[tz] Cellphone tz updates often not happening in Israel

[Paul Eggert]

A couple of weeks ago there were widespread reports of
problems in the tz database's updates getting propagated to
end users in Israel.  Many cellphones running Android,
BlackBerry, iOS, and Symbian were still based on tz release
2012g or earlier, i.e., they had not updated even to tz
release 2012h (2012-10-26), much less to the current rules
for Israel as per tz release 2013d (2013-07-05).

Hundreds of thousands of cellphones were reportedly affected
by the problem, and some cellphone companies worked around
the problem by advising their users to switch to Athens time.

Unfortunately, Europe/Athens is also incorrect for Israel,
as it gets the transition wrong by two hours this fall and
by 49 hours next spring.  And even if users were advised to
switch back to Asia/Jerusalem after next month I wouldn't be
surprised if some users forget, and run into a similar
problem in March.

I wonder why the cellphones' copies of the tz database
are not being updated?

My sources:

Elis N.
Israel does the time warp; daylight savings glitch wreaks havoc.
Jerusalem Post 2013-09-08
http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-Features/Israel-does-the-time-warp-daylight-savings-glitch-wreaks-havoc-325560

Winer S.
New daylight savings schedule baffles cellphones.
The Times of Israel 2013-09-08
http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-daylight-savings-schedule-baffles-cellphones/

Schuster R.
Israel's mobile users go Greek.
Haaretz 2013-09-08
http://www.haaretz.com/business/tech-roundup/1.545875