The Internet/Telecom Corner

The Complete Guide to High-Speed Internet in Israel

Sports car enthusiasts would no doubt be pleased if the economics section of America's widest-circulating daily would devote its front-page story and accompanying photo of its weekend edition to the subject: The Complete Guide to Sports Cars.

If I were to tell you that only two cars were mentioned in the article, you would surely find it hard to believe, for most of you encounter a much larger sampling of sports cars on any given day. If I were to go on to tell you that the two cars mentioned were a beat-up 1980 VW Beetle and a Lamborgini with a price tag of $2 million (several times the actual price of the car), you would surely look for the hidden camera, assuming that someone was pulling your leg. But don't look for any hidden cameras in this story. Instead, learn from it the pathetic situation of high-speed Internet in Israel. 

Yediot Aharonot, Israel's widest-circulation daily, in a recent weekend edition, displayed on the front page of its economics supplement a photo and article headlined "The Complete Guide to High-Speed Internet." The article purported to inform the reader about the existence of high-speed Internet in Israel and to assist him in choosing between the various "alternatives."

High-Speed? 

The article compared two types of "high-speed Internet": ISDN and ADSL. Without needlessly entering into a technical discussion, it is fair to say that it would be correct to term ADSL "high-speed Internet."  

The only catch is that ADSL is provided only via Bezeq infrastructure, an internal communications monopoly based only in Israel, at a price several times what Bezeq originally promised to charge in the past, and at a slow deployment rate. 

"Is ADSL the only option?" asks the subheadline of the article. The answer, according to the journalist, is no. A communications "expert" is quoted as explaining an alternative technology, ISDN. According to the journalist, ISDN can be defined without reservation as  "high-speed Internet." To which I can only add: the same way a beat-up 1980 VW Beetle can be defined as a sports car. Never mind that this outdated technology's name has never once been uttered in the same breath as the words "high-speed Internet," even by the very team that developed it. The usual surfing speed of ISDN is dozens of units lower than the lowest threshold that can be defined as high-speed Internet. 

So how can the "expert" err? Further on in the article, we learn that the expert works at a company that does consulting for Bezeq. That's right, you probably already guessed. ISDN, too, is provided solely via Bezeq infrastructure. 

Now we can effectively summarize the subject of "The Complete Guide to High-Speed Internet," at least in Israel: A single technology, owned by Bezeq, which competes with an older technology controlled by the same monopoly. The outdated technologies yield decent incomes, and so the slow deployment rate of the newer technology and its higher price accurately reflect this monopolistic reality. The "competition," if it indeed happens at all, takes place between two different divisions of Bezeq.

No Other Technology 

Meanwhile, other technologies, primarily broadband communications over cable, satellite, and wireless technology, are nowhere to be found. At least in the case of cable, the only reason that this situation exists is failed regulatory intervention, whose biggest symbol is the closing of the cable Internet company Non-Stop.  

Non-Stop, founded by cable provider Matav, was established over two years ago in the hope that the cable providers would soon be granted approval for transmitting Internet over cable.

Such hopes started and ended with promises from the Communications Ministry concerning the availability of the technology (or lack thereof). Eventually Non-Stop moved into waiting mode, a situation that we have reported on in this column before. Non-Stop stood ready with its infrastructure, personnel, marketing setup, and technological testing.  

At the beginning of 2001, the executives at Non‑Stop's parent company announced that they were no longer able to fund such an extended waiting period, and were forced to close Non-Stop. 

As of this writing, hope has returned to the hearts of the executives of the cable companies and the Israeli public, as we await high-speed Internet. Officials at the Communications Ministry have announced that they are poised to grant the long-awaited approval to the cable providers. 

Although such promises for the most part have proven empty, it's impossible not to grasp at such straws as we hope that the next "Guide to High-Speed Internet" will include several alternatives to those of Bezeq.

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