Bezeq, Israel's largest telecom group, has been fined NIS 30 million ($8.5 million) for what the competition regulator said was an "abuse of the firm's monopolistic position" in telecommunications infrastructure.
The antitrust authority also imposed a financial penalty of NIS 500,000 ($140,000) on a senior Bezeq official and said on Wednesday that it intended to levy a further NIS 8 million ($2.3 million) fine on Bezeq for misinformation during the authority's investigation.
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The regulator said Bezeq blocked competitors from deploying wired communications networks using the company's infrastructure, which "could adversely affect the development of competition in the supply of internet, television and wired telecom services."
Bezeq declined to comment.
Israel's telecom regulator in 2012 created a wholesale market that required Bezeq to allow smaller rivals Cellcom and Partner Communications to use its network – the only one in Israel that reaches almost every home.
The antitrust authority noted that Cellcom and Partner were deploying an independent fiberoptics network in Israel that would compete with Bezeq.
"Inquiries to Bezeq from companies like Cellcom and Partner seeking to use Bezeq's ... infrastructure to deploy independent wired networks have faced many difficulties and delays," the authority said, adding that the firms have incurred extra costs.
