PalCel

active

Established in 1999 by the private Palestinian Telecommunications Company (PALTEL), PALCEL operated a cellular network in the West Bank and Gaza region. PALCEL was separated from PALTEL and became an independent company on December 31, 2000. It was owned by PALTEL (65%) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) (35%). In February 2004, the PA announced that it had sold its entire 35% stake in PalCell for US$42 million. Paltel, whose major shareholders included the Arab Bank, the Cairo-Amman Bank, the PA-controlled Palestinian Development and Investment Company (Padico) and the PA-controlled Palestine Commercial Services Company, then had 100% control of the mobile phone company, of which 26% was under the control of the PA. Jawwal had an exclusive contract to provide mobile services in the West Bank/Gaza region until 2003 or when the number of subscribers reached 120,000. As of 2002, the company had entered phase III of its four-phased network expansion (including over 350 cell sites) and was preparing to increase the number of transmission stations in order to service 420,000 customers. In December of 2004, French telecommunications-equipment manufacturer Alcatel was awarded a multi-million dollar contract to rebuild the GSM infrastructure of Jawaal in the Gaza area. Alcatel was to complete the project in early 2005. Under the contract, Alcatel was to be responsible for the supply, installation, commissioning and integration of its multi-standard GSM/GPRS/Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE)/Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) radio access solution, including a period of assistance for the optimization of the network. By 2004, the Palestinian company had about 400,000 subscribers, or about 47% of the 850,000 mobile-phone subscribers in the West Bank and Gaza territories. Jawwal faced stiff competition from four Israeli-owned mobile-phone providers that operated within the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian operator contended that the Israeli firms were acting illegally, but taking effective action to stop their operations was proving to be difficult. http://www.jawwal.ps/Aboutus/ourprofilee.asp Merged Palcel into Paltel. None