March 27, 2006
An Israeli company has signed up 20,000 subscribers to what's been dubbed a 'kosher' phone service. The company, MIRS Communications, provides phones stripped down of all features but basic voice service. They were introduced after an an ultra-Orthodox rabbi said he didn't approve of phones with cameras, music downloading, or anything else that could 'distract' the pious.
Whilst, technically, phones can't be kosher or nonkosher but just as rabbis stamp kosher food with special markings, so-called "kosher" phones carry symbols that they have been "Approved by the Rabbinical Committee for Communications." On the recommendation of the committee, and to encourage calling within the community, phone companies charge higher calling rates when "kosher" phone users call phones outside the network. In MIRS's case, a "kosher-to-kosher" phone call costs 10 cents a minute whereas calls made to other phones cost up to 50% more.
