Golan Telecom

The company was founded by Michael Golan (b. Michaël Boukobza, Paris, France, 1978), a businessman who emigrated to Israel from France in 2007, and his partner Xavier Niel – with whom Golan previously developed several telecom ventures as an executive of the Iliad SA group in France, using a business model emphasizing low-cost fixed monthly pricing rather than metered usage.

Golan Telecom is the fifth operator to enter the mobile communications market in Israel, after Pelephone, Cellcom, Partner and Hot Mobile, and is the first brand new company to do so in Israel since 1999. The company received the prefix 058 and on 14 May 2012 began offering no-contract packages of calls (including free long-distance calling to certain international destinations), text messages and unlimited Internet surfing for ₪99 a month and a low-cost metered package starting at ₪9.90 a month which includes 100 minutes, unlimited text messages, and 100 MB of data.

At the beginning of July 2012 Golan announced 80,000 users in two months, equaling 10,000 new customers per week. On 4 December 2013 Golan Telecom claimed 380,000 subscribers, a 134,000 increase from the start of the year. On 30 June 2014 this number grew to 500,000 subscribers, and in May 2015 it hit 750,000 subscribers. At the end of 2016, Golan's subscriber base reached 900,000.

Golan Telecom built its business around the somewhat blunt and unusual slogan, "Enough of being a sucker," which is currently shown as part of its logo. The direct approach in choosing such slogan arose from the frustration of Israeli consumers with the high cost of living in Israel, with cellular communication rates in particular, and as a means of empathy with consumers. Indeed, upon their introduction, Golan's rates were significantly lower than those offered by the existing wireless providers in the country and quickly forced the other providers to drastically reduce their prices, thus providing a boon to many Israeli wireless telephone subscribers. Iliad SA had previously made similar market-disrupting moves in the telecom sector in France.

In December 2011 Golan Telecom signed agreements to install base-stations manufactured by Nokia Siemens Networks. Its network is an HSPA+ network in the 2100 MHz band, with roaming in areas not yet covered. Roaming was first carried by Cellcom's 1800 MHz GSM and 2100 MHz HSPA+ network, then moved to Hot Mobile's network, which provides 2G, 3G, and 4G coverage. In September 2013 Golan announced that it will implement a tower sharing agreement with the Partner network. On 18 December 2014 Golan announced the launch of their 4G LTE network.