Internet in Greece
Encyclopedia
Internet access
in Greece
relied on PSTN/ISDN modem dial-up from 1990 (NCFCR Demokritos was the first Hellenic Internet Service Provider) until 2003, when ADSL was commercially launched in Greece
by incumbent operator OTE
. ADSL is currently the main broadband standard. Greece also has 3G mobile broadband
(HSPA
) and a more expensive Satellite Internet access.
Mobile broadband was heavily marketed during 2008 by Vodafone
, Cosmote
and Wind, leading to a surge in mobile Internet usage in Greece, primarily with mobile professionals and young users.
speeds
available over OTE's network are 2048/256, 4096/256, 8192/384 kbit/s and 24/1 Mbit/s. The latter three speeds were added in May 2007 and December 2007 (24/1 Mbit/s) and are available in selected areas (Greater Athens
, Greater Thessaloníki
and other major cities, mainly prefecture capitals), even though 4 Mbit/s do not require ADSL2+ infrastructure in order to work properly.
Customers can either subscribe only to OTE's ADSL access service and then buy an ADSL subscription from an ISP separately, or choose their preferred ISP and buy both services bundled (OTE bitstream wholesale, known as A.RY.S.). The latter is much less expensive, but the former offers the flexibility to change ISP more often (as frequently as every 2 months; a bundled package usually has a minimum contract length of 6 to 12 months).
OTE also offers its bundled service under the Conn-x brandname, but unlimited telephony service is only available within their network. In late May 2008, OTE announced an All-in-One package that combines ADSL access and local, national and mobile calls.
. These operators typically offer higher speed service and lower prices than OTE, but their customer support is in most cases inferior to that of the Greek incumbent.
New ADSL ISPs typically offer flat-rate nationwide voice services, ADSL access (up to 24 Mbit/s) and value-added services (including VoIP and IPTV), all of which are new to the Greek market. As such, the Greek press reports that OTE has lost nearly 500,000 households to new entrants and that customers continue to switch from OTE to LLU ISPs at increasing rates.
, Wind Hellas and Cosmote.
Downstreams are realized via (HSDPA) technology with speeds for Wind Hellas and Cosmote reaching up to 28,8 Mbit/s and for Vodafon Greece up to 42,2 Mbit/s. Upstreams of all three providers are realized via HSUPA
technology, reaching up to 5,76 Mbit/s.
Satellite service is offered through the Hellas Sat satellite under the "Hellas Sat Net" brandname. OTE, as one of the owners of Hellas Sat, offers Hellas Sat Net service through its own distribution channels (website, shops etc.). The subscription packages either include a one-year commitment that is automatically renewed as unlimited time service after one year, or as a six-month limited subscription for "seasonal business" (as described on the oteshop website) that is renewable on demand.
The equipment is installed by Hellas Sat accredited engineers and it includes a Satnet S3020 DVB - RCS VSAT Terminal (Advantech) satellite modem and a 0,96 m Antenna (satellite dish with transmitter receiver).
Hellas Sat Net connections are also used to interconnect public administration offices and schools in remote areas (mostly remote islands of the Aegean Sea
) to the national administration network Syzefxis
and to the Internet).
The second provider covering Greece with broadband satellite internet is Tooway
. Since 2011 they offer a downstream up to 10 Mbit/s and an upstream of up to 4 Mbit/s. They address private and business customers and have a variety of packages reaching from traffic metered packages to flatrate programmes.
Furthermore, on August 6, 2009, the most-visited Greek blog (troktiko.blogspot.com) was shut down. Although Google cites potential violations of the terms of use, comments implying other reasons behind the closure of troktiko were published in several leading Greek blogs. The blog went back on-line a few months later.
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
relied on PSTN/ISDN modem dial-up from 1990 (NCFCR Demokritos was the first Hellenic Internet Service Provider) until 2003, when ADSL was commercially launched in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
by incumbent operator OTE
OTE
Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. , usually known by its Greek initials OTE, is the dominant telecommunications provider in Greece. Formerly a state-owned monopoly, OTE was part-privatized in 1998 and is now listed on the Athens and New York Stock Exchanges...
