The job of a government minister us to make decisions, even if there are those who oppose them, for the good of the State and not for the good of specific power groups or sectors. Today we are correcting an injustice to the consumers that has caused damage to about half a million customers in the Haredi sector and has transferred the power to the consumer form the askanim. I have decided to organize the kosher cellular market for the Haredi community, to allow it free choice and to create further competition that will bring about cheaper prices and improved service. Until now the kosher cellular market was controlled by a monopoly that prevented the porting of mobile numbers and caused increasing prices. Where there is chaos, frustration and harm to the consumer, that is where we step in to repair. The Haredi consumer deserves to be as equals with all the other consumers in the State and benefit from an open and competitive cellular market. From today, the choice will be in the hands of the consumer - each person can choose which cellular company to use, the type of cellular package, and the type of phone to use. Whoever wishes to can stay with the company they use now as a kosher line including blocking services and applications and without internet access and can also port the number to a kosher line in another company. And whoever wants can port the number from a kosher line to any other type of plan he wishes to select from any company... It is important to stress, there is no coercion, just freedom to choose. Whoever wants the service he is familiar with will get it, and as an aside, only the owner of the account can port a number, not anyone under the age of 18.
-- Minister of Communications Yoaz Hendel, sending the "kosher phone reform" officially into effect....
The Haredi askanim keep saying we want the kosher phones and this is damaging to us. Nobody is stopping them from using the kosher phones. Whoever actually wants it can continue to use it. A reasonable compromise could have been to allow porting of kosher numbers only to other ksher lines with other companies (previously no porting was allowed at all) but even with the allowing of porting to a regular number, anyone who wants a kosher line can keep it kosher. The community control has been lessened (I say lessened because I am sure some askanim will find a way to retain some control and to require it in the community) but if people actually want it as they say, they are welcome to continue using kosher phones and still benefit from cheaper prices on the packages..
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I beg to differ - from the very beginning (well, at least once there was more than one kosher company) it was possible to move a kosher line from one company to a kosher line in another company.
ReplyDeletethen I stand corrected
DeleteYes, but it was all controlled by the askanim who collected a nice fee. Loss of that income is really what's driving all the supposedly frum outrage here.
Deletedlz - according to the latest law proposal from Shas (post coming soon), either you are wrong or there is some misunderstanding or they are trying to put it back to the way it was with my compromise addition
DeleteI have moved kosher lines from one company to another many times.
ReplyDeleteok, so this is slightly different. all those kosher lines were under the same "koma ksheira" even though different cell companies provided the service. The one koma ksheira set the rules and prices for the various companies. the new proposal would allow competing komot with porting between them, thus opening competition even in the kosher market
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