ATHENS-According to sources at OTE, the Greek telephone company’s subsidiary Cosmote will begin activating personal communications services customers this week as scheduled, becoming the country’s third mobile phone operator.
OTE, which was awarded the third license in 1996, owns the majority stake in Cosmote, the remainder is held by Telenor AB of Norway and other investors, making it the only mobile phone operator in Greece owned primarily by a Greek company.
The expected launch has been a source of stress for OTE officials, who fear losing many subscribers if the launch is delayed. Cosmote was meant to begin service in September but that date was pushed back to December. The problem was that a mass-advertising campaign already had netted hundreds of thousands of customers, who were promised service in September. The delay of the December launch date sparked protests, and OTE feared many would churn to one of the country’s two Global System for Mobile communications carriers.
Greece’s private GSM operators are Panafon-owned 45 percent by England’s Vodaphone, 35 percent by France Telecom and 10 percent each by Data Bank of Greece and Intracom, the latter a Greek partner of L.M. Ericsson-and STET Hellas-owned 75 percent by STET of Italy, 20 percent by the Nynex Group and 5 percent by InterAmerican Group. Both launched in 1993 and together command 1 million customers.
