Durning a hearning session held by the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity AMAN addressing the Ministry of Communications and the Palestinian Telecommunications Company PALTEL to reduce the prices of access lines and the cost of telecommunication services in general, and the need to activate the monitoring role by the Ministry of Communications over the work of telecommunications companies, and Internet Service Providers ISP, in addition to publishing agreements between the Minstry and the Company, allowing citizens to access to information and to be accountable, to raise competitive prices, and to obligate telecommunication companies to protect the consumers privacy and rights.
This session was held after the implementation of many advocay campaigns by the citizens against telecommunication members, demanding to reduce the telecommunication services prices and to drop access line services and other services as well. Such sessions were due to the lack of transparency duty from governmental and non-governmental officials in the telecommunication sector on one hand, and the weakness of the monitoring role over the prices and quailty of the services which lead to dissatisfaction of the citizens on the other.
In a research paper conducted by AMAN, reviewing the institutional and legal framework for the telecommunications sector, many questions were raised over revealing the commitment of differen parties to integrity and professional standards for consumer protection and the values of transparency to enhance the citizens righ to access information and to be accountable over licensing mechanisms, price settings, and providing services through allowing the citizens to evaluate services, performance enhancers, and to receive directions and complaints of the citizens to address them properly.
Deputy of The Ministry of Telecom. and Information Technology, Engineer Mr. Suhiel Madokh, confirmed that the role of the Ministry focuses on the development of the telecommunication and IT sector, in which the Ministry is constantly progresing to achieve the development, controling the efforts of the development sector through international indicators progressing Palestine to the fourth level between neighboring countires over the speed of internet and telecommunication services. Moreover, Mr. Suhiel explained that the Ministry is governed by the procedures and conditions for licensing in Telecom. law No.3 year 1996 and consumer protection law and licensing agreements, Moreover, the role of the ministry is to formulate general policies and strategies and to monitor their implementation and inspections for the level of commitment from other parties.
Moreover, Mr. Suheil mentioned that the telecommunications market is open for competition and that there is no operator with an exclusive license ,pointing out that the telecommunications company is the only licensee, but it is not exclusive, therefore, there is nothing preventing licensing to new competitors, and in the framework of reviewing monitoring of internet services, the Ministry has provided a range for new internet service providers to allow competition, thus, 22% of Internet service consumers are not benefiting from the access line service, mentioning that the cost of the access line has declined significantly comparing to the last five years, moreover, Ministry is also striving to reduce fixed prices in order to serve the aspirations of the citizens.
Regarding the links of Accountability provided for ciztizens, Mr. Mohammad Sayyah, Complaints Unit Manager at the Ministry of Telecom. and Information Technology, confirmed that the complaints unit is effectived ad have worked on drafting a protocol which regulates dealing with complaints addressed to the Ministry, limiting the period of processing and responding to the complaints according to their type, starting from 24 hours to deal with complaints related to telephone lines, ending with a maxiumim of seven days for all complaints.
Mr. Khalil Abu Saleem, Regional Manager for the Telecommunications Company in Gaza, mentioned that the company is keen to develop the telecommunications sector services, as Palestine is considered a part of a global strategy aims to transfering all services through the internet.
Moreover, the participants raised the issues of high prices of fixed line services and access line comparing to other neighboring countries on one hand, and the low economic status of the Palestinian citizen on the other, emphasizing the need to clarify information given to citizens when receiving services in terms of duration and cost, as well as referring to the high cost of the telecommunication bills in reference to the citizens income.
Lastly, the Deputy of the Ministry of Telecom. and Information Technology, stated that the fixed cost of the access line was set by the Arab Advisors Group by a technical study, resulting in rate to attain services in Palestine is 37% which is less than Arab countries, mentioning that the access line includes the cost of infrastructure development, maintenance and follow-up, and that investing in such area is more expensive than investing in internet, therefore, it’s cost is higher than the cost of service, he also concluded that the citizen has the right to demand to reduce prices and submit complaints, promising that any citizen who is hamred shall turn to the Ministry and his complaint shall be dealt with and taking action to compensate damage.
