Cellcom, one of Israel's leading telecommunications companies, announced Monday plans to enter the electricity market, essentially kickstarting a revolution in the industry, which has until now been monopolized by the government-owned Israel Electric Corporation.

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As part of "Cellcom Energy," its joint venture with Meshek Energy that works with renewable sources, the company will provide electricity to private customers and businesses. Within a decade, it plans to transform the market, shifting most of the production to private companies, increasing the use of renewable energy, and transitioning to mostly electric or hybrid vehicles.

The project, which is pending approval, requires the installation of special smart meters. As part of a pilot, the IEC has already installed 40,000 such devices, with many more to be installed soon.

According to Cellcom, the cost of electricity would reduce dramatically, saving the average household thousands of shekels a year, and businesses, tens of thousands of shekels a year.

To encourage more customers to join its program, Cellcom is offering a variety of discounts, including at-home charging stations for electric vehicles and renewable power sources, such as solar panels.

Another major telecommunications company, Hot, also announced its plan to enter the electricity market and is expected to hand in a request for a license from the Electric Corporation on Monday.

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Social media went berserk Tuesday after Cellcom telecommunications company halted work for an hour the same day Israeli Arabs took to the streets to protest Israeli policies toward Palestinians and many in Judea and Samaria took part in the "Day of Rage" events aimed at showing solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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Cellcom said the gesture was meant as an act in support of coexistence in Israel between Arabs and Jews, but many accused the company of showing solidarity with the Palestinians.

Cellcom users took to Facebook to express their shock. Thousands cancelled their internet service and the company's stock decreased by 2% following the incident.

Far-right Knesset members also spoke out harshly against the timing of the company's hour-long pause. "Cellcom is disconnected from the people of Israel, the people of Israel must disconnect from Cellcom," Religious Zionist leader Bezalel Smotrich tweeted.

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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.

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