The Israeli Communications Ministry has slapped a ILS 31 million fine on operator Golan Telecom for breaking the terms of its licensing agreement, reports Channel 10, adding that the money will be taken off guarantees deposited with the ministry by the company. Golan Telecom plans to appeal.
Golan Telecom which was established in 2012, was the fifth operator to enter Israel’s mobile market, offering flat-rate packages far cheaper than the competition. However, it has struggled to build scale and has sought network sharing deals with other operators. The Communications Ministry said Golan began to dismantle without permission the network it started building in January 2015. It took down more than 600 GSM antennas, leaving just 196, of which 166 were active, Channel 10 said.
The company said the annual ILS 90 million cost of maintaining the infrastructure was prohibitive. The company founder Michael Golan also blamed the failure to establish a network on the government and on members of the public who fought to prevent the introduction of more antennas. The move comes after Cellcom in November 2015 announced it was going to buy Golan Telecom for ILS 1.17 million. Anti-trust regulators later rejected the move in April.
