Update: January 2001

Israel

These pages present basic facts and technology indicators about the Information Society developments in Israel.

All data have been collected from readily publicly available sources of information at the end of 2000. Since they depend on definitions which are not standardised in all countries, or, in some cases on estimates, and also due to the difficulty to obtain statistical data and series in several countries covered, these indicators should be considered only as indicative of trends and general tendencies.

This report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors. We welcome any additional information or corrections. Please contact the ESIS contractor in charge of the country concerned.

Source :
A – Central Bureau of Statistics http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton51/download/st01_01a.xls

B – Central Bureau of Statistics http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/popultab1.pdf

C – Central Bureau of Statistics , cited in Haaretz, 2.1.2001, C1

D – Israel Finance Ministry, Israel Economy http://www.mof.gov.il/beinle/ie/israe_1.htm
The distribution presented is the following: Skilled workers in agriculture, 2%; Industry, construction and other skilled workers, 21%; Academic professionals (13%), Associate professionals and technicians (15%); Clerical workers (6%), Agents, sales workers and service workers (18%) – total services 52%; Unskilled workers 8% .

Source:
Ministry of Communication: http://www.moc.gov.il - Presentations by the Director General of the Ministry of Communication Daniel Rosenne

A - June 1999, Encouraging Competition in the Telecommunications Market, Slide No 8 - The distribution presented is the following: Total telecom market: ~$3.7 billion at the end of 1998 - 40% Inland fixed communications; 38% Cellular; 11% Cable TV; 7% International Calls; 2% Internet Services; 2% Business systems and terminal equipment.

B – May 3, 2000, Enlarging competition in the telecommunications market – the present situation, Slide No. 4 - Total telecom market: ~4.6 billion dollars at the end of 1999 – 40% Cellular; 39% Fixed inland communications; 7% Cable television; 9% International calls; 3% Internet sevices; 3% Terminal equipment and business systems.

C – Haaretz, 22.1.2000, Hadar Horesh: Foresight expects the Telecommunications market in Israel to reach 5.2 billion dollars in 2001. 

See the following table:

Source:

A - IDC http://www.idc.com/HNR/ismcs.htm
IT Market in Israel - 2 Billion Dolars in 1996: 44% to hardware (servers,PC, workstations, printers, peripherals); 20% for packaged software, application tools and application solutions;25% IT Services; 12% Communications equipment.

B - IDC http://arch.iol.co.il Avi Belizovsky 07.05.98 (Haaretz Newspaper) : IT market in Israel grew in 1997 by 9% and reached US$ 2.2 billion.

C – Haaretz, 21.11.2000, C7 Yuval Dror : IDC Israel announced that the computer services market in Israel grew by 16.9% in 1999 as compared to 1998 and reached 1.37 billion dollars. The expected mean annual growth until 2004 will be 14.4% .

D – The estimate for the equipment market was based on the same proportion between Services (45%) and Hardware (44%) as published by IDC for 1996.

Source : Telecommunications in Israel 2001, State of Israel, Ministry of Communications, January 2001.

Source : Additional general licenses for fixed inland telecommunications services are about to be issued as of January 2001 following the opening of the market.

2.2 Mobile Operators

Source :
A - Presentation by Danny Rosenne, general director of the Ministry of Communication, May 3, 2000, http://www.moc.gov.il.
B - Presentation by Danny Rosenne, general director of the Ministry of Communications, February 1999, http://www.moc.gov.il
C - Growth of 19% in the number of cellular phone connections in 1998 vis a vis 1997 - Haaretz 14.2.99
D – Haaretz, 4.1.2001, C1 – penetration rate of 66% of the whole polulation

2.3 Internet Service Providers

Source :
A- Telecommunications in Israel, 2001 – Ministry of Communications, State of Israel, 12.2000

Source :
A – Haaretz, 9.11.2000 C10 Haaretz, 11.12.2000 C9
B – Haaretz, 15.11.2000 C14
C - List of IIX Peers – see http://www.isoc.org.il/fs_isoc_2x.html . Here we list those ISPs connected to the IIX with a line with capacity of at least of 25 Mb/s . The full list of active ISPs and their traffic statistics are available in the IIX site.

Source :
Haaretz, 16.11.2000, C13 Haaretz, 20.12.2000, C6
Haaretz, 1.2.2001 C4, Hani Barabash : TIM Survey: in a representative sample of 1,000 surfers from age 13 and more they visited at least once a week the following Israeli portals:
.walla.co.il (44.2%); nana.co.il (32.2%); msn.co.il (26.5%); ynet.co.il (18.9%); iol.co.il (17.3%); tapuz.co.il (16.3%); mariv.co.il (12.8%); start.co.il (12.8%); haaretz.co.il (12.6%); netking.co.il (10.4%); yellowpages.co.il (7.6%); globes.co.il (7.2%); Themarker.com (2.8%).

