Cellcom, Partner (Orange brand) and Pelephone, will join efforts and resources in order to launch one single iPhone capaign for all Israeli operators bringing the iPhone.
Each operator has obliged to contribute 1.5 million ILS in order to promote iPhone sales together with the exact same campaign. Yes you are reading correctly- the “fierce” competition will be forgotten through the campaign in order to creat a win-win situation for operators.
Actually this initiative kind of makes sense, because Apple doesn’t allow any of the operators to change the campaign creative- with the same (boring, techy) ads in every country regardless of culture, religion and weather …
Apple is expected to contact the Commissioner of regulation Ronit Kann to ensure that the activity is conducted in accordance with the regulation – which according to Apple, could delay the launch…
The mobile blog of Israel is speculating that Apple may use this as an excuse to delay the launch and maybe just didn’t manufature enough iPhones to fulfil the demand … and not just in Israel.. (then again just a speculation).
Meanwhile The Mobile Blog of Israel is considering to buy a little Android baby for itself, but waiting for a true Hero..
A busy week for all mobile operators in Israel, a lot of bits and bytes to update you with.
Pelephone has started this month announcing the iPhone on its network. Its competitors Partner Orange and Cellcom have both declared they will also bring the iPhone to the holy land. (Cellcom took a while to decide but finnaly tumbled under the iPhone pressure) So soon Israel will be probably the only country in the world to offer iPhone from all operators… (well…except Mirs).
But Pelephone didn’t give up and is planing to bring the HTC Magic to Israel too. The Android based phone is likely to attract tech freeks (like me) who crave to have a linux based phone with all the capabilities of a smartphone and a QWERTY keyboard.
And another thing about Pelephone… It seem this company just keep working those engines…. they are also rumored to bring the Palm Pre to Israel to make Alia… “The Mobile Blog” promises to update on the matter.
And in a different Activity (again) Pelephone (good job guys!) is also launching this summer a music festival in Tel-Aviv that branded on the name of the new service launched recently: Musix. The festival will take place on the 19-20 of August, bringing young fans the singer “Lady Gaga”, Simple plan, kaiser chief and some local artists such as: Aviv Gefen, Monica Sex etc.
Pelephone customers will be able to purchase tickets in a lowered price: 199 ILS instead of 319 ILS for the whole festival. Aday pass will cost 149 ILS instead of 229 ILS.
Hi! Ages have passed since my last post. Luckily, Stavik has been doing a great job in keeping the blog up to date. In the recent months she wrote about some interesting Pelephone activities so I decided to add a little color and scan a few printed ads of this operator.
Let’s start with the Global Pass - the new roaming offer. As Stavik described in her post the offer includes a low (local-like) rate for calls from abroad for a fixed monthly fee and a relatively high call setup fee. Below are two prints: one is Global pass for business and the other for consumer. Interestingly, the only difference is in the price. Business version features lower monthly price (ILS 14.9 vs ILS 19.9), lower minute cost (ILS 0.49 vs ILS 0.59) and lower call setup fee (ILS 3.5 vs ILS 4).
Global Pass Business - outside
Global Pass business - inside
Global Pass consumer outside
Global Pass consumer - inside
Additional print which also promotes the consumer version of the Global Pass communicates a message of the Pelephone’s global footprint thanks to its partnership with Vodafone Netherlands.
Global Pass - Vodafone
Global Pass - Vodafone
The next pomotion is MUSIX music service. The communicated offer is simple – ILS 19.90 for an unlimited access to 200,000 tracks of various genres. Two first month are free. I just wonder why there is no note, even in the smallest font that all the tracks are DRM protected and they may only be kept while the subscription lasts.
MUSIX - outside
MUSIX - inside
And the last (bonus ) print. A free laptop promotion for ILS 189 data plan subscribers.
Israel’s Knesset, or Parliament is debating plans to permit the launch of MVNOs in the country. The Economic Arrangements Bill, being debated by the Knesset Economics Committee, accompanys the state budget and includes a clause to permit MVNOs in the country. The Ministry of Communications initially proposed plans for MVNOs earlier this year. The incumbent operators have until this week to lodge their opinions on the new legislation, and the Knesset is expected to vote on the bill around the middle of next month. If passed, then MVNOs could start applying for licenses within a couple of months. The legislation gives the network operators up to six months to come to a commercial agreement with any licensed MVNO – after which the government would step in to impose an agreement. The country has been debating the entry of MVNOs since at least 2007, when a report from National Economic Research Associates, commissioned by the regulator came down in favour of their services. The network operators in turn responded with their own study, carried out by LECG, which came to the opposite conclusion.
To you readers it might seem as if we are Pelephone fans, but it isn’t so, it is just that Pelephone provides us with more material for posts lately since it begun its re-branding campaign.
So today I’d like to share some content news: Pelephone has launched an ‘unlimited’ music download service called musix. The service cost 20 ILS per month and allows customers to download an unlimited amount of music track from a library of 250,000 songs and play them on their mobile or PC.
So what’s the catch? The songs will be available to customers as long as they are registered to the service for 20 ILS. If they choose to cancel the service the whole list of songs will be erased, so think carefuly if you would like to subscribe to the service since though you can cancel the service anytime, it is unlikley you would like to do so after acquiring a large number of songs.
This is what the service looks like:
And you can check out the internet ad (Banner) here:
After a very long wait, Pelephone and Partner announced today that they will bring the iPhone to their customers starting in October. Cellcom not expected to market the device.
