Palestine

Basics[]

The Palestine territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have two mobile operators:

Jawwal (owned by Paltel)
Ooredoo Palestine (formerly Wataniya Mobile)

West Bank[]

UPDATE Jan 2018: After 12 years of delay 3G services finally started in the West Bank from 23/1/2018 with both operators. Therefore Palestine has been partly removed from the Greylist and this article will soon be updated. Note, that there are still no 3G or 4G services in the Gaza Strip due to ongoing security concerns of Israel.

Up to January 2018, Palestinian providers have not been able to build up 3G or 4G networks because of the refusal of Israel to allocate frequencies and bandwidth. This situation continued for 12 years and still goes on in the Gaza Strip, as Israel still has ongoing "security concerns", while they have been given away spectrum to their own 4G providers.

For fast data Palestinians had to switch to Israeli networks which cover major parts of Palestine in 3G and 4G/LTE too. Thus, local providers were losing a lot of revenues gained by Israeli providers instead. Back in 2015 Israel and the Palestine authorities signed a deal allowing Palestine operators to launch 3G and possibly 4G networks. But it took 3 more years to implement the agreement.

Be aware that the use, importation or selling of an Israeli SIM is considered a severe crime according to Palestine law. In police raids imported SIM cards from Israel have been seized and people have been thrown into jail for selling them. Though, as a foreign visitor you will probably have no problems using one in your phone, but better stay away from the local black market selling Israeli SIM cards at around ILS 50. At least in the West Bank you can use Palestinian providers from now on for faster data.

Gaza Strip[]

The introduction of 3G services in 2018 has not been extended to the Gaza Strip so far. The Hamas-led government is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan, Paraguay, the United Kingdom and the United States. Therefore technology developments in this territory have been further delayed.

In 2017 Wataniya, now Ooredoo, started as second provider on 2G only there, now competing with incumbent Jawwal.

For now, this leaves this area as the only city of more than a million inhabitants in the world without an own 3G or 4G internet so far. Major parts of Gaza are covered by Israeli providers which can be used instead. While this is common place in the Gaza strip, it's considered illegal by local authorities inflicting severe penalties for the black market. Thus, the World Bank estimated a loss of US$ 1 billion over the last three years alone for the Palestinian providers.

Jawwal[]

Jawwal is owned by the local Paltel Group and the leading provider in Palestine including Gaza with more than 2.5 million customers and a market share of more than 80%. 3G services were finally added in January 2018 in the West Bank, not in Gaza so far. Speeds of up to 20 Mbit/s were recorded.

Availability[]

Starter packs are available in their 29 stores (list). Recharges are sold in more than 10,000 sales outlets.

Their starter pack is sold in different tariff lines for ILS 29 with a credit of ILS 1 valid for 21 days after activation. For data, it doesn’t make a difference on which plan you are.

Data feature packs[]

Data outside of packages is ILS 0.30 per MB.

Volume	Validity	Price
500 MB	1 day	ILS 5
2 GB	7 days	ILS 18
3 GB	30 days	ILS 25
5 GB	30 days	ILS 40
10 GB	30 days	ILS 45
20 GB	30 days	ILS 60
40 GB	30 days	ILS 70

The prices are tax included. Activate and check consumption by *999#.

The packages are automatically renewed once their validity ends. Cancel the renewal by *999#.

Non-renewable packages are available for the same price, but provide slightly less data.

More info[]

APN info (dial *340#)
1. Name: APN Jawwal WAP
2. APN: WAP
3. Proxy: 213.244.118.129
4. Port: 8080
5. MCC: 425
6. MNC: 05
7. APN Type: default,supl

Website in English: http://www.jawwal.ps/index.php

Ooredoo Palestine (formerly Watanyia Mobile)[]

new logo

Wataniya Mobile is now run by the Kuwait-based and Qatar-owned Ooredoo Group. It started 2009 as second provider on the West Bank. It used to operate in some towns on the West Bank only.

Finally on 24/1/17, one day after Jawwal Ooredoo, started its 3G network on the West Bank, not in Gaza so far. Their new 3G is up to 42 Mbit/s.

Wataniya Mobile has officially rebranded as Ooredoo Palestine in November 2018.

old logo

Ooredoo Palestine officially launched operations in Gaza in 2017, providing residents with an alternative option for advanced communications services directly through its shops and authorised dealers.