Sources:
A – Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Annuary for Israel no 51, Table 18.12 See:
http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton51/st18_12.pdf
B – Information from the Economics Department, Bezeq who provided the following table:

C- Haaretz, 4.1.2000 C1 and presentation by Danny Rosenne, Director General of the Ministry of Communication,February 1999.
D – Data being unavailable we have taken as best estimate the latest known data (December 1999) which discounts growth through the year 2000.

Source : See tables 1.1 and 3.1 above

Source: See tables 1.1 and 3.1 above

Source:
A – Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Annuary for Israel no 51, Table 18.12 See:
http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton51/st18_12.pdf

B – See table 3.1 above

C – Personal communication from the broadband video conferencing department, Bezeq.

Source :
A - IDC http://www.idc.com/HNR/ismcs.htm estimates the penetration rate for PCs in 1996 in Israel as 40%; The Central Bureau of Statistics provides the number of households in 1996 as 1,548.700 so we receive the number of 619,480 PCs . The estimate of penetration in households at the end of 1999 is 54% ; the number of Jewish households being 1,459.5 thousand gave an estimate of 787,860 household PCs.

B - Avi Belizovsky - Haaretz 15.4.98: In 1997 the number of PCs sold in Israel was 250 thousand. From this the home market was 36% (90,000 PC). If we assume that 50% of the PC acquired in the home market substituted obsolete computers and 50% were added we receive the number for 1997: 619,480+45,000= 664,480 PC.

C - Avi Belizovsky - Haaretz 7.5.98: estimate the number of PC sold in the first quarter of 98 as 63 thousand. Assuming 50% as replacing old computers and 50% as new acquisitions we receive the estimate of 709,480 PCs.

D - Haaretz, 30.11.2000, C7 – Yuval Dror : IDC Israel announced that in the third quarter of 200, 143 thousand PC computers were sold (personal, laptops and servers) for a total value of 250.77 million dollars higher by 44% of the sales for the same quarter in ’99. In the first quarter 116,600 PCs were sold and the second quarter 114 thousand. The survey also pointed out that sales of servers rised by more than 46% in comparison to the same quarter in ’99 and reached 6,000 servers. The sales of laptops rised by 70% in comparison to last year ‘s third quarter and reached about 15,000 units. The downward trend in the acquisiton of computers by the home market in Israel continues. In 1995 the home market took 50% of the PC acquisitions and now it takes only 25% due to the strenghtening of the organisational market. This data provides an estimate total of 516,600 PC sold in Israel in the year 2000 - 130 thousand for the home market and the remaining 386 thousand in the organisational market.

Source : See note D in the table above - Haaretz, 30.11.2000, C7 – it provides an estimate total of 516,600 PC sold in Israel in the year 2000 - 130 thousand for the home market and the remaining 386 thousand for the organisational market.

Source :
A - Globes Arena http://www.globes.co.il (Nov 22, 1998) – Efi Landau cites IDC estimate.of 180,000 regular users and 70,000 occasional users

B – Yedioth Aharonot, 3.11.99 24 Hours, page 11 – Cites the survey carried out by the Geocartography Institute by Profs. Rina and Avi Dagan

C – Presentation by Danny Rosenne Director General of the Ministry of Communication, 6.9.2000 where he cites Haaretz, 21.6.2000. Teleseker of May 2000: 1,1 million users of the Internet; 17.5% of the population over 13 years old and 26% of the Jewish population over 18 years old. 32% of the Households in the Jewish population are connected to the Internet. 88% of the users use the Internet from home; 29% got connected in the last 12 months; half of them use up to 4 hours a week and 22% use the Internet more than 10 hours a week; the main applications are electronic mail (76%); information gathering (73%) and download of software (59%). 21% of the users buy services or products in the Internet.

D – Haaretz, 31.1.2001 C7 Hani Barabash. The TIM Survey from the companies TNS/Teleseker found that 1.27 million users surf the Internet in Israel; 26% of them began in the last year; 947 thousands adults aged from 18 years old and more; and 224 thousand youngsters, that is 52% of those aged between 13-17 years old. The numbers of surfers among the Arab population and those who do not speak Hebrew is 100 thousand. Among the users 89% connect from their homes ( the same rate like that obtained in June, 2000) and 32% use it from the workplace (against 27% in June, 2000); 21% use the Internet from the school and 9% from other places (against 12% in June last year). 52% began using the Internet in the last two years. Among the users 59% are daily users (data that corresponds to 12% of the total population aged 13 and more).
The TNS survey for September/December 2000 puts Israel in the 12^th place among the countries in the rate of Internet users to the total population: Norway (60%); USA (50.3%); Canada (49.0%); Australia (42.6%); Holland (34.2%); South Corea (31.5%); Britain (30.3%); Taiwan (29.5%); Germany (23.3%); Japan (21.3%); Italy (20.0%); Israel (19.8%).