Finance Minister Binyamin Netaniahu demands to widen the competition in the telecommunication market starting April and to open up the international calls market to all competitors including cellular phone companies as of the 1s of January 2005
Netanyahu will discuss the matter with Minister of Communications Ehud Olmert within the next few days
Olmert intends to announce issuing licenses to new cellular companies within the next few days but the Ministry of Communications will not at this time commit itself to a date for opening the market to the cellular companies
The decision to give out the new licenses in the international calls market is in the hands of the Minister of Communications and the Ministry of Finance has no official authority to intervene in the matter
The Ministry of Finance wishes to encourage competition in order to advance the market and cause a maximal drop in rates in the international communications sector
The Ministry of Communications hopes that opening the market will bring along mergers which will improve the robustness of companies and the chances of founding companies that will compete with Bezeq in the national communication area but is afraid that letting the cellular companies enter the international calls market will eliminate the rest of the competition
According to the estimations the cellular companies will use the international calls services as a tool for marketing cellular services and offer international call services at cutthroat rates