. ADSL is currently the main broadband standard. Greece also has 3G mobile broadband
Mobile Broadband
Mobile broadband is the marketing term for wireless Internet access through a portable modem, mobile phone or other mobile device.-Description:...
(HSPA
High Speed Packet Access
High Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access and High Speed Uplink Packet Access , that extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA protocols...
) and a more expensive Satellite Internet access.
Mobile broadband was heavily marketed during 2008 by Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
, Cosmote
Cosmote
COSMOTE is the largest mobile network operator in Greece, with 7.9 million subscribers. The company is headquartered in Athens and it is a fully owned subsidiary of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization , the incumbent telecommunications provider in Greece...
and Wind, leading to a surge in mobile Internet usage in Greece, primarily with mobile professionals and young users.
OTE ADSL
Typical download/uploadUploading and downloading
In computer networks, to download means to receive data to a local system from a remote system, or to initiate such a data transfer. Examples of a remote system from which a download might be performed include a webserver, FTP server, email server, or other similar systems...
speeds
Bit rate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
available over OTE's network are 2048/256, 4096/256, 8192/384 kbit/s and 24/1 Mbit/s. The latter three speeds were added in May 2007 and December 2007 (24/1 Mbit/s) and are available in selected areas (Greater Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greater Thessaloníki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
and other major cities, mainly prefecture capitals), even though 4 Mbit/s do not require ADSL2+ infrastructure in order to work properly.
Customers can either subscribe only to OTE's ADSL access service and then buy an ADSL subscription from an ISP separately, or choose their preferred ISP and buy both services bundled (OTE bitstream wholesale, known as A.RY.S.). The latter is much less expensive, but the former offers the flexibility to change ISP more often (as frequently as every 2 months; a bundled package usually has a minimum contract length of 6 to 12 months).
OTE also offers its bundled service under the Conn-x brandname, but unlimited telephony service is only available within their network. In late May 2008, OTE announced an All-in-One package that combines ADSL access and local, national and mobile calls.
Local Loop Unbundling
A variety of new entrants have appeared since the liberalisation of the market and Local Loop Unbundling (LLU)Local loop unbundling
Local loop unbundling is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises...
. These operators typically offer higher speed service and lower prices than OTE, but their customer support is in most cases inferior to that of the Greek incumbent.
New ADSL ISPs typically offer flat-rate nationwide voice services, ADSL access (up to 24 Mbit/s) and value-added services (including VoIP and IPTV), all of which are new to the Greek market. As such, the Greek press reports that OTE has lost nearly 500,000 households to new entrants and that customers continue to switch from OTE to LLU ISPs at increasing rates.
- Vivodi TelecomVivodi TelecomVivodi is a private telecom operator in Greece that offers low telephone rates for OTE subscribers through call-by-call, carrier preselection or prepaid cards, and for business customers, also offering leased line solutions.-ADSL:...
, a private company utilizing LLU since 2003, partly covers Athens and Thessaloníki with its network at the moment. In the past, it covered additional cities (such as PatrasPatrasPatras , ) is Greece's third largest urban area and the regional capital of West Greece, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens...
, HeraklionHeraklionHeraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
, VeriaVeriaVeria is a city built at the foot of Vermion Mountains in Greece. It is a commercial center of Macedonia, the capital of the prefecture of Imathia, the province of Imathia and the seat of a bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church...
etc.). The customers in those cities were left without service. Vivodi offers triple play services based on ADSL2+, with speeds up to 20 Mbit/s, VoIP telephony and digital television.
- Tellas, a subsidiary of Wind Hellas, offers ADSL through its LLU network in districts of Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Crete with speeds up to 12/1 Mbit/s. Tellas, which was the first to provide free national calls through their network, was severely criticized for taking advantage of the 12-month contracts in order to keep their prices high and uncompetitive. Under pressure, Tellas moved from 4/0,5 to 12/1 services in November 2007, but the service is apparently still unstable, as many of the clients complain about problems related to the faster connection and/or to the router. As of March 2008, Tellas offers unlimited phone calls to 38 countries and also 60 minutes of calls to Greek cellular networks. In May 2008, Tellas upgraded their downstream speed to 24 Mbit/s.
