Starting this coming Tuesday, Israel\'s phone rates will undergo a major overhaul, designed to make things easier - but not necessarily cheaper. Bezek, Israel\'s phone company, will render the entire country one \"charge zone,\" and there will no longer be \"long-distance\" or \"local\" calls. All calls will be charged at a uniform rate: 14 agorot per minute during the day, between 7 AM and 7 PM, and 2.5 agorot during the night. The new day rate replaces a 26-agorot/minute charge for inter-city calls and 9 for local calls. The minimum charge for these calls will be 22.5 agorot.
Peninah Shenhav, Sales and Marketing Deputy Director for Bezek, explained to Arutz-7 that the main purpose of the overhaul is not to make more money for Bezek - \"it will not be more profitable for us\" - but rather to simplify the system of charges for most customers: \"We wish to make it easier for people to realize that it is cheaper to use Bezek than to use cellphones.\" She admitted that people with \"very irregular calling habits, such as those who make mainly local calls and mainly during the day\" will end up paying more, but \"this is very abnormal, and we hardly have any customers like that.\" Shenhav also noted that light-usage customers are entitled to special discounts.
Peninah Shenhav, Sales and Marketing Deputy Director for Bezek, explained to Arutz-7 that the main purpose of the overhaul is not to make more money for Bezek - \"it will not be more profitable for us\" - but rather to simplify the system of charges for most customers: \"We wish to make it easier for people to realize that it is cheaper to use Bezek than to use cellphones.\" She admitted that people with \"very irregular calling habits, such as those who make mainly local calls and mainly during the day\" will end up paying more, but \"this is very abnormal, and we hardly have any customers like that.\" Shenhav also noted that light-usage customers are entitled to special discounts.