Internet

Since 2006 there has been considerable progress in the development of the Greek broadband market. At the end of 2008, Greece rose to the third highest position by annual broadband penetration growth among the 27 EU Member States. During the first half of 2009, broadband penetration in Greece increased by 2.19 per cent from 13.44 to 15.63 per cent.

ADSL2+ networks have become quite wide spread in Greece, which enabled the launch of IPTV, VoIP and fixed-mobile  telephony bundles. As the country has no cable TV operators, the incumbent and alternative operators are using faster DSL networks to launch bundled offerings.

However, the Greek government has big plans for making Greece a fibre nation. In early 2009, it announced plans to pass 2 million homes during the next seven years with fibre network in Athens, Thessaloniki, and 50 other cities and towns across Greece. The government is not dictating the technology that will be used for the "last mile", but stipulates an open network model that will be run by a separate entity from the operators selling telecoms services. The project's success will depend on support from the private sector as the state plans to cover only €700 million of the €2.1 billion total cost.

Mobile broadband is gaining popularity too. By the end of June 2009, the number of active subscribers to 3G services grew to 1.22 million (10.9 per cent population penetration). Of these, 180,372 used 3G data cards or modems for laptops. Vodafone is at the forefront with the new technologies. In July 2009, it launched the most advanced mobile broadband service in Greece based on the HSPA+. The service will offer up to 21.6 Mbps download speed, an improvement on the present 14.4 Mbps speed previously offered by the operator.In March 2009, the regulator launched a public consultation regarding possible award of 2.6 GHz spectrum licence, possibly for mobile broadband or WiMAX services.

Internet Access

• Land Lines