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BRIEF: HOT to get ISP license when Bezeq gets Triple Play: Bezeq was supposed to receive a permit to offer a basket of services when its share of the inland telephony market fell below 85% a year ago.
Nov 03, 2009 (Globes - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The Ministry of Communications has decided that Hot Cable Systems Media Ltd. (TASE: HOT) will get an Internet service provider (ISP) license when Bezeq The Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) gets a permit to offer Triple Play (telephony, television, Internet) services.
The reason is the prolonged delay in the ministry's commitments to Bezeq with regard to the opening of the inland telephony market to competition. Bezeq was supposed to receive a permit to offer a basket of services a long time ago, when its share of the inland telephony market fell below 85 percent a year ago.
The Ministry of Communications has also procrastinated in giving HOT an ISP license due to a dispute over the company's structural separation and on how it will sell ISP services. The ministry is concerned that HOT, whose mandated structural separation is less strict than the separation mandated for Bezeq, could become a company that provides both Internet connectivity and Triple Play services that include Internet infrastructure. This would not only hurt ISP companies, but would give HOT a large marketing advantage over Bezeq, which cannot now offer Triple Play.
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