Greece

    Telecommunication Infrastructure
 
 
 

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The corporate headquarters of OTE at Marousi, Greece

    The telecommunication infrastructure of Greece is undergoing radical and thorough modernization. The telephone users saw the quality of the land-based network improve tremendously during the 1990's, while deregulation was ordained by law in 2001. Cell phone usage is near the European average, with three companies already dompeting. Third generation mobile telephony and the spread of high-speed services are matters to be addressed to in the current period, coupled with the entrance to the Greek market of competitors in land-based telephony. Modernization of the country's telecommunication infrastructure is to continue en view of the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Athens.


    Development of "telecommunications infrastructure" in Greece started in early antiquity. Homer (ca. 8th century B.C.) mentions a system of communication using fires atop mountains. A similar system formed the backbone of communications of the late Roman (Byzantine) Empire; a network of towers hosting fires (able to light fires of different glow, each glow corresponding to a particular message) and mirrors enabled military outposts in the Roman-Persian frontier to send messages to Constantinople, at a distance of more than 2,000 km, within 2 hours.
    In modern days, telephony was introduced in Greece in 1895. Use of telephony was limited to important cities and was far from widespread even there. Construction of a really nationwide telecommunications network effectively began in the 1950's.
    This was to a large extent due to the foundation and action of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (O.T.E.), a company founded in 1949 by Legislative Decree 1049/49. OTE was operating as a monopoly until 2001. OTE was listed on the Athens Stock Exchange in April 1996. The following year, OTE was traded in the form of DR's (Depository Receipts) on the London Stock Exchange, and since 1998, OTE has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world.The current shareholder composition of the organisation has as follows:
 
Investor % owned
Hellenic Republic
41.8%
Hellenic Exchangeable Finance
10.7%
Hellenic Finance
3.0%
Free floats
44.5%

    OTE was enjoying a monopoly in the Greek land-based telecommunications market until 2001, when Greece decided to revoke its right to an extention of the deadlins set by the European Union to liberalise its telecommunications market. Now, equal access to the infrastructure of OTE is guaranteed by law to any competitor. In November 2001, the National Committee of Telecommunications and Posts (E.E.T.T.) fined OTE with €150,000 for not connecting in time with the private competitors so authorised by EETT in the previous February.
    So far, OTE has signed connection agreements with the following companies: Quest Wireless, FORTHnet, Lannet Communications, Teledome, Cosmoline Telecommunications Services, Starcom, Vivodi Communications, Grapes Hellas, Telepassport, Algonet and Intraconnect. It is predicted that private and foreign competitors will acquire a substantial share in the Greek telecommunications market in the coming few years. OTE, on its part, moves towards a more competitive strategy. The most highly anticipated move in the Greek telecommunications market is going to be the one of the Public Electricity Corporation (D.E.H.) and the Hellenic Railways Organisation (O.S.E.). Two public corporations (D.E.H. is publicly traded) competing against another one: Deregulation the Greek way...
    It has to be noted that competition is something not that uncommon for OTE. For some years now OTE is operating (through creation of subsidiaries or acquisition of existing companies) in a number of countries. As part of its international investments policy, the OTE Group is investing in its neighboring countries in the South Eastern Europe, the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, with the aim to strengthening the cultural, economic and historical ties with these countries. The Organisation's most significant investments include the Romanian Telecommunications Organization, Romtelecom, the Romanian Mobile telecommunications company Cosmorom, the Serbian Telecommunications Organization TelecomSrbija, the Armenian Telecommunications Organization Armentel and the Bulgarian mobile telecommunications company Globul. To implement the above, in November 2000 the OTE Group established a subsidiary, OTE International Investments, to monitor its investments abroad.
    Mobile telephony was introduced in 1992 with two private companies: Panafon and Telestet. Cosmote, a subsidiary of OTE, but publicly traded, followed in 1997. Panafon is affiliated with Vodafone, while Telestet is a subsidiary of Italy's STET.
    In late 2000, there were some 5,974,515 telephone connections in Greece (all provided by OTE), or some 55 per 100 inhabitants. Out of these, 5,577,815 were digital (93.4% of total). Cell phone penetration is higher than land based telephony penetration. There are currently 7,400,000 cell phone connections in Greece (provided by three companies: Telestet, Panafon and Cosmote), giving cell phone usage a penetration level of about 67%.
    Fiber trunk lines are gradually becoming the norm in Greece. As of late 1999 there were about 15,000 km of fiber trunk lines laid in the country, 4,000 km of which submarine. Submarine cables were never unusual in Greece, given the layout of the country and its many islands. In addition to the internal submarine network, there are 8 international submarine links. The following chart shows the evolution of the Greek fiber optic network:


Source: OTE

    Among the cutting-edge technologies offered by OTE to the Greek telecommunications customers, or at least at a pilot stage, we note Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), ATM (an advanced technology for the non-simultaneous data transmission of statistical multiplexity, offered by OTE under the HellasStream brand), the HellasCom and HellasPac data transmission networks (both capable of 2 Mbps, HellasPac being dedicated to data package transfer) and the unicast infrastructure, which allows the provision of Satellite Internet services from ISPs.

OTE advertisement: "ISDN: Can take any load"

    OTE has installed and operated an Experimental and a Pilot Network of ADSL technology. The experimental ADSL Network is located at the New Technologies & Services Lab in Marousi.
    The Pilot Network started in December 2000 and includes 300 users at three points (Thessaloniki, Marousi, Athens). The network and the services it provides were demonstrated at the international Exhibition in Thessaloniki and the Infosystem 2000. At the moment the Pilot Network users are provided with the Fast Internet service in collaboration with OTEnet (an OTE subsidiary, providing Internet products and services).
    The OTE networks of xDSL technology aim to introduce technologies such as ADSL (and SDSL, VDSL later) to telephone access network (network of copper, two - wire lines), to provide the following two-way wideband services, together with the provision of conventional telephone and ISDN services. Such services are:

    The IP network is a new OTE service that is at the installation stage. The network will be developed in two phases. The first includes the development of infrastructure within 2001 to support 300,000 dial-up subscribers. The second phase will involve the network's enrichment over the year 2002 to support 900,000 dial-up subscribers if this proves necessary.
The IP network will support the following services:

    Greece at present has no satellites in orbit. Its first sattelite (Hellas-Sat 1) is to be launched by August 31, 2002 and to be followed by a second one (Hellas-Sat 2) by March 2004. The Hellas-Sat consortium is not a purely Greek affair. 55% of it is controlled jointly by Avacom Net, a company based in Cyprus and the Cyprus Development Bank. From Greece, OTE is the major shareholder, with a 25% stake, followed by the Hellenic Aircraft Industry (EAB), which owns a 10% stake. Telesat, a Canadian company, owns the remaining 10%. These two satellites are designed to cover Greece, Cyprus and 25 other countries of the surrounding region, offering enhanced services for telecommunications and e-commerce. The satellites will make use of 24 frequencies in the KU band and 16 frequencies in the X, L and S bands.
    International telecommunications services are currently processed through three international networks, submarine and land cables, microwave and satellite links. OTE is participating in the exploitation of the optical fiber network SDH, that connects Greece to the neighboring countries and it is the authorized exclusive representative member of INTELSAT, EUTELSAT. OTE is also a shareholder in the satellite systems INMARSAT and New Skies. There are 12 satellite stations and one mobile station that are used for international telecommunications, data transmission, teleconferencing and TV transmission. The satellite stations are located in two hubs, at Thermopylae and Nemea.