Wind

Greece's telecoms watchdog, the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT), on Wednesday signed contracts with the country's three major telecoms providers Cosmote, Vodafone and Wind for the use of the 700MHz, 2GHz, 3400-3800 MHz and 26 GHz radio frequency band widths, which pave the way for a 5G network.

Education Minister Niki Kerameus and Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis have secured zero-rating cellphone access to government platforms being used for distance learning by schools during the coronavirus pandemic, the Education Ministry announced on Monday.

Greece has seen an increase of at least 50 percent in internet use in recent days following the government's decision to restrict citizens' movements to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, according to officials at the Digital Governance Ministry who indicated however that telecommunications networks are handling the strain so far.

Investor interest in the Greek state's UltraFast BroadBand (UFBB) project illustrates the swing toward infrastructure: A total of 10 investors have expressed non-binding interest in the project, including one from abroad. The latter is Oman Fiber Optic (OFO), which is based in Muscat, Oman.

Despite the fact that Greece appears to be over the worst of the financial crisis, telecoms firms are still suffering from negligent payers.
Total nonpayments are expected to be around 100 million euros this year, as was the case in previous years.
Accumulated nonpayments in December 2018 stood at 1.2 billion euros, only slightly lower than the 1.29 billion at end-2017.

Internet users in Palaio Faliro and Vyronas in Athens, and in Kalamata in the southern Peloponnse will be the first to enjoy state-subsidized fiber-to-the-home services (FTTH), with Moschato in Athens, Kalamaria in Thessaloniki and Larissa in Thessaly set to follow in September.

The deployment of next-generation access (NGA) networks is beginning in Greece for fixed-line services.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

Vodafone and Wind Hellas aim to create a major rival to fixed-line telephony market leader OTE through the absorption of Forthnet and Cyta Hellas, which would start with a subscription base of 2 million clients as well as over 500,000 pay-TV subscribers.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

Wind Hellas head Nassos Zarkalis said on Wednesday that the due diligence of rival telecommunications company Forthnet will soon be completed and a joint binding bid by Wind and Vodafone for the country’s main alternative telecom supplier will come after the Christmas holidays.

Greece’s largest telecoms group OTE has secured a deal to broadcast matches of the top two European tournaments for the next three years, it said on Wednesday, in a bid to boost market share amid fierce competition at home.