Introduction

Communication means people. It's people who make up the telecommunications industry. We may get an idea of what the Israeli communication scene will be like in the years ahead by taking a look at the players.

Eliav Alalouf

The Israeli communications sector has undergone considerable upheavals in the last few years. In this, its fate was similar to that of overseas markets. Deregulation and privatization are methodically gnawing at telecommunications monopolies and generating spectacular opportunities for investors. Last but not least, deregulation and privatization are improving the quality of service consumers are getting, in the form of better, more readily available, more diversified and cheaper communications. Technological advances in the past decade has created a situation in which even a communications giant such as Bezeq may be under threat from a coalition of financially inferior rivals.

Cable companies are likely to be among Bezeq's prominent rivals over inland telephony, data communication, and the Internet. Bezeq will have to face other competitors as well. The prevailing assessment - shared by all communications branch players - is that the future telecom market will offer customers a variety of packages, including Internet, local and international telephony, traditional and pay TV, and, of course, cellular telecommunication.

This does not mean that a single company may possess all the infrastructures required for the provision of these services. With the exception of Bezeq, companies whose operations focus on particular areas are likely to team up. It's no secret, for instance, that Cellcom aspires to become a second Bezeq, but Cellcom general manager Yaakov Perry is also aware of the costs involved.

It would be logical to exploit cable companies' access to households for telephony, high-speed Internet, and data communication services. This option has a significant edge over using wireless transmission technologies to households and offices, considering that these technologies are still at a premature stage.

Any attempt to forecast how the telecommunications market will look two years from now involves some dangerous liaisons scenario. Companies such as Eurocom, Matav Aurec (through Golden Lines and Golden Channels), Discount Investments, Partner, Netvision, and others will form coalitions - be it through cooperation, acquisition, joint ventures of strategic investments. The wealth of possibilities may be confusing even for the best strategists, of whom companies such as Cellcom, Aurec and Partner have quite a few.

But there is another factor which is just as crucial. It has been proved that the management skills and strategic vision of the people who run telecommunications companies may be just as critically important as market share and solid infrastructure. This is the human factor, which tends to be neglected when discussing ADSL, LMDS, Internet telephony, ATM, tiering, WLL, etc.

The "Top Twenty" list is thus intended to present the profiles of those hands-on executives who are expected to exercise considerable influence on the development of the Israeli telecommunications market.

Whenever possible, we chose to quote their views, since they contain considerable indications of the direction that may be chosen by each of the bodies involved in the communication market..

The list includes active shareholders in telecommunications companies, in addition to talented company managers, and, of course, regulatory officials who, with one stroke of the pen, may kill a merger or topple a new player.

For this purpose, we approached the people involved in the sector. We did not confine ourselves to the holders of top positions, where politics and acquired skills in handling the press may yield a distorted picture. We wanted to hear what experts think of the dominant figures in the local scene, and we definitely looked into the views of some of the competitors of the people on our "Top Twenty" list. We asked analysts specializing in the telecommunications sector for their personal opinion, and we also resorted to our own experience and impressions concerning the sector and the players.

After much soul-searching, we compiled the following list, which does not involve any ranking of the persons mentioned in it. We touched on outstanding characteristics of each person, his or her talents and qualifications. We also quoted them, in order to better highlight their positions on issues such as competition, regulation, and strategy.

We would like to thank each of the people who cooperated with us and contributed their learned observations. We would also like to remind readers that the list is only a representative sample.

Published by Israel's Business Arena July 1, 1999