Whenever I travel from Jordan to the state of Palestine, I have to use three different cell-phone devices, each with a different SIM card. I need to keep my regular Zain Jordanian cell and therefore I put it on phone roaming. But in Palestine I need to use two other cell phones.  Jawwal, the leading Palestinian cell company is a must whenever you are anywhere in Palestine; most people have Jawwal numbers and to ask them to call any other service provider would be a financial burden on them.  Palestine does have a second provider, wataniya, but this new provider doesn’t have the same agreement with Zain as Jawwal, which allows you to receive calls from Jordanian Zain subscribers when you are in Palestine without extra charge.

But Jawwal, which has good signals in places like Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah, flashes out of service literally the moment after you cross the Bethlehem or Qalandia checkpoints into Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the only cell-phone service providers are Israeli. I therefore have a cellcom number where the cost of the calls are slightly less expensive than Israel’s leading cell-phone company, Pelephone. Both Israeli telephone operators work throughout the occupied state of Palestine but in some hills of Ramallah their service is not so great.

While my three phones help cover my audio needs, I have a bigger problem with data. I used to keep my roaming service from the Jordanian Zain on, but I quickly discovered that I would have to pay exorbitant prices for data roaming.

Data exchange on cell phones requires 3G phones and support. Many people in Palestine now have smart phones with 3G service, but they are unable to use them with their Palestinian phones. Not that the Palestinian cell companies don’t want and can’t provide the 3G. The problem, as stated by Ammar Aker, the CEO of Paltel Group, which owns Jawwal, is political.