Hot Telecommunication Systems Ltd. () is a company that provides

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

, last-mile Internet access,

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

and telecommunication services in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. It also provides various data transmission services and network services at different rates, services to the business sector and other ancillary services. In November 2004, Hot Telecom commenced providing domestic fixed line telephone services to residential and business subscribers. The company's shares were traded on the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ), colloquially known as The Bursa, is the only public stock exchange in Israel and a public company itself, listed on its own exchange since August 1, 2019. It is regulated by the ''Securities Law (1968)'' a ...

and was a constitute of the TA-100 Index until its acquisition by Altice. In March 2013, the company employed 3,958 workers.

History

The company was founded on 18 August 2003 as merger of the three national cable companies in Israel: Matav, Tevel and Golden Channels that can be directly linked to the growing competition of the local satellite television provider

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

. While these companies had pursued a union since the late 1990s in order to save administrative and content purchasing costs, and especially after Yes was founded in order to stop it before it could grow, the Israeli government monopoly regulator had denied it until the time when Yes had grown at least a minimum subscriber base. The three original companies had not competed with each other since each had been regulated with specific cities and regions. Hot offers about 200 local and foreign-language channels in its

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

services. Hot also offers several exclusive channels under the Hot brand name. In addition to the digital television services, Hot still provides an

analog television Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, instantaneous phase and frequency, ...

service, despite plans to abandon it by 2012, but it has already disconnected the analog service in many areas including central Israel, in favor of digital signals. Many HOT subscribers must now have a decoder box to view broadcasts. Not long after it was created, Hot began offering local telecom service using

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

, a voice-over-internet technology and

internet access Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide ...

services as well. Hot is not an

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

and is only permitted to offer last mile access. , Hot had about 950,000 customers; 60% using the digital television services, over 400,000 using the internet services and over 100,000 using the phone services. As of late 2005, Hot offered a wide VOD service, offering content from almost all channels and content that is not broadcast by other companies. In 2009, businessman

Patrick Drahi Patrick Drahi (; ; ; born 20 August 1963) is a Moroccan–Israeli billionaire magnate and investor with interests in media and telecoms. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of the European-based telecom group Altice. He lives in Swit ...

increased his stake in the company. Drahi completed the takeover in 2011, and offered to buy remaining shares in 2012. As a result, Hot is a part of Drahi's company, Altice Europe NV, as of 2018. In December 2010, Hot received a license to operate an

in the form of a subsidiary. In February 2021, Israel's

Ministry of Communications A Communications Ministry or Department of Communications is a ministry or other government agency charged with communication. Communications responsibilities include regulating telecommunications, postal services, broadcasting and print media. The ...

approved Hot's NIS 170 million investment in the

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

infrastructure venture IBC, subject to a number of antitrust conditions. In 2018, Hot started broadcasting the Kan11 channel at

4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) with a 16:9 asp ...

for the first time at channel 511.

Criticism

Hot has been criticized for refusing to provide service to certain areas of Israel, despite being bound by contract to do so. Regions especially lacking are those that are predominantly

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

and Arab-Israeli, as well as the Arava. Hot responded that it already provided service for 95–98% of the country, and sought an official exemption from providing them to certain areas, where the decision lies with the Communications Ministry.

Customer service

Hot has been accused of using extortionist tactics in its customer service, including refusal to log customer requests to cancel service, and sending repeated bills after termination of service. Hot has been accused of racketeering and faces multiple class action suits. Hot also used to be well known for the longest waiting times for customer service in Israel, they have been forced to reduce await times from hours to 3 minutes, and have the option for a callback.

Involvement in Israeli settlements

On 12 February 2020, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

published a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

of companies doing business related in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, including

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

, as well as in the occupied

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

. Hot Telecom was listed on the database on account of its activities in

Israeli settlements Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...

in these occupied territories, which the UN considers illegal under international law.

References

External links