French operators, well represented in Israel – BBC

Israel has just under 9 million inhabitants and five mobile operators, three of which have links with France. A unique location of its kind.

“The Israeli market is very, very competitive,” said one industry player. For proof, no need long market study. The country has 8.9 million inhabitants, five mobile operators in the fixed and two. Three operators have links with France. Hot is owned by Patrick Drahi, the owner of Numericable, SFR, Golan Telecom belongs to Xavier Niel (Free) and Mickaël Bokobza. As for Partner, responsible for the French-Israeli controversy this week, it markets its products under the Orange brand. The operator holds almost 30% market share. A name change would cause harm.

While the rate of mobile telephony in the population of equipment is more than 100%, the only growth potential is the market share gains on competitors . The market experienced a “big bang” in 2012 under the leadership of Moshe Kahlon, Minister of Communications of the time, who hustled the three incumbents at the time, Partner, Cellcom and Pelephone. New operators conducted a price war similar to that which followed the arrival of Free France. Three years later, the market remains dynamic. 4G frequencies just been awarded.

The relationship between Israel and the Palestinian telecom operators, Paltel or Wataniya Palestine, are at best strained. They blame their powerful neighbor to prevent them from using 3G, for reasons of safety of the territory. The Palestinians believe that this restriction makes them lose $ 100 million in revenue per year. They accuse Israel of blocking the development of territories by imposing technological constraints. But, given the geography of Israel, telecom networks of national operators can be picked up from the territories. The waves do not stop at borders.

In stating that his group would leave Israel, Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, has, despite himself, blown on the embers. The Israeli authorities accused him of yielding to the pressures of small groups calling for a boycott of the country. Technically operator Orange is not in Israel. This is a license agreement that binds him to Partner, which markets its mobile offering under the Orange brand since 1999. That is to say, before the acquisition of the latter by the former France Telecom. The decision of Orange thus within the simple management of the brand portfolio, the Group does not wish to keep his name in a country where there is no operator.

Israel is not content to be a very competitive market. It is also a “life-size” laboratory for new technologies, the size of the country and its strong development. Orange does it is wrong, since there has established one of its Orange Lab, an incubator for start-ups. It also has a subsidiary that is developing a technology platform for television. And that, no question of touching it! Moreover, since his blunder, Stéphane Richard has continued to state “love Israel.”

The decision should nonetheless a surprising appearance. In some countries, notably Algeria, Orange is not operator. Yet there opened earlier this year an Orange Horizons store. This subsidiary is intended to offer services of the group, in the countries where it is not operator. It seeks in particular to push its mobile banking services. Also in Algeria, consumers massively watching TF1, so they see advertisements for Orange. The operator wants to enjoy this recognition

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