HOT's advent into INternet service provision is good news for consumers. What could be bad in having another company, a big, serious one, providing Internet service and competing against the three dilettantes splitting the market?
The trio has long since adopted oligopolistic mannerisms. Among other things they do not publish their prices on their websites. They discriminate between customers, which means if you call and you know what you're talking about, you'll get a better price; if you don't, good luck. They copy each others' pricing.
And, as TheMarker has reported in the past, the three big companies - 012 Smile, 013 Netvision and Bezeq International - brutally trample over net neutrality. That is the principle that states an Internet service provider must not interfere with what its customers do online: The ISPs are supposed to transmit all data equally. The Israeli ones do not: Their pet peeve is file sharing, which is data heavy and weighs on their servers. Apparently they throttle customers' use of this service
So welcome to you, HOTnet. NIS 20 a month for all speeds, from 2.5 Gbps to 100 Mbps, is a wonderful offer that will shake up the market. HOT is also launching an extraordinary triple-play package - the Gold one, described above - that enables users to use the phone freely (within Israel ) and also offers the fastest Internet available at a price households can actually afford.
