Wataniya Palestine has yesterday demanded the Palestinian authorities to pay its investment unless Israel releases the promised frequencies.
For those who doesn’t know Wataniya Palestine is owned by Kuwait's National Mobile Telecommunications Co (Wataniya), a unit of Qtel, as well as the Palestinian Invetment Fund.
Wataniya (that time before Qtel acquisition) signed a license agreement with the Palestinian Authority in 2007 after bidding 251 million Jordanian dinars (350 something million dollars) to build and operate a 3G network in West bank and Gaza, at that time the second bidder was Orascom at 17 million dollars, however due to the Israelis the 3G frequency was out of the equation leaving only the 2G, and after the change in Gaza situation, Wataniya will launch only in the WB.
Zain the Kuwait's largest mobile operator, took a majority stake in Pal-tel earlier this month, promising to join the incumbent operator Jawwal to be rebranded and part of the one network by end of 2009 year, ever since Wataniya acquired the license Paltel was against giving Wataniya the frequencies, and even when the government got some frequency they stand up in the queue and took half of them for their network expansion, leaving Wataniya without sufficient frequencies for launch.
