Israel Bans iPad Imports

Posted 04/19/2010 at 6:00am | by Paul Lilly

12

Comments

Print

According to a Washington Post report, Israel has banned all imports of Apple's popular iPad tablet. It isn't the lack of Flash or pre-iPhone OS 4.0 multitasking that has Israeli officials taking a tough stance on iPad imports, but concerns over Wi-Fi.

Here in the States, the FCC allows Wi-Fi enabled devices to broadcast at higher levels than what's allowed in Europe and Israel. The concern for Israel is that the iPad could interfere with other gadgets. As of late last week, customs officials had confiscated about 10 tablets.

"If you operate equipment in a frequency band which is different from the others that operate on that frequency band, then there will be interference," said Nati Schubert, a senior deputy director for the Communications Ministry. "We don't care where people buy their equipment. ... But without regulation, you would have chaos."

Software developers living in Israel have voiced concerns over the ban.

"There are several hundred people in Israel who make their livelihood develop apps ... and there are going to be companies that suffer, because they can't deliver the services they're supposed to be delivering," said Amnon, a software developer who legally brought an iPad in Israel but asked that his last name be withheld.