Ramallah: The Palestinian telecom sector loses between $70-$100 million in revenue each year, according to Bassam Walweel, head of the Board of Palestinian Federation of Industries.
Israeli companies offer better packages including 3G services while Palestinian providers have prohibited by Israel to do so. Palestinian providers still run on a 2G network.
As a result Palestinian telecom companies have lost more than 400,000 subscribers to Israeli competition, he told Gulf News.
Israeli providers are not licensed to operate in Palestinian territories but they do so illegally.
Walweel says Palestinians should boycott Israeli providers and products.
After lengthy negotiations, Israeli and Palestinian authorities reached an agreement in 2015 to allow Palestinian providers to offer 3G services by the end of 2016, but it has yet to materialise.
Israeli restrictions on Palestinian goods and services have cost the Palestinian economy more than $1 billion in the past three years, Ahmad Al Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, said this week.
He said there is no reason for Israel to delay the implementation of the telecom agreement except to “provide more room for Israeli companies to make billions at the expense of the deteriorating Palestinian economy.”