- Wind Hellas currently offers shared LLU and fixed telephony services with carrier preselectCarrier PreselectCarrier preselect is a term relating to the telecommunications industry. It is the process whereby a telephone subscriber whose telephone line is maintained by one company, usually a former monopoly provider , can choose to have some of their calls automatically routed across a different telephone...
through its subsidiary Tellas and is expected to launch full LLU double and later triple playTriple play (telecommunications)In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...
services under its brandname in the first quarter of 2008, eventually also renaming Tellas into Wind.
- Hellas On-LineHellas On-Linehellas online is one of the leading Greek fixed-line telephony services providers based in Athens. hellas online is member of the Intracom Holdings group since 2006, is one of the first Internet providers in Greece to offer public dial-up Internet services, and has since evolved from an ISP,...
(HOL), owned by Intracom HoldingsIntracomIntracom is a Greek group of companies, specialising in computer and defence system software development, as well as development and manufacture of telecommunications and defence equipment and electronics. Its founder and CEO is Socrates Kokkalis.- Overview :...
(co-owner with Sitronics of Intracom Telecom, a leading Greek network equipment manufacturer and Integrator), offers up to 24/1 Mbit/s ADSL2+ & SDSL, connections in districts of Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, Katerini, Karditsa, Volos, Trikala, Thiva, Livadia, Chalkida, Patras, Nafplio, Mykonos. HOL merged with Attikes Tilepikinonies in 2007, acquiring an extensive optical SDH and Metro EthernetMetro EthernetA Metro Ethernet is a computer network that covers a metropolitan area and that is based on the Ethernet standard. It is commonly used as a metropolitan access network to connect subscribers and businesses to a larger service network or the Internet...
network in the Attika region. In the past, HOL was accused of actively using traffic shapingTraffic shapingTraffic shaping is the control of computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, improve latency, and/or increase usable bandwidth for some kinds of packets by delaying other kinds of packets that meet certain criteria...
in order to discourage the use of P2PPeer-to-peerPeer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
applications. This was attributed to HOL's low overall bandwidth-to-user ratio at that time. This notion is no longer applicable due to major upgrades of its interconnection links. HOL has the largest (amongst alternative carriers) optical backhaul networks based on DWDM technology. HOL has signed an agreement with Vodafone, according to which it is Vodafone's partner for broadband services in Greece. The partnership has led to a formal relationship with Vodafone acquiring 18,5% of HOL on August 2009.
- ForthnetForthnetForthnet S.A. is a Greek Internet Service Provider established in October 1995 by Minoan Lines SA and theFoundation for Research & Technology - Hellas , also known as FORTH....
, launched its based on LLU offers in early 2007, and was supposed to have covered about 50% of the Greek population by the year's end; however, the coverage wizard on its website has been accused of being inaccurate in its predictions since Forthnet often postpones availability in a telephone exchange from deadline to deadline. It currently covers districts of large cities and offers speeds up to 24/1 Mbit/s.
- On TelecomsOn TelecomsOn Telecoms is a Greek telecommunications company offering triple play, double play and fixed telephony services in Athens and Thessaloniki through Local Loop Unbundling....
, a totally new entrant in the Greek telecoms market, was set up by Greek and Italian managers and entrepreneurs, amongst whom are some of the founders of FASTWEBFastwebFASTWEB S.p.A. is an Italian broadband telecommunications company. It provides voice, Internet, cable television, IPTV and FTTH connection. The cable television and IPTV services were developed by Fastweb themselves as the technology market in 2000 was not mature enough to offer the level of...
in Italy. On Telecoms launched its services in January 2007, using LLU as its last-mile medium. On Telecoms offers speeds up to 16/0,5 Mbit/s . In April 2009, On Telecoms joined forces with NetOne and AlgonetAlgonetAlgonet was founded in 1994 as one of Sweden's first Internet service provider. It was purchased by Telenordia in 1996, and later became a part of Glocalnet....
.
- Net One, a new company which started offering 10/1 Mbit/s double play services in April 2007, now offers service at up to 24/1 Mbit/s. NetOne had been very stable and functional; however, their VoIP services are generally less popular than the traditional PSTN services offered by most other providers, because the majority of users are not familiar with VoIP setup and/or they do not realize that even PSTN services are actually VoIP with a PSTN last mile conversion, and thus, they are as reliable and functional as native VoIP. In March 2008, Net One incorporated Algonet and these two joined with On Telecoms in April 2009.
