­Israel's Minister of Communications, Ariel Attias's has announced that the country's cellular operators will no longer be allowed to raise tariffs during the contract period, and will be obliged - through an amendment to their licenses - to determine a preset tariff at the signing of the contract.

A statement from the Ministry said that companies will have to present the contract terms and conditions to the customers in a transparent way, so that these are final, preset and known in advance, and valid for the whole duration of the contract.

Although raising prices will be banned, lowering the tariffs, during the contract period, will be permitted.

The Ministry also said that the contract period cannot exceed the duration of 18 months - which does differ from a trend which has been growing to increase contract terms to 24 months in some countries where heavy subsidies for smartphones are being offered.

Source:cellular-news