Developing a strong management is one of our most
important goals. Having a professional management cadre assures that our services will be delivered expertly and at the accelerated pace we desire. A first step was to adopt administrative guidelines for directing all activities and operations. Every facet of the operation is covered: administrative, financial, purchasing, warehousing, etc., throughout the company down to the individual work site.

Organizational charts exist for all departments, sections, and the positions within them. These charts are invaluable in assuring smooth work flow between units, and for recruitment, promotions, performance evaluations and future planning for human resources purposes.

Our management and staff is supported by investments in the latest technology affecting all phases of the business, including equipment, supply monitoring, billing, financial and administrative information and electronic archives. This combination of resources — a well trained and conscientious management, backed by some of the best technology the world can supply — makes it possible to accomplish the advances in installations and customer services chronicled in this report.

1998 Accomplishments

Phone line installations increase by 100 percent in one year
PalTel succeeded in installing
about 56,480 new lines during 1998, twice the amount installed in 1997. Total installations accomplished through the past two years reached about 83,752, slightly surpassing the number of the operating lines available during the occupation period which amounted to 83,621 lines at the end of 1996.

By 1998-year end, operating lines reached about 167,271, an increase of more than 100%, compared with the start of 1997. The Lines Available and Line Increases tables illustrate the increase ratio of the operating telephone lines in both Gaza and the West Bank regions.

Lines Available – Gaza and West Bank by year

Line Increases – major cities, over past two years

In addition to new installations, PalTel has replaced Gaza’s old electro-mechanical switch with a new digital switch, with 10,000 numbers transferred to it. With this step, all PalTel switches became digital.

Offering Telephony Services to Rural Areas
PalTel’s first and foremost concern is serving all the Palestinian citizens and reaching all localities without exception. Executing the switch and outside plant projects assisted in making this dream tangible. The results: 96 villages and camps throughout Palestine have been connected to telephony services during 1998. See More Areas Connected table. Another 130 villages have received the necessary network preparations, and are expected to be connected to telephony services during 1999.

More Areas Connected

Billing Provided in Arabic
Using a billing format approved by the MoPT, this project assures that our customers will receive their phone bills in the Arabic language. This new form enumerates each item separately as subscription fees, local calls, national calls, cellular calls, and international calls (including a free detailed statement).

The PalTel billing system has been tested by issuing July/August 1998 bills and comparing them with Bezeq’s. A similar test was run in Jericho for September/October 1998, which was once again successful. Hence, the first PalTel bills were issued to our customers starting with November/December 1998.

Public Payphones Also Increase Telephony Availability
PalTel has purchased about 1,050 outdoor and about 500 indoor payphones. A total of 1,255 payphones were installed in 1998, 952 in the West Bank and 303 in the Gaza Strip. PalTel has awarded another contract for an additional 2,000 payphones to facilitate spreading this vital service.

More Customer Service Centers Opened
Since assuming its responsibilities, PalTel has focused its efforts on opening new customer service centers to serve the largest number of Palestinian citizens possible. By the end of 1998, PalTel opened eighteen new centers, five in the Gaza Region and thirteen in the West Bank Region: 1. Gaza,
2. Jabaliya, 3. Khan Yunis, 4. Deir el Balah,
5. Rafah, 6. Ramallah, 7. Nablus, 8. Hebron,
9. Tulkarm, 10. Em Esh-Sharayet, 11. Jenin,
12. Qalqiliya, 13. SalFit, 14. Ar-Ram, 15. Jericho,
16. Dura, 17. Yatta and 18. Zahrieh.

Work is currently proceeding on opening further centers in Tubas, Bethlehem, ‘Ateel, Kufr Sour and other additional centers in Gaza, Hebron, Qalqiliya, and Jericho. The construction of an electro-information center (144) offering services for West Bank customers was concluded at Ramallah; another information electronic center is being constructed in Gaza and is expected to start operating soon. As another convenience for customers, office hours have been extended until 6:00 PM every Monday. In addition, a “Subscribers Bill of Rights” has been approved by the MoPT intended to identify rights and duties between the customer and the company.

Service Quality Improves

Quicker Reaction Time Means Better Customer Service

An automatic system is being utilized to measure and analyze the telephony exchange traffic between Palestinian cities. Efforts like these have improved measurable telecommunications success ratios of various kinds (from 60% – up to 75%) in Palestine: an excellent rate compared with international standards.

TQM Program To Qualify PalTel ISO 9002
Palestine Telecommunications
Company has embarked on implementing a company-wide Total Quality Management (TQM) system to qualify the company to comply with the requirements of the ISO 9002 quality system. The objective is to develop and implement an operations and management system that will improve service quality and consequently customer satisfaction.

A local consulting firm is working closely with PalTel to achieve these goals. Even after four months, tangible results have been
realized. Employees are more aware of the importance of service quality and customer satisfaction, and new supportive administrative and technical systems have been developed.

Administrative systems improvements affect personnel policies, correspondence management, document control, auditing, review meetings, procurement, and warehousing, just to name a few areas. Similarly, technical systems have been deployed in such departments as operations and maintenance, projects and planning, marketing, customer service, etc. To use these tools, select employees have been trained in project management and information system analysis. Overall, about 50% of the project work has been completed, and the company is expected to obtain the ISO 9002 certificate by the fourth quarter of 1999.

1999 Goals

Palestinian Cellular Services Network Offers Huge Capacity Increase
This project aims at availing Palestinian cellular network services by utilizing the international GSM System. Two switches, MSCs, will be constructed at Ramallah & Gaza. Other base stations will be constructed throughout Palestine. New transmission links, microwave or fiber optic cable, will connect these stations with the two MSC switches.

The initial capacity of this project amounts to about 70,000 numbers, with a capability of increasing to about 120,000. There will be about 102 stations in the first stage, to be increased to about 140 in the second stage.

The international GSM system offers many sophisticated options, including customer service, voice mail, international roaming, data transmission, and fax. The Swedish company, Ericsson, has been contracted for supplying, installing and operating the GSM. The whole effort would have been futile without the support of the MoPT which obtained a frequency range to operate the system. Beginning as quickly as possible, PalTel began deploying all of its disciplines to speed introduction of this vital system. Activities include:

	Field surveys on all 27 coverage stations in the Gaza Strip have been concluded. Field surveys and site acquisitions in the West Bank are verging on completion.
	Cellular call rate structures have been prepared and are awaiting the MoPT’s approval.
	PalTel is concentrating efforts on setting a comprehensive marketing plan for the Palestinian cellular services, which would eventually transfer users from the Israeli option to the Palestine option.
	Gaza’s switch (MSC) site construction has been completed, while the Ramallah site is still being commissioned. The system is expected to begin operating by mid 1999.

Palestine’s first mobile telephone service, promoted as Jawwal, or ”wanderer”, offers the public all the superior benefits of GSM technology such as security, clarity, and local, national and international roaming. The service, supported by an advertising campaign in publications and on billboards, was launched in Gaza, followed by Ramallah.

	English - Lines and Customer Services in PDF Format - 594KB Note: To view this document you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader application installed on your system. If you need this application you can download it at www.adobe.com
	Arabic - Lines and Customer Services in PDF Format - 732KB Note: To view this document you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader application installed on your system. If you need this application you can download it at www.adobe.com

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