The Knesset's Economics Committee, headed by MK Michael Bitton, today approved for a second and third reading the amendments intended to increase the deployment of fiber optics for high-speed Internet services, from the communications chapter in the Arrangements Law.
Chairman Bitton opened the discussion by saying that it was a holiday, when the committee begins voting on the provisions of the Arrangements Law. , On the progress and on the status of the deployment there.
MK Michael Bitton, Photo: Gideon Markovich
At the previous meeting, the communications coordinator in the budget department at the Ministry of Finance, Sapir Afragan, explained that after the approval of the reform for the deployment of fibers, in the Economics Committee, problems arose that were reported to them by infrastructure companies that impair their deployment capacity.
According to her, the purpose of the amendment is to allow them to more easily deploy infrastructure in shared buildings.
According to data she provided, this year the deployment will reach 50% of the country.
She further explained that the request is to change the mechanism of refusal of homeowners in shared buildings so that whoever can motivate the layout of the building will be a licensee, with the consent of an apartment owner.
He will inform the tenants and if there is no objection he will be able to lay infrastructure after 30 days.
Today the committee approved an amendment to the proposal that would allow for further relief for the tenants, so that if a certain company has already received the tenants 'approval and connected a building to the fiber infrastructure then another company will not be required to seek the tenants' approval again to deploy its infrastructure.
According to the committee's decision, in case the network has already been deployed, the new infrastructure company will, at the request of one of the tenants, hang a sign in the building and announce that the network has been deployed and intends to deploy its network as well.
If one of the apartment owners objects, he will be able to contact the Supervisor of Condominiums, but in this case the Supervisor's authority will be reduced and he will be able to order not to deploy the network only if there are special reasons for doing so.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the fiber-optic laying event in one of the peripheral localities,
In addition, during the previous discussion in the committee, difficulties arose in deploying the infrastructure in the periphery, and Chairman Bitton said: "Immediately after the budget, the committee will summon the Minister of Communications and the director of his office to discussions. "Reducing the gaps with the social and geographical periphery."
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communications announced this morning that
Communications Minister Yoaz Handel has
decided to give priority in the deployment of fiber optics to 244 localities in the periphery in the border areas.
In the list of localities in which fibers will be spread: localities in the Gaza Strip, localities in the Jordan Valley, the Arava, the Golan Heights on the northern border and more.
Minister of Communications Yoaz Handel, Photo: Yonatan Zindel / Flash 90
In a statement issued by the ministry, the minister said: "My main task as Minister of Communications is to connect Israel everywhere and especially in the periphery ... The first goal is the state borders, those far from the center. Areas without economic viability but full of national viability. Investments We want to make the wilderness flourish - to produce a high quality of life within the borders of the country - from the Golan Heights, through the Jordan Valley and the Arava, the border of Egypt and the north.
From the end we will reach the center and not the other way around.
Through the infrastructure we will create more settlement, immigration absorption, employment and reducing gaps.
To date, we have reached one million households accessible by fiber and at a rate of one hundred thousand a month.
After a lost decade, Israel and the periphery are being connected to the center. "The director general of the Ministry of Communications, Liran Avishar Ben-Horin, added that" the fiber outline we passed in the Knesset ensures that no settlement in Israel will be left behind. "
The announcement also states that as part of the fiber outline, the ministry established the incentive fund - a fund whose revenues derive from the revenues of the communications companies (0.5% per year), which will participate in financing the retirement in areas where Bezeq chose not to retire an advanced network.
By virtue of his authority in the law, Minister of Communications Yoaz Handel today determines which geographical areas will be preferred in the forthcoming tender for fiber deployment.
Preferred areas include: border localities (settlements whose homes, in whole or in part, are within threatening range according to security system considerations - a range of up to 9 km from the Lebanese border and up to 7 km from other borders or the gender fence around the Gaza Strip) and threatened localities ( Localities in Judea and Samaria, which are classified by the defense establishment as threat levels 5-3 (highest threat levels).