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Israel said the decision was made after it concluded a security
examination as well as other work with the Communications
Ministry.
Under interim peace accords, Israel effectively has final say in
allocating radio frequencies in the West Bank, where the
Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule.
Palestinian mobile operators Paltel <PALTEL.PL> and Wataniya <WATA.PL>,
still using 2G technology and losing money, want to offer 3G to
meet surging demand for data bandwidth for social media
applications. 3G is mobile phone technology that allows users to
make calls, texts and access the internet. 2G allows calls and
limited data transmission.
Thursday's agreement "will enable the companies benefiting from
the service to begin coordination with the Palestinian ministry
of telecommunication to begin the implementation of the
agreement on the ground," said Hussein Al-Sheikh, Palestinian
Minister of Civil Affairs, in a statement posted by the
Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
In the past, Israel has told the Palestinians there were not
enough frequencies for 3G and that they should lease access to
them from Israeli providers.
Earlier this year, Israel's Communications Ministry allocated a
number of high-speed 4G frequencies to Israeli mobile phone
operators.
(Writing by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Steven Scheer; editing
by Susan Thomas)
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