Greece’s government telephone provider said it has collected bids from more than 15 equipment manufacturers for mobile phone equipment, and has narrowed its search for non-Greek partners to three companies, which includes a U.S. company.
The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, OTE, continues its push to become Greece’s third mobile phone operator. The government gave OTE a chunk of 1800 MHz spectrum. OTE issued a request for foreign partners last fall, and also is considering equipment proposals. The deadline for both was March 3, however OTE expects to extend the deadline for equipment bids.
OTE intends to build a Digital Cellular System 1800 network; the project has been valued at $250 million.
The equipment tender included all infrastructure needs such as mobile switching centers, authentication center, base stations, transceivers, controllers, transcorders, antennas and feeders. OTE said offers came in from several leading U.S. suppliers, as well as international consortia.
OTE has narrowed its search for a foreign partner. It received 16 partnership offers, of which only three continue to be candidates: California-based AirTouch Communications Inc., Orange plc of the United Kingdom and Telenor Mobile AS of Norway.
If OTE is the primary partner in the new service, it will be the nation’s first cellular business owned primarily by Greeks. Both of Greece’s current cellular networks, Panafon SA and STET Hellas, are owned primarily by non-Greek entities.
Panafon is held by U.K.-based Vodafone (45 percent), France Telecom (35 percent) Data Bank of Greece (10 percent) and Intracom (10 percent).
STET Hellas is 75 percent owned by STET of Italy, with U.S.-based Nynex Corp. holding 20 percent and the InterAmerican Group with 5 percent.
Both cellular networks were launched in July of 1993 and have competed head to head.
Greece has been a longtime member of the European Union, and is decentralizing OTE in accordance with competition rules laid down by the EU.
Greece has a population of about 10 million; about one out of every two people has local telephone service.
