In the past two weeks, since competition intensified after (Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) launched television services on December 29, and the data are calculated from December 28 for the sake of convenience, until the end of last week, Golan Telecom Ltd., for example, recruited a net 14,459 customers, while HOT Mobile Ltd. recruited 9,145.
Cellcom lost a net 7,966 subscribers since its television launch. Despite the gloomy picture, Cellcom's measure cannot be assessed yet; more time must pass before it can be judged as either successful or unsuccessful, because the customers have not yet fully realized that Cellcom is now in the television market.
Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), whose special offers through its discount 012 unit, set off the plunge in the communications companies shares, lost 8,968 net subscribers in two weeks, meaning that its bargain campaign is a failure, and has contributed nothing to the company; it did not stop the churn in its subscribers, and the company's share fell 15%, equivalent to NIS 500 million in market cap.
Despite its efforts to keep its market share, even if it means losing money, Pelephone Communications Ltd. lost 7,648 net subscribers. Here, too, it can be seen that Walla! cellular, Pelephone's marketing arm that offers cheap packages, was of no help.
Despite losing fewer subscribers than Cellcom and Partner, Pelephone has been hit just as hard as those two companies, taking into account the fact that it is the smallest of the three veteran cellular operators in terms of subscriber numbers. At the same time, it should be noted that Pelephone itself decided not to take part in the "New Year celebrations" by responding directly to the bargains offered by its competitors.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 13, 2015
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