The launch takes place late in relation to the rest to other countries. Over the years, the device has been brought independently by many people and there are currently an approximate number of 80 thousand iPhones in Israel.
***Update***
According to to the financial newspaper “Calcalist” the iPhone will be sold in Israel for a subsidized price, estimated at 199$, similarly to its subsidized price in other countries.
That is due to both operator’s agreement conditions with Apple, forcing them to rise subsidies to 200 million ILS per year. According to Calcalist Orange’s (Partner Israel) expense on subsidies was 87,000 ILS on 2008 (Pelephone does not disclose those details).
Cellcom who has decided not to market the iPhone at this point continues to lower its subsidies on devices. A smart move on one hand, but on the other hand not as smart if Cellcom won’t start to heavily subsidize at least on real premium device to allow them to push content and app to customers.
The mobile blog of Israel is proud and happy to hear that the iPhone is finally coming to Israel at a reasonable price and congratulates Pelephone and Orange for their wise decision to give the iPhone “Alia”.
If you read our blog regularly you probably noticed that Pelephone is on a row and since launching its new GSM network new campaigns just keeps coming..
So as you probably know already (since you read are recent posts ) Pelephone has recently launched its new roaming offer Global Pass , allowing business customers make calls for 0.59 ILS after a 4 ILS set-up fee. when does it pay off for the customer? only if yourphone convesations are usually long. for more details see previous post: Here.
So after all the introduction, Pelephone has released a few days ago a new ad featuring Vodafone Netherlands as a strategic roaming partner. The roaming agreement was signed on 2006 already but Pelephone ultimatly decided to advertise it only now, my assumption is that the agreement was signed over GSM networks Pelephone never had until now.. (not that it wasn’t in use since Pelephone provided GSM phones for travelers but it was less convenient for customers).
Pelephone has recently announced that during summer time travelers joining Global Pass will do it for free without subscription charges and with no commitment to a service period.
The ad doesn’t say how many roaming partners Pelephone has or how many countries around the world they cover but it does say that Pelephone customers can use their phone from the the largest number of countries around the world.
March was certainly the month of Pelephone, regarding its investment in advertising. The company that has launched its new network in March is the largest advertiser of the month, with total investment of the huge amount of 3.8 million dollars.
Other cellular companies remained on march with a high volume of advertising , but the nature of their investments in advertising in March was much smaller than the Pelephone: Partner invests 1.7 million dollars in March, posisioning it at the 9th spot in the advertisers table. Cellcom invests 1.2 million dollars, which puts it in the 13th spot. The mobile category as a whole is the second largest in terms of investment in advertising in March, with total investment of 8.3 million dollars.
Meanwhile Pelephone continues to Advetise at a mass scale through May.
The HighSpeed GSM campaign is continuing. The message has shifted from the general information (new network, new experience) to particulate offers. It has started with outdoor posters of the t new GSM handsets form Nokia and Erickson and has continued with a new roaming proposition. The last worth a few words. One of the main targets of building a new network was a creation of a relevant roaming proposition as a significant revenue share of every GSM operator comes from the voice (and lately data) roaming. Being a CDMA carrier Pelephone wasn’t able to match competitors’ propositions in this field. So, I’ve expected an effort to bring something new to the roaming market, especially in light of the Passover holidays traditional price war between the carriers in this sphere.
I must admit that this time Pelephone hasn’t disappointed me. The started offering some kind of flat rate for calls from abroad. One can pay a monthly charge of ILS 20 (for at lest 12 months) and then call for ILS 0.59 per minute with additional charge of ILS 4 per call. Of course this option may be attractive only for a frequent traveler; taking into consideration that the lowest price offered by Partner and Cellcom is about ILS 1.5 per minute, those who travel a lot and speak at least 270 minutes during the year will find the offer attractive. However, due to the limited target audience of the offer it’s unclear whether it will leave a significant fingerprint on the market.
The spot promoting the proposition is nice and communicates the message of connection between different worlds. I think this commercial is by far better than the first one and definitely much clearer. Here it is, enjoy!
And one more thing: As I’ve predicted, Pelephone is trying to make use of the new unutilized network and has already begun slashing price on the mobile broadband. It has recently launch a limited proposition for students offering a monthly package of 10 GB and USB modem for ILS 60. This is compared to ILS 120 for an unlimited package in Cellcom.
Cellcom, Partner (Orange brand) and Pelephone, will join efforts and resources in order to launch one single iPhone capaign for all Israeli operators bringing the iPhone.
… 
Posted by stavik 
Posted by stavik 
Hi all,
Posted by stavik 
Israel’s Knesset, or Parliament is debating plans to permit the launch of MVNOs in the country. The Economic Arrangements Bill, being debated by the Knesset Economics Committee, accompanys the state budget and includes a clause to permit MVNOs in the country. The Ministry of Communications initially proposed plans for MVNOs earlier this year. The incumbent operators have until this week to lodge their opinions on the new legislation, and the Knesset is expected to vote on the bill around the middle of next month. If passed, then MVNOs could start applying for licenses within a couple of months. The legislation gives the network operators up to six months to come to a commercial agreement with any licensed MVNO – after which the government would step in to impose an agreement. The country has been debating the entry of MVNOs since at least 2007, when a report from National Economic Research Associates, commissioned by the regulator came down in favour of their services. The network operators in turn responded with their own study, carried out by LECG, which came to the opposite conclusion.
After a very long wait, 
