Communications in Greece

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

OTE, the former state monopoly, is the main player in fixed-line telephony. Since the liberalization of the telecommunications market, OTE has been slowly losing market share to "alternative", competing telecom operators, such as Vivodi, Q-Telecom, Tellas and Forthnet. As of 2005, OTE's share on the market hovered around 76%.

Telephones - main lines in use: 6,348,800 (2004).

Telephone system:

  • modern networks reach all areas; microwave radio relay carries most traffic; 20.000 kilometers of fiber optics and extensive open-wire network; submarine cables to off-shore islands
  • domestic: 100% digital; microwave radio relay, open wire, and submarine cable
  • international: 100% digital; tropospheric scatter; 8 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region)

Greece has four mobile telecom companies; Cosmote, Vodafone, TIM and Q-Telecom.

Number of active lines: 12,500,000 (Dec 2005), which means 117% market penetration. Mobile penetration reached 123% in 2006, the second highest in the world.

Greece owns one Telecommunications Satellite, named Hellasat, which provides telecommunication services in a major part of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 23 (1999). Internet penetration: 33.9% (2005). Country code (Top-level domain): .gr

See also: Broadband Internet access worldwide#Greece

Radio broadcast stations: The state radio and television broadcasting agency is ERT (Elliniki Radiofonia kai Tileorasi - Greek Radio & Television). The station owns 3 national television stations, ET-1, NET (Nea Elliniki Tileorasi) and ET-3 which is based out of Thessaloniki. In January 2006, ERT launched Digital Terrestrial Television with 3 channels. By March 2006, at least 65% of the Greek population will be able to view Digital TV for free with the use of set-top boxes. ERT also operates 7 national radio stations, including ERA 5, the Voice of Greece, which broadcasts internationally via shortwave. ERT is based in Athens.

The first non-pirate private radio station to broadcast in Greece was Athena 9,84 FM, in 1987. Private television began in November, 1989 when Mega Channel began operating. Today, over 1,000 radio stations and approximately 150 television stations broadcast in Greece. Digital satellite broadcasting began in 1999 by a company called Nova.

Radios: 5.02 million (1997) Television broadcast stations:64 (plus about 1,000 low-power repeaters); also two stations in the US Armed Forces Network (1999) Televisions: 2.54 million (1997)

ELTA is the state-owned postal service provider of Greece. A number of private courier services, such as ACS and Speedex, also operate in Greece.

The telecommunications and postal services market in Greece is regulated by the National Regulatory Authority (EETT).

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.