GSM based mobile telecommunication services, otherwise know as cellular telephony services, begun in Greece in 1992.
The then New Democracy government of Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, under pressures from the European Union to spruce Greece's telecommunication services and deregulate the Greek telecom market, announced an open competition for the licencing of two telecom operators that would serve the whole of the Greek market (2001 OECD reform La Reform de la Reglementation en Grece).
TIM (Telestet) and Vodafone (Panafon) in Greece
The results of the competition awarded the two licences respectively to Telecom Italia Mobile, under the Telestet brand name, and Panafon Greece, part of the vodafone group of companies. The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, or OTE, was for various reasons barred from participating in the competition.
Telestet effectively begun service in late June of 1993, while Panafon (later vodafone Panafon and eventually vodafone) in July 1993.
Cosmote (OTE) and Greek Mobile Services
According to the 2001 OECD reform La Reform de la Reglementation en Grece, the initially offered service was extremely expensive by Greek, and European standards. A cell phone cost about 1000 Euros (or about 400,000 drachmas) while service was rated at about 25 Euro per minute, an activation charge of about 90 Euro and a monthly contract fee of about 40 Euro.
In 1998 OTE was allowed, through Cosmote, entrance into the lucrative field of mobile telecom by the Socialist Government of Kostas Simitis. Cosmote was granted a licence in the GSM 1800 band (referred to at that time, for competitive and regulatory reasons as DCS 1800) while Telestet and Panafon continued to operate in the competitive 900 MHz GSM band.
Although the first year was a trying year for Cosmote, a change in leadership saw company profits take off. In order to rapidly gain market share Cosmote used as a strategic advantage the ready sites offered by the OTE buildings, as well as a ready customer base being the OTE government employees.
Indeed, Cosmote attracted most OTE employees by offering them, and eventually the rest of the market, the lowest priced service (coupled by the best coverage) in the country. While the other two 900 MHz operators were struggling to find sites, and commonly requested in their site quest the not so successful assistance of the infrastructure suppliers, Cosmote lavishly used the existing OTE buildings and thus accelerated country wide coverage.
The Coming of Q Telecom
Cosmote's strategy using price as a market penetration element eventually transformed mobile communication to a price sensitive service something that would be further exploited by eventual 2002 late comer Q telecom (which later became part of the Wind portfolio).
Q Telecom would attempt and succeed to gain market share by targeting low wage low income immigrant workers residing in Greece. Q Telecom was also the first to use the concept of National Roaming in the Greek market.
The Most Successful Mobile Service in Europe
Information from the Hellenic Association of Mobile Operators indicates that in 1994, a year after mobile communication services were first commissioned in the Greek market, about 4% of the population subscribed to such services. This dramatically increased to 100% in 2004, the year of the Olympic Games in Greece, and by 2008 ran at about 163% .
According to the Hellenic Association of Mobile Operators subscriber connectivity in Greece presently runs at around 168% making Greece the top European country when it comes to mobile subscriptions.
In addition, mobile coverage runs at 100% of territorial coverage and research done in 2008 by ICAP and the University of Pireaus, clearly proves that mobile communication has become an integral parameter in bolstering Greece's living standards, competitivity, productivity and the country's economic growth as a whole.
Antonis Hontzeas - Antonis Hontzeas has been in the forefront of the Telecommunications industry for over twenty years. Tenures include positions ranging ...
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