Environmental Pollution And Poor Performance, Israel Replaces Copper Telecommunications Networks With Fiber Optics

JAKARTA - Israel's Minister of Communications, Yoaz Hendel, Tuesday, September 20 stated that the Israeli government is considering closing the old copper network and shifting all communication services to a newer fiber optic infrastructure.

His ministry has also considered shutting down the copper network and wants telecommunications providers and the public to consider and give their opinion by November 24.

He was referring to Singapore which has completely switched to full use of fiber optics, while Australia and New Zealand are still in the process of switching.

After years of delays and disputes between Bezeq, Israel's largest telecommunications company, and the communications ministry, in early 2021 Bezeq began deploying its fiber network nationwide.

Hendel said that the ministry is now considering transferring all telecommunications services to fiber.

"The old communications infrastructure did not adequately address the increasing demands of the public. And they were polluting and underperforming," he said in a statement. He also noted the current global trend of shifting to fiber optic networks.

“Traditional copper networks consume a lot of energy and have high maintenance costs with low bandwidth,” he added.

Bezeq said in a regulatory filing in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that it was "reviewing the announcement and intends to submit its response to the ministry."

Last month, Bezeq said it currently has reached more than 1.36 million households with its fiber network and as of the end of June had 180,000 subscribers for its fiber services.

They target that 1.5 million homes will have fiber optic access by the end of the year and 2.2 million - 82% of the country, in the coming years.