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Israeli companies have traditionally been at the forefront of the global Communications industry. 60 years of innovation in civilian and military applications have resulted in the emergence of several world renowned communication powerhouses in Israel, along with hundreds of smaller tech companies and over 1,000 active Israeli communications start-ups.
Highlights
· Of the approximately 2,000 Israeli start-up companies in 2007, 50% were in Communications.
· Communications exports in 2007 accounts for 23% of Israel’s Hi-Tech exports and 8% of the country’s total exports.
· The number of employees in the communication industry was 15,000 in 2007.
· Over half of the 120 foreign R&D centers operating in Israel develop Communications technologies, including multinationals such as Cisco, IBM, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo!
· Motorola Israel’s (MIL) R&D centers have produced major breakthroughs in the field of mobile and cellular communications and pioneered the world’s first car phone. MIL completed the construction of a new R&D center in northern Israel in 2007.and currently employs over 3,000 people in its 4 Israeli plants.
· Intel Israel employs 7,000 workers in 4 R&D and 2 Manufacturing facilities located across the country and is responsible for the development of leading technology solutions.
· In the 2007 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA ranking, 4 Israeli companies - Voltaire Ltd, Celltick Technologies, Runcom Technologies and Red Bend - took 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th places respectively.
· Israel is ranked 2nd in the world for Venture Capital availability (IMD Yearbook 2007) with Communications receiving the most of any sector with 21% of the VC investments (IVC On-line 2008)
Israel's Communications Firsts
1981 - ECI Telecom first gained world prominence by introducing the concept of toll-quality international compression and was the first to develop technology enabling two calls on the same phone line. ECI was also the first company to deploy HDS.
1986 - Comverse was the first company to integrate voice, fax and call processing functions into a single system. Today, Comverse leads the multimedia messaging market.
1995 - Vocaltec first commercialized VoIP technology with its release of the 1995 Internet Phone.
1996 - Mirabilis was the first company to introduce a consumer product for instant communication and chat, ICQ.
1997 - Radvision developed the H.323 Protocol, the core standard of VoiP that enables voice, picture and data to be transmitted via the Internet. Today, it is a world leader in technology for video conferencing and multimedia over IP.
2000 - Nice Systems became the first company to utilise VoIP recording technology. Nice has emerged as a world leader in multimedia digital recording solutions for business interaction management and security.
2005 - Comsys was the first to offer base band IP for EDGE solutions, for both handsets and base-stations, and is now a leader of 4G chipsets for the next generation cellular infrastructure
2006 – Runcom was the first to introduce a Mobile WiMax compliant ASIC.
Additional Materials
Download the World Economic Report: The Global Information Report 2005-2006 - Israel Factors in the Emergence of an ICT Powerhouse.
Download an overview of the Israeli Communications Industry (2008)
Download an overview of the Israel's investment climate - focus on the Israel's ICT Market ("Creating Synergies in ICT")
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