Cellcom launches cheap TV, phone, Internet packages

Cellcom, Israel’s biggest cellphone operator, on Wednesday launched low-cost “quadruple play” packages of Internet, cellphone, landline calls and TV, promising to shake up the country’s telecoms market.

The package priced at NIS 249 ($69) a month will save families NIS 1,800 a year, Cellcom said. It will enable Cellcom to better compete with Bezeq, Israel’s dominant telecoms company, as well as HOT, owned by cable operator Altice.

Partner Communications, Israel’s second-biggest cellular operator, also offers landline and Internet and a more limited TV service. It plans to launch an upgraded TV package in June.

Cellcom also said it will offer Android streaming services, in addition to the Apple TV it launched in November, and will enable subscribers to record programs on the cloud rather than on a digital recorder.

Seeking new streams of revenue, Cellcom launched its Internet-based TV service in 2015.

It has about 122,000 TV subscribers, still well below Bezeq’s YES and HOT. But it is adding subscribers, while Bezeq and HOT have been losing TV clients. (Reuters)