Following the issuance of a tender by Israeli's Communications Ministry early this month, mobile operators in the country are annoucing their 4G services rollout. Partner Communications Company Ltd has recently announced the launch of its 4G services which will enable its subscribers with 4G enabled devices to surf the internet at much higher connection speeds.
The announcement was made by Partner while waiting for the Ministry to allocate additional frequencies that will enable the realization of the full 4G technology advantages. Talks are already underway among Israel's top mobile operators Cellcom Israel, Partner Communications, Pelephone, Hot Mobile and Golan Telecom to share the 4G network given the current frequency limitation and also the high investment costs for the development of the network.
According to Partner, the launch of the 4G services solely on a 5 MHz frequencies bandwidth is possible following the receipt of the Ministry's approval that allows the approved operators to convert the use of 5 MHz bandwidth frequencies in the 1800 MHz spectrum for the use of 4G technology. The approval of the Ministry for the launch for 4G services requires Partner to be able to replace the frequency band if required, provide the same quality of service on national roaming and MVNO hosting to all users regardless of their operators, upgrade the technology in periphery areas and to charge no additional payments for the 4G until the new frequencies are allocated. Partner currently operates under the orange™ brand and the 012 Smile brand.
"We are proud to be the first company to provide its customers with 4G services with the widest deployment. Partner's organizational vision is to lead in progress and technological innovation and today we are pleased to fulfill again our promise and to launch the first 4G network for the benefit of the public in Israeli."
- Haim Romano, CEO, Partner Communications Company
