Israel’s Ministry of Communications has announced a new plan to reform the country’s market for “kosher” mobile phone services by allowing more competition.
A kosher service is one used by ultra-orthodox people in Israel whereby they only use older model mobile phones that do not have texting abilities or any internet connections. They can also be smartphones that have been modified to block such services, while still allowing for the use of phone features like the camera or the storage of files and music, etc.
The government says that opening the market to competition will dismantle the dominant monopoly in the kosher cellular market, which includes about half a million subscribers, facilitate the transition between companies, and lower prices for consumers.
Minister of Communications Yoaz Handel maintains that the cellular training reform will allow full number mobility among kosher line service subscribers, without exception, and will allow competition on kosher lines which should lead to lower prices and a higher quality of the devices marketed.
In addition, a kosher line subscriber will have the ability to switch between a kosher line service plan and another plan in the same cellular company, and vice versa, while keeping their personal phone number.
Minister Handel stated, “The current situation has shown that when one mechanism controls the market, problematic phenomena arise. We have no intention of interfering in filtering the content that the public is interested in, but a problematic situation has arisen that they are bound to one and only body that sets prices and violates consumer rights.”
