Qatar’s Qtel is to pump nearly US$700 million into its new majority-owned mobile network in the Palestinian Territories over the next ten years. Qatar’s chairman (and Qatari royal family member) Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammad bin Saud al-Thani made the announcement on a visit to the region yesterday to officially launch the new network, Wataniya Mobile, reports Wall Street Journal. The investment, which includes the license fee, is expected to create 2,750 jobs in the Palestine territories. Also in attendance was the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who described the new network as a private-sector engine of growth for the West Bank’s economy. “This is a sign that Palestine is open for business,” said Blair, who had negotiated with Israel on behalf of the start-up.

Wataniya Mobile is owned by Qatar’s Qtel (57 percent) and the Palestine Investment Fund (43 percent), a holding company for Palestinian public assets. The network has become the first competition for the incumbent mobile operator PalTel, which is majority-owned by Kuwaiti-based Zain and uses the ‘Jawwal’ mobile brand. According to Wireless Intelligence data, PalTel had just over 1.7 million mobile connections across the Palestine Territories (Gaza and the West Bank) by the end of the third quarter. Wataniya Mobile launched operations with around 40,000 users who had registered via a promotional campaign, which has been running for a month. However, it has received just 3.8MHz of spectrum to date, rather than the full 4.8MHz agreed by Israel, which the operator says means it is currently unable to offer 3G mobile services such as web browsing and email.