Pelephone

Pelephone was founded as a company in 1985 as a joint venture between Motorola and Tadiran, after Motorola was awarded the contract to build Israel's first mobile phone network in November 1983. Pelephone began operations of its mobile phone network in March 1986. Pelephone's first television commercial featured Israeli actor Hanan Goldblatt using his car phone to buy and sell shares via a stockbroker while driving at the same time. Pelephone's first CEO was Benny Epstein, who served in that position until 1994.

In 1994, Bezeq acquired 50% ownership of Pelephone, and in 2004 acquired full ownership of the company from its co-owner Motorola.

In December 2011 Pelephone became the host network of Rami Levy Communications, the first MVNO to begin operating in Israel. As of 2012, Pelephone states that it has 4,500 employees, although the workers' union says that there are just 3,800.

YouPhone (Alon Cellular) was a member of the Pelephone network as a virtual MVNO operator. It was established as a subsidiary of Alon Blue Square Israel, but since 2015 it has been owned completely by Pelephone and also merged its operations with Pelephone.

Network

The Pelephone network started as AMPS/NAMPS in the 850 MHz band. In 1998 it converted to IS-95 CDMA and in 2004 CDMA2000/EV-DO mobile data capabilities were added as well.

A 3G UMTS network in the 850/2100 MHz bands was launched in early 2009 and in March of that year, Pelephone stopped selling cellphones that use the CDMA system. In mid-2010, the UMTS network was upgraded to HSPA+. In 2014 the company launched an LTE network in the 1800 MHz band. and in 2020 5G NR services were launched, using the 3500 MHz band.

In April 2017, Pelephone announced plans to shut down their CDMA network over the summer, and did so on 28 June 2017.

Operations and services

Pelephone lost its monopoly status in 1994, when Cellcom was founded, breaking Pelephone's monopoly as a mobile network operator, and in 1999, a third competitor, Partner (formerly known as Orange) was established.

Criticism

Involvement in Israeli settlements

On 12 February 2020, the United Nations published a database of companies doing business related in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied Golan Heights. Pelephone was listed on the database on account of its activities in Israeli settlements in these occupied territories, which are considered illegal under international law.