Communications Minister Ariel Atias (Shas) has warned cell phone companies that more competition always can be encouraged if the firms do not cut their rates. He also declared that cell phone companies will be heavily fined if they do not cooperate with the new law allowing customers to switch companies with only a three-hour wait.

"I took the consumers' side, as I promised [Shas spiritual leader] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and my voters," he said during a television interview. "I think that if tycoons can give, shall we say, benefits to company officers, they can influence decisions" to benefit the public.