4 Oct 2011Greece Broadband Overview

The Greek broadband market is still under development, both in terms of size and competitive dynamics. The Greek incumbent OTE has largely been blamed for stalling ADSL deployment since 2001. But in 2006, the national regulator finally set Greece’s broadband market on the path to fair network access and more competition. The two key events in 2006 were the transposition of the EU framework for Electronic Communications into Greek law and new regulations on Local Loop Unbundling (LLU).

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.

The absence of fixed alternative networks remains a significant weakness. Greece is the only EU country where broadband services via technologies other than DSL are almost non-existent. The government has big plans for making Greece a fibre nation. In early 2009, it announced plans to pass 2 million homes during the following 7 years with a fibre network in Athens, Thessaloniki, and 50 other cities and towns across Greece based on an open network model. The project’s success will depend on support from the private sector as the state plans to cover only EUR 700 million of the EUR 2.1 billion total cost, relying on public-private partnership. Construction of the network was due to start in 2010, but has been postponed due to the dire economic situation.