Michael Golan, CEO of Israel’s newest mobile network operator, Golan Telecom, has claimed that the cellco has reached the 200,000 subscriber milestone, less than eight months after it launched services. Commenting on the speed of uptake, Mr Golan noted: ‘As of now, we have more than 200,000 subscribers, and no one in Israeli history recruited 200,000 customers in seven months.’
The operator’s decision to introduce a new unlimited calls plan for just ILS49 (USD13) per month is thought to have driven uptake, with a number of its rivals swift to follow suit in lowering prices. However, questions have been raised over the profitability of such a move, in response to which Golan has said: ‘The price of ILS49 a month is temporary. At ILS99 a month, a profit is possible.’
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Golan secured its mobile operator concession in August 2011, finally bringing an end to a merry-go-round of companies that had been allocated the 3G licence, only to lose it for failure to meet the financial obligations of the concession. Having selected Finland’s Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in November 2011 for its network deployment, it inaugurated commercial 3G services in May 2012.