Internet in Israel

In November 1990, the undersea cable EMOS-1, connecting Israel with Turkey, Greece and Italy, was deployed. This was the first Israeli-built undersea cable, and was augmented by CIOS in April 1994.[5] Since then, other cables have been laid which have provided large capacity links between Israel and abroad.

Until 1997, most domestic Internet traffic was routed either directly between ISPs, or through the Israeli universities' academic network operated by the IUCC. Since 1997, the Israel Internet Association has been responsible for operating the Israeli Internet Exchange (IIX) through which much of the domestic Internet traffic is routed.

Broadband Internet has been available in Israel via ADSL since the late 1990s in theory, but it only became practical to an average residential customer in 2001. This was enabled by a significant upgrade to the Internet infrastructure in 1999, at a cost of over a billion shekels.[1] Since then prices have dropped considerably.

Also in 2001, the Communications Law of 1982 was amended to allow the provision of broadband Internet through the cable infrastructure.[6]

Bezeq, the major local exchange carrier, began rolling out their Next Generation Network (NGN) in 2009 with theoretical speeds up to 100 Mbit/s by using a combination of fiber to the curb (FTTC) and ADSL2+/VDSL2 technologies. Initial product offerings of their NGN were 10 Mbit/s and 15 Mbit/s download and 800 kbit/s upload speeds over ADSL2+,[7][8] with a best effort package of up to 100 Mbit/s available starting October 2010. According to Bezeq, NGN will have reached 90 percent of the households in Israel by late 2011 and offerings of 100 Mbit/s would be provided by 2012.[8][9] Bezeq's main competitor Hot started its UFI servrice on October 21, 2009, with DOCSIS 3.0 technology.[10] This allowed up to 100 Mbit/s initially, subsequently rising to 500 Mbit/s.

As of January 2021, the average download speed in household broadband connections in Israel is 122 Mbit/s, while upload speeds average at 25 Mbit/s.[11] Households connected to fiber to the home infrastructure can utilize lines of up to 1 Gbit/s. Others have access to up to 500 Mbit/s over cable, and up to 200 Mbit/s over DSL.

All ADSL services require and use the PPPoE protocol, and cable modem connections generally operate over DHCP. For speed under 30 Mbit/sec, a cable user can select to use VPNs using the PPTP/L2TP protocol.

The three largest mobile phone carriers, Pelephone, Partner, and Cellcom, offer HSPDA service, typically 24 Mbit/s, over their respective 3G networks as well. Partner was the first provider to operate a consumer 4G (LTE) network,[12] reaching a theoretical symmetrical speed of 100Mbit/s. As of today, all major mobile carriers offer 4G LTE Advanced connectivity in the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz frequencies, available in most populated regions in Israel, however these services are limited to about 20% of their maximum speeds since the Israeli Ministry of Communications has not completed allocating the full spectrum of the required frequencies.[13] In September and October 2020, the three major carriers, plus Hot Mobile, received licenses and deployed their respective 5G networks.[14]

Due to competition laws, every DSL or cable Internet user has to pay separately to the infrastructure provider and to the Internet service provider (ISP). Infrastructure is provided by Bezeq (via dial-up and DSL) and Hot (cable Internet). All cellular companies (Pelephone, Partner, Cellcom and Mirs) provide wireless Internet infrastructure, and also serve as Internet service providers.

The three main Internet service providers are 012 Smile, 013 Netvision (including Internet Rimon) and Bezeq International. In 2006, the companies held market shares of 34, 33 and 30 percent, respectively, although these numbers include international phone calls.[21] In all, as of August 2012, there were 43 companies with ISP licenses given by the Ministry of Communications.[22]

A third landline Internet infrastructure is being built by the Israel Electric Corporation, which will provide fiber to the home access in the country, starting with Beersheba.[24] This follows a March 6, 2011 communications ministry approval.[25] The network is called "Unlimited" and will provide up to 1 Gbit/s access to Israeli homes. After the network is laid, speeds above 1 Gbit/s will be possible.[24] Bezeq is also set to conduct a similar pilot in Petah Tikva in 2012, paving the way for FTTH connections in Israel.[9]

In August 2009 no evidence of filtering was found by ONI in all areas.[26]

Shas, a religious party in Israel, came up with an Internet filtering law, only making pornographic Internet site access permissive for users who identify themselves as adults and request not to be subject to filtering. In February 2008 the law passed in its first of three votes required,[27] however, the government's law committee declined it.[28]

In 2010 and 2011, Israel Police issued directives to all Internet service providers in Israel, including cellular providers, to block certain gambling websites. The ISPs complied with the order, even though its legality was unclear – both regarding the legality of using gambling sites in Israel, and the legality of the police ordering the blocking of websites.[29] In 2012, the court ruled both that blocking websites, in principle, violated freedom of speech laws; and that the police directive itself was illegal.[30]

• Communications in Israel
• Media of Israel