Sixteen wireless operators have made the cut to be considered possible partners for Greece’s government telephone company.
Watching the success of the country’s two private cellular providers, the government has awarded a third mobile license to its own landline entity, OTE. OTE will compete with Panafon SA and STET Hellas Telecommunications, which both offer digital cellular service using Global System for Mobile communications technology. Both operators are owned primarily by non-Greek companies. The Greek press reports that Panafon and STET Hellas are complaining to authorities that their seven-year licenses were exclusive, thus OTE should not be granted a permit.
OTE’s license is for a DCS-1800 network. In order to compete with the existing cellular carriers, OTE is seeking a foreign partner with wireless expertise. Five U.S. companies are included in the list for partners: AirTouch Communications Inc., BellSouth International, Motorola Inc., International Wireless Inc. and SBC Communications Inc.
Also vying for the partnership are Bouygues Telecom Inc. of France, Debitel and Mannesmann AG of Germany, Korea Mobile Telecom, Kuwait Mobile Telecom, NTT Corp./Itochu of Japan, Orange Personal Communications of the United Kingdom, Swiss PTT, TeleDanmark, Telenor of Norway, and Telesystem of Canada/Lantec of Greece.
Greece is a longtime member of the European Union and is beginning to decentralize its telecommunications business.
OTE also is becoming involved in a mobile phone venture outside of Greece. The company’s board of directors agreed to take a 10 percent stake in Zephir SA, a company that is trying to win one of Romania’s mobile phone licenses. Other members of Zephir include Telenor, TeleDanmark, Motorola and 11 Romanian companies.
