre

Ø       Israel has an advanced local network with 3.1 Million direct exchange lines penetrating 48.7% of the population.  

Ø       Israel 100% digital main telephone line capacity is 86.6%

o         2.8M direct exchange lines – 45% Penetration

§         Currently one operator- BEZEQ

§         First competitor granted operating license

o        Residential Telephone usage is 70% of the countries total capacity

§         Total Residential lines 2.0M

§         Households with a telephone 96%

o        Public Telephones

§         Total: 22,000 (3.6 per 1000 inhabitants)

o        Largest Main Lines

§         35% of total main lines

Cellular

Ø       Israel 4.8M Mobile Users penetrating 76% of the total population in Israel. There are currently four cellular operators in Israel:  Pelephone (Bezeq), Cellcom,  Partner/Orange and MIRS.  

o        Average of 350 minutes/month per user (European: 140 min/month; US 100 min/month) High usage is a result of most Israelis using mobile phones as main telephone line. (1)

o        77.6% Digital Service

International Long Distance

Ø       Since deregulation in 1997 long distance minutes have increase from 266M in 1995 to 804M in 1999.

o        279.5 minutes per subscriber ; 137.7 minutes per inhabitant

Ø       Prices for international calls are amongst the lowest in the world. (1)  

Television

Ø       2 million Television Receivers in 1999; 32 per inhabitant  

Ø       8 Licensed Broadcasters

Ø       Cable TV – 70% of households; 1.3M

o        3 operators

o        10% Growth Rate

o        More than 800 km of fibre-optic cable has been laid to support cable service (1)

Internet – 40 Internet Service Providers

Ø       1M dial up customers

Ø       8,000 direct connect customers

Ø       50, 000 domains

Ø       35% household penetration

Ø       50% Business penetration

Bezeq maintains a digital (ISDN) network for combined services including audio, data and video.

37,000 ISDN Subscribers

Satellite Services

Israel installed its first telecom satellite was launched in 1996 to provide radio, television and data services. Israel plans to launch its second satellite in 2002 to be used for direct-to-home (DHT) TV broadcasting and satellite news gathering (SNG) services. (1)

Submarine Optical Cables

Israel has four main submarine optical cable systems supported by a US$120M Med-1 cable which was an investment by all three international exchange carries. Bezeq International and Jordan Telecommunications Company also installed a 10KM fibre-optic link between Israel and Jordan.