Partner Group will begin enabling Internet Service Providers to market services on their fiber-optic infrastructure

The Partner Group announced on Sunday that in a month's it will begin enabling Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to market services to consumers on top of the fiber-optic infrastructure it has deployed in Israel. According to the announcement, the company - which spans independent fiber infrastructure - will join Bezeq (-3.06% 522.5) and IBC and provide wholesale model services - that is, allow other companies to offer its infrastructure, and has already signed agreements with two suppliers - 099 and ITC.

Partner is the first company in Israel to start deploying fiber optics and also to connect ultra-high-end Internet customers in 2017, and currently reaches 660,000 households. The company expects that by the end of the year it will reach one million connected households. The company currently has about 200,000 subscriptions to the fiber service, and by opening to the wholesale market it will be able to expand their number.
Competition in the fiber-optic market is in full swing, after in the past year communications companies have upped the ante in infrastructure deployment. According to data from the Ministry of Communications at the end of 2021, the retirement of fiber optics has reached 50% of households in Israel.
Partner is a small player in relation to the big Bezeq, and IBC, which is backed by three large companies - Cellcom, the Electric Company and HOT. Despite this, in recent months the company has made two interesting deals that are expected to increase Partner's share in the market.
About a month ago, Partner signed an agreement with IBC, under which it will market the company's fiber in the wholesale model - that is, it will sell Internet access based on the IBC infrastructure. The second deal was signed with the international communications company Tamers Telecom, as part of which it will establish a fiber-optic infrastructure for it as an alternative infrastructure for connecting the Internet between Europe and the Far East, which today passes through the Suez Canal.
Partner will deploy another 300 km of infrastructure to connect Eilat and the Allenby Bridge with NIS 40 million in funding - which will help it reach other areas in which it has not yet deployed and connect them to the fiber optics.