- Vodafone started offering ADSL full LLU access (up to 24/1 Mbit/s) in October 2007 as a reseller of HOL's LLU infrastructure. In September 2009, Vodafone sent letters out to all their DSL customers informing them that they will be moving the accounts directly to HOL. As of October 28, no further information has been given to the Vodafone customers, and even some HOL sales representatives remain uninformed.
- Smaller companies also offer LLU services, but with limited coverage and uncompetitive prices.
Main Internet Providers (ISPs) through OTE's bitstream network
- OtenetOtenetOtenet is a major internet service provider of Greece.Otenet S.A. is an S.A. providing Internet products and services. The major shareholder of OTEnet is OTE ....
, OTE's affiliate ISP. - Forthnet (see above)
- Vivodi Telecom (see above)
- Hellas On Line (see above)
- Tellas (see above)
Mobile broadband access
Mobile broadband offers are available from all three national mobile phone operators Vodafone GreeceVodafone Greece
Vodafone Greece is the Greek subsidiary of Vodafone. Its headquarters are in Halandri - one of the northern suburbs of Athens.Vodafone Greece was established in Greece in 1992 – under the trade name Panafon – with the participation of Vodafone Group Plc., France Telecom, Intracom and Data Bank, and...
, Wind Hellas and Cosmote.
Downstreams are realized via (HSDPA) technology with speeds for Wind Hellas and Cosmote reaching up to 28,8 Mbit/s and for Vodafon Greece up to 42,2 Mbit/s. Upstreams of all three providers are realized via HSUPA
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family with up-link speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/s. The name HSUPA was created by Nokia...
technology, reaching up to 5,76 Mbit/s.
Satellite Broadband
Greece is covered by two satellite internet providers:Satellite service is offered through the Hellas Sat satellite under the "Hellas Sat Net" brandname. OTE, as one of the owners of Hellas Sat, offers Hellas Sat Net service through its own distribution channels (website, shops etc.). The subscription packages either include a one-year commitment that is automatically renewed as unlimited time service after one year, or as a six-month limited subscription for "seasonal business" (as described on the oteshop website) that is renewable on demand.
The equipment is installed by Hellas Sat accredited engineers and it includes a Satnet S3020 DVB - RCS VSAT Terminal (Advantech) satellite modem and a 0,96 m Antenna (satellite dish with transmitter receiver).
Hellas Sat Net connections are also used to interconnect public administration offices and schools in remote areas (mostly remote islands of the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
) to the national administration network Syzefxis
Syzefxis
Syzefxis or "National Public Administration Network", is a project of the Greek Ministry of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization, aiming at the evolvement of the voice, video and data infrastructure of the Public Sector in Greece...
and to the Internet).
The second provider covering Greece with broadband satellite internet is Tooway
Tooway
Tooway is a bi-directional satellite broadband Internet service available across Europe. The service was launched in 2007 via two Eutelsat geostationary satellites, Hot Bird 6 and Eurobird 3, respectively at the 13° and 33° East orbital positions....
. Since 2011 they offer a downstream up to 10 Mbit/s and an upstream of up to 4 Mbit/s. They address private and business customers and have a variety of packages reaching from traffic metered packages to flatrate programmes.
Attempts at Internet censorship
On June 29, 2009, George Sanidas, the soon-to-be-retired Prosecutor of the Greek Supreme Court (Areios Pagos), declared that "Internet-based communications are not covered by current privacy laws" and are thus open to surveillance by the police. Such surveillance would be, according to Sanidas's mandate, completely legal. Following this proclamation, Greek bloggers, legal experts and notable personalities from the media have claimed that Sanidas's mandate contravenes both the Greek constitution and current EU laws regarding the privacy of Internet communications. Furthermore, this mandate has been greatly criticised as being a first step towards full censorship of all Internet content.Furthermore, on August 6, 2009, the most-visited Greek blog (troktiko.blogspot.com) was shut down. Although Google cites potential violations of the terms of use, comments implying other reasons behind the closure of troktiko were published in several leading Greek blogs. The blog went back on-line a few months later.