Bezeq

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Bezeq

Type
Founded	1984
Headquarters	, Israel
Area served	Israel
Industry	Telecomunications
Net income	2.78 billion NIS
Employees	12,000
Website	http://www.bezeq.co.il

Bezeq (Hebrew: בזק‎) is a telecommunications provider in Israel. Until the mid-2000s when it was owned by the Israeli government, Bezeq had a monopoly on wireline telephony. Though still the most dominant provider of telephone services, it has competition with the sole cable provider in the country (since September 2006),^[1] HOT, which offers a cables based telephone service as of 2005 and with Kavei Zahav - 012, which is an Israeli Internet service provider.

On May 9, 2005, Bezeq was officially privatized when 30% of its shares were sold by the state to the Saban-Apax Investment group for $972 Million.[1]

The wireless telephone market in Israel is divided among four other companies:

Pelephone (a fully-owned subsidiary of Bezeq)
Cellcom
Partner Communications Company Ltd.
Mirs Communications Ltd.

Bezeq is also the largest shareholder in D.B.S. Satellite Services (1998) Ltd., known by its trademark name, Yes, the satellite (DBS) television provider in Israel.