Palestine Telecommunications (Paltel) Company ( ar, الاتصالات الفلسطينية شركة), listed in the

Palestine Exchange The Palestine Exchange (PEX) ( ar, بورصة فلسطين, ''bursat filasteen'') is a stock exchange based in Nablus in the Palestinian territories. The PEX was established in 1995, and currently operates under the supervision of the Palestinian ...

(PEX) as PALTEL, is the largest employer (after the government) in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

, employing almost 3,000 people. Paltel Group consists of four companies: Palestine Telecommunications (

Paltel Palestine Telecommunications (Paltel) Company ( ar, الاتصالات الفلسطينية شركة), listed in the Palestine Exchange (PEX) as PALTEL, is the largest employer (after the government) in Palestine, employing almost 3,000 people. ...

), Palestine Cellular Communications Ltd. (

Jawwal Palestine Cellular Communications Company, trading as Jawwal ( ar, جوال), is the first Palestinian communications company specialized in cellular and wireless communications; assumes its business in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and is one of ...

), Hadara Company (Internet provider), and Reach (Contact center). It was founded by Sabih Masri, chairman of the board of directors, in 1995, as a public shareholding company.

History

In 1995, when

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

set up the Palestine Telecommunications Company “Paltel”, only 3% of

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

owned a telephone; applicants would have to wait years for a connection by

Bezeq Bezeq ( he, בזק) is an Israeli telecommunications company. Bezeq and its subsidiaries offer a range of telecom services, including fixed-line, mobile telephony, high-speed Internet, transmission, and pay TV (via Yes). History Bezeq was fou ...

, the Israeli state-owned provider.Dempsey, Judy. ''Paltel on fast track to solve communication problem''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

11 December 1996 The initial three-year plan was to invest $600m in the West Bank and Gaza in order to increase customers from 85,000 to 250,000. An agreement was reached in 1997 to acquire fixed-telephony from Cable & Wireless, and in 1998

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

won the contract to supply a

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...

cellular network. That year Arafat called on mobile users to switch to Paltel which would soon become the sole provider in Palestine. The mobile operator of PaltelGroup, with its 2 million subscribers, has stopped a merger operation with Zain, but still will join the One Network project in the year 2010. In 2015, Paltel and fellow provider Ooredoo were granted access by Israeli authorities to use 3G, something they were previously restricted from doing.

Controversies

In April 2016, the company's founding chief executive officer (CEO), Mohammad Mustafa, was named in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

References

{{Communications in the Palestinian territories Telecommunications companies of the State of Palestine Palestinian brands 1995 establishments in the Palestinian territories