“It’s about time,” said Christina Ganim, founder of a lingerie shopping site, who believes that the new policy will boost her business by allowing her to interact with customers in real time and use social media tools like her rivals.
The business lady expressed hope that thanks to her site, which is available in both English and Arabic, the way women shop for lingerie will change dramatically as one of the true tests of the economy in digital era is how consumers are actually spending online.
“Our company is for women by women in the Middle East, where essentially everyone has a smartphone,” said Ganim.
Israeli officials cited security concerns as one of the reasons the Palestinian territories lack mobile Internet access. In 2014, the Israeli Ministry of
Communications approved the use of 4G LTE networks in Israel, allowing the country's mobile operators, such as including Pelephone and Orange, to start offering their customers fourth-generation services. In February, Zain Jordan launched 4G LTE services, making it the first operator in the Kingdom of Jordan to do so. However, the West Bank, which lies between the two regions, has until now remained a virtual no-man's land, relying on wireless communications technology which is two generations behind what modern mobile phones utilize.
Since October 1, 19 Israelis and a U.S. citizen have been killed in Palestinian attacks, while Israeli security forces have killed 104 Palestinians, of whom 65 were identified by Israel as assailants or filmed carrying out assaults, according to Reuters.
Israel also cited a lack of available frequencies as among its reason for keeping mobile telephony at a snail's pace in Palestine. According to interim peace agreements, Israel continues to monitor frequency spectrums in the region.
Palestinians have no choice but content themselves with the slow mobile telephony, despite Israel having promised to upgrade the network for the last 25 years. The Palestinian Occupied Territory, along with Cuba and Eritrea, ranks among the 16 places where 3G still isn't available, according to the UN International Telecommunication Union.
Tremendous business opportunities emerged immediately following the news that 3G would be introduced, as it has been estimated that Palestine will see cash injections in the nearest future.
“There are estimates that the introduction of 3G will bring from $50 to $100 million into the Palestinian economy,” said Amar Akker, the head of PalTel, the largest Palestinian telecommunications company. “We would love to have 4G, but we decided that if we wait for 4G, it would be another two years at least, so we chose not to waste any more time,” he said, referring to Israel’s plans to soon release 4G to the Palestinian territories.
When it is fully introduced in, May 2016, 3G service is believed to fuel IT and tech domains in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's de-facto capital and home to its government institutions.
Political instability and the unresolved conflict with Israel have restrained Palestinian enterprises from blossoming, so the technological upgrade offers much hope to the region.
“Where Israeli mothers hope their sons will serve in the elite tech unit in the army and go on to launch a successful startup, Arab mothers talk about their children being an accountant from a very young age, so I think this culture of risk aversion is in the Arab DNA somehow,” said Fares Zaher, CEO of Yamsafer, the Ramallah-based version of Booking.com.
Hussein Nasser el-Din, the twenty-nine-year-old developer of an app that provides security intelligence to West Bank tourists, welcomes 3G in Palestine, saying that modern economic outlooks will promise to set up environments which are favorable to peace, “to create something from nothing.”
“After hard times this generation is becoming much more realistic than the other ones, less emotional, more based on realistic approaches towards life,” he said over Skype from Silicon Valley, where he was participating in a conference for international start-ups.
“So you’re seeing people looking to create opportunities, and, while now we have no options, with time, we’ll be sitting (with the Israelis), flexible toward new solutions.”
