Will the report of the examination conducted by the Ministry of Communication regarding the breakdown at Pelephone be publicly released? Reminder:
according to Pelephone's press release, a fire broke out in the fuse box in one of the company's switches in Petah Tikva. Because of the fire, there were damages to surfing the internet, getting and issuing calls and SMS messages among many of the company's subscribers. "Hot Mobil" and "Rami Levy" network's customers were apparently affected by the problem, since the networks "ride" on Pelephone's network.
To the Consumer Council's opinion, the consolidation of the existing infrastructure is a prerequisite for preventing future massive failures such as the breakdown that occurred at Pelephone and beyond the need for adequate compensation to customers of the company, some questions raise regarding the level of maintenance of cellular companies' sites.
In a letter the Consumer Council CEO - lawyer Ehud Peleg - sent to the Director General of the Ministry of Communication, Shlomo Filber in March 30, the Consumer Council asked to receive the Ministry report presenting the results of the examination conducted by the Ministry regarding the source of the failure, as well as the way it was handled, the condition of Pelephone's infrastructure and its level of maintenance. Upon receiving the above information from the Ministry of Communication, the Consumer Council will consider steps for the sake of consumers and Pelephone customers who were affected by the above-mentioned breakdown, since the compensation offered by Pelephone to its customers do not reflect the damage caused to consumers and, to the Council's opinion, is not appropriate.
As we all know, on March 21 2016, a massive breakdown occurred in Pelephone's network; this breakdown lasted several days and caused damage to thousands of consumers.
That very same day, the Ministry of Communication issued a press release stating that Pelephone CEO is regularly updating the Ministry of Communication CEO on developments in the matter, while engineers of the Ministry of Communication are present in "Pelephone" control room and personally supervise the way the problem is handled. To this day, the Ministry of Communication has not released the report on Pelephone's failure.
Moreover, the Science and Technology Committee of the Knesset, chaired by MK Uri Maklev, published in January 11 2016 the following statement: "In recent years, the market has coalesced for all inclusive prices, and from that moment, the companies do not have any interest in adding infrastructure but only in adding clients".
To the Consumer Council's opinion, these preoccupying data require a very careful examination of the condition of cellular infrastructures in Israel, in order to avoid the next failure and damages to the public and to businesses in Israel. The consolidation of existing infrastructure is a prerequisite for preventing future massive failures such as the breakdown that occurred at Pelephone and beyond the need for adequate compensation to customers of the company, some questions raise regarding the level of maintenance of cellular companies' sites.
Israel Consumer Council CEO, lawyer Mr. Ehud Peleg: "It has been about one month since the beginning of the breakdown that has paralyzed thousands of subscribers and the consumers still do not know exactly what happened. This, along with disturbing data regarding the condition of the infrastructure of cellular companies in Israel, requires careful examination in order to prevent the next failure and damage to many consumers and businesses in Israel".
