The first move by Bezeq’s new CEO: Ran Gurion, who took office about a month ago, has decided to reduce the company’s installation rates, in order to accelerate the number of people connecting to the fiber optic service. The new move may further accelerate competition in the field All the major operators in the market.
Compared to Bezeq’s high fiber deployment rate, the rate of joining the service did not satisfy the company’s heads, because the company focused mainly on deployment with the goal of reaching one million households, and catching up with its competitors who had already deployed fiber in demand areas.
Now that the company has completed a deployment of about 1.2 million households, and this year will reach about 1.4 million, it has been decided to focus on increasing the number of joiners. The company reported the addition of 40,000 new customers in the first quarter, and a total of 143,000 customers.
If until today the installation rates were about NIS 450 per apartment, now they will be NIS 299, and in private homes the amount will be reduced from NIS 900 to NIS 600, a decrease of 33%. Although the company states that this is a sale for the summer, the chances of the prices returning to their level are low, and they will most likely be set over time.
Bezeq’s move may ignite competition in the market, as the price it has charged so far has been an obstacle for quite a few customers who wanted to connect to it, but gave up because the competitors offered a connection with no installation fee or charged a relatively low installation fee.
It will be recalled that Bezeq also recently launched a three-month sale, in which it sells a rate of 300 megabytes for NIS 89, after which the price returns to NIS 119. A 1-gigabyte rate sells for NIS 99 for five months, after which the price rises to NIS 139.