Four groups have submitted preliminary bids for a super-fast Internet network aimed at significantly upgrading Israel’s telecoms landscape to allow for high-definition television, 3DTV and other services needing large bandwidth.

In one of its most ambitious projects, the government has given the go-ahead for state-run utility Israel Electric Corp (IEC) to find investors to build the network using fiber optic cables, which can provide Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second — or as much as 100 times what is available now.

To read this Reuters report in full, see:
in.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/israel-fiberoptics-internet-idINDEE8180CJ20120209