Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called yesterday for the expansion of competition of the communications market as of April this year and the opening up of the international calls market to competition including the entry of cellular call operators from January 1 2005
Netanyahu will meet with Communications Minister Ehud Olmert to discuss the proposition
Olmert has already specified his intent to grant international calls licenses to additional land operators but for the moment the Communications Ministry is not prepared to commit itself to a date for opening up the market to cellular operators
The authority to grant new international calls licenses lies with the Communications Ministry and the Finance Ministry has no formal authority to intervene in the decision
The Finance Ministry wishes to increase competition in the industry in order to increase the communications market and bring down prices
The Communications Ministry hopes that opening the international calls market to increased competition will result in mergers that improve the chances of creating companies capable of competing with Bezeq in the domestic terrestrial market but it fears the entry of cellular operators into the international communication market will wipe out the other competitors
Industry sources believe the cellular companies will use international calls as bait to market their services and will offer international calls at prices their competitors will be unable to meet
