Telecommunication in Palestine
Compared to the European Union, Palestine is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +970, there were a total of 4.77 m connections in 2019. Among them were 4.30 m million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 0.92 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.In the expansion of broadband Internet connections, Palestine is back. Around 71% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 8% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the previous ISDN (more than 2048 kbit/s).
Back to overview: West Bank
Development of telephone and internet connections
With an average download speed of 16.99 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Palestine ranked 138th in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 8.4 Mbit/second was significantly lower (154th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 18th place.In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Palestine comes 139th with a download speed of 6.7 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 2 Mbit was enough for 140th place.
The "Speedtest Global Index" published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in Februar 2021 from 175 countries.
The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the Internet in Palestine from 1990 - 2019
Broadband internet in Palestine 2004 - 2019
Landlines 1992 - 2019
Mobile phones 1990 - 2019
| Spreading in 2019 | West Bank Total | West Bank percent | EU Total | EU percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet users | 3.31 m | 70.62 % | 382.31 m | 85.43 % |
| Broadband users | 364,881.00 | 7.79 % | 158.30 m | 35.37 % |
| Landlines | 467,189.00 | 9.97 % | 165.48 m | 36.98 % |
| Mobile cellulars | 4.30 m | 91.78 % | 542.60 m | 121.25 % |