Until recently, the Internet market in Israel was a pretty good example of the free market. You had various suppliers, each with their pros and cons, and as a customer you could move relatively freely between them. Also, due to the harsh competition, they were eager to please - to our (the customers') benefit: prices kept going down, service quality kept increasing, etc.
A couple of months ago, Netvision and Barak have announced a merger that will take place by the beginning of 2007.
Today, Internet Gold and 012 Golden Lines have announced a similar merge.
Thus, from 5 medium-sized competitive companies (Netvision, Barak, Internet Gold, 012 Golden Lines and Bezeq International), we're left with 3 strong behemoths (Bezeq Int'l was pretty large to begin with), significantly harming the service and prices for the customers.
BTW - it's not only Internet we're talking about - the exact same companies also provide international communication services, and some are also involved in either the cabling or the sattelite television.
REGULATOR - WHERE ARE YOU ?!?!?!
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