| COUNTRY PERSPECTIVES
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PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY |
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Telecom & internet |
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Telecom & internet |
In 1996, the Palestinian Authority granted the national operator Paltel (Palestine Telecommunications Company) a 20-year licence for the fixed telephony network, renewable for a further 20 years. Paltel has held a monopoly for the first 10 years of this concession. Furthermore, a five-year licence constituting a monopoly for this period was granted to Paltel for exploitation of a mobile telephony network. Paltel’s monopoly was legally abolished in 2001, so the cellular telephony sector is now open to new operators. In September 2000, Paltel created a subsidiary company Palcell called Jawwal (the “itinerant”) to manage this network, in which it holds a 100 percent of the capital since 2004. The company has invested US$ 140 million to establish a cellular network covering the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Plans for expansion of the network are envisaged in four phases, including more than 350 “cells” serving more than 500,000 customers. Jawwal has completed phase 3 and is preparing to increase the number of transmission stations in order to serve 420,000 customers. The network’s backbone will also be reinforced, using GPRS data transmission technology.
According to a recent study by the Madar Research Centre, the Palestinian Territories are at the top of the list of the six countries of the Near East (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories) in terms of investment in information and communication technologies as a share of GDP, posting 4.04 percent, a little higher than the world average.
The Paltel group is also expanding on international markets. It has just created a company, TEL V, with its head office in the United Arab Emirates. It will manage the group’s investments and those of its partners on regional and international markets. This new company will initially subscribe capital of US$ 300 million. It should be noted that the Palestinian operator of telecommunications Paltel previously set up business in the Emirates with capital of US$ 7 million to work in the field of fixed telephony and the internet.
In September 2005, the Minister of Telecommunications announced the end of Jawwal’s monopoly. One year later, in September 2006, Palestine’s second mobile licence was awarded to Kuwait’s Watanyia Telecom holding, which, in partnership with the Palestinian Investment Fund, will run a new operator to be operational in 2007/2008 (see Success Story). |
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