Another first: phone books in the Palestine

For the first time since the PNA was established in 1994, the Palestinian Telecommunications Company is ready to publish a telephone directory for the PNA areas.

The company, which has obtained the concession for laying telephone lines throughout the PNA areas, announced it will also set up in the near future a new cellular phone system that will work independently from the Israeli system currently used by the Palestinians.

Company sources said in the beginning there will be some 70,000 numbers available with the capability of adding 10,000 more lines within a short term. The PNA areas, so far, are hooked to Israel's telephone network and have no international dialing code of their own.

Palestinian sources said the PNA is still considering ways and means to create an international dialing code of its own but it would take some time until things are ready for implementation.