Ramallah, PALTEL Group disclosed its financial data for the first quarter of 2005 during a press conference held last Tuesday at Darna Restaurant. Dr. Abdul Malik Jaber, CEO of Paltel, and members of the Board of Directors in addition to Banks Presidents, investment and securities, financial company representatives, Palestine Exchange Securities and businessmen. PALTEL Group achieved excellent results of total Net profit for Paltel and Jawwal for the first quarter of the year 2005 (January- March) around JD 14.00 million compared to JD 6.00 million for the year-ago period. 

Dr. Abdul Malik Jaber announced that the disclosed data shows a net consolidated profit of Palestine Telecommunication Company Ltd (Paltel) and Jawwal of JD 14.27 million as of March 31, 2005 an increase of 136.4% compared to the same period of last year. Operational profit increased by JD 6.00 million for the first quarter of the year 2005 compared to the same quarter in 2004.

The consolidated net operational profit reached up to JD 40 million and the consolidated operational cost to JD 14.00 million. 

Jaber added that revenue increased mainly due to the record 20,000 additional lines put in service during the first quarter of the financial year. Modifying the intra-connection tariff between PALTEL and the Israeli companies resulted in decreasing the operational costs. 

PALTEL Group seeks to translate its strategies and recommendations into empirical programs taking into consideration the benefit of the customer through improving the telecommunication services in Palestine. Paltel and Jawwal recently approved a US$ 100.00 million to be spent on expanding the Paltel and Jawwal networks to increase the number of subscribers for both companies to 1 million by the end of 2005.

Dr. Abdul Malik Jaber mentioned that he is pleased with the announced results emerging from the special performance for Paltel employees and its programs that seek to provide the Palestinian customer with the most recent technology services. Jaber added that the package services provided by Paltel is considered the biggest since its establishment to “unify Palestine” into one single code area where flat-rate dialup billing are introduced to cover all areas within Palestine. In addition, ADSL speed internet service accomplished great results. 

Jaber announced that Paltel strategy implies updating the company’s technical and administrative requirements up to international standards learning from lessons that other companies in the region stemmed.

The company is proud with the administrative transparent development that regulates its work. Disclosure of financial results on quarterly basis is one of the tools to achieve transparency at all levels for precise performance.

The company’s plan for next quarter focuses on expanding the customers’ database. Paltel seeks to satisfy its customers through the redrawing of its organizational structure.

Jaber asserted that the company will keep working on the implementation of its goals and the achievement of set plans constantly. He added that subscribers to Paltel are 55,000 persons.