Wataniya finally launches in West Bank.

Wataniya Mobile finally began operations after months of disputes with Israel. This will break Paltels monopoly and is likely to drive down prices.
Qtel owns 57% of Wataniya Palestine and the remainder is owned by  the public Palestine Investment Fund. Wataniya has invested USD 100 Million already and a further $700m is planned over the next decade.
Current penetration in the west bank is only 35% which Wireless Federation expects to go up rapidly following the launch of Wataniya. Paltel currently has 1.5 million Palestinian subscribers.
Wataniya said it has received only 3.8MHz of bandwidth from Israel, instead of the 4.8MHz that had been promised. Without this Wataniya will not be able to launch 3G services.

Wataniya Mobile finally began operations after months of disputes with Israel. This will break Paltels monopoly and is likely to drive down prices.

Qtel owns 57% of Wataniya Palestine and the remainder is owned by  the public Palestine Investment Fund. Wataniya has invested USD 100 Million already and a further $700m is planned over the next decade.

Current penetration in the west bank is only 35% which Wireless Federation expects to go up rapidly following the launch of Wataniya. Paltel currently has 1.5 million Palestinian subscribers.

Wataniya said it has received only 3.8MHz of bandwidth from Israel, instead of the 4.8MHz that had been promised. Without this Wataniya will not be able to launch 3G services.

The world’s fourth-biggest mobile handset manufacturer, LG Electronics said that the sales of its strategic touch-based “Viewty” mobile phones surpassed the five million mark. Viewty made its debut in October 2007. The overwhelming performance is attributed to its key European and North American markets. LG sold 2.6 million Viewty units in Europe during the period. “Sales have reached 4.65 million and 350,000 in overseas and local markets, respectively, thus far,” spokesman Park Seung-koo said. LG is planning to the low-end handset market in the first half of this year, to compete with bigger rivals such as Nokia in emerging markets.

The company is aiming to introduce a mid-tier key flagship model with a sales target of over 10 million this year. Mobile chief, Ahn Seung-kwon, recently said his division is now increasing its number of outlets, with improved product images.
“We will be more aggressive, albeit selectively, in marketing our key strategic models, to maintain the premium image on our products and to increase the likelihood of success in the low-tier market,” another LG spokesman said.

LG is anticipated to have achieved its annual target of 100 million handsets last year, in comparison with 80.5 million in 2007.

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