Update on Greek FTTH Endeavours – and yes, OTE is interested…
Earlier this year the cabinet (the minister and the secretary general) of the Ministry of Communications has been replaced, due to a major Government cabinet shuffle. At that time, the fears that this change will affect the pace of the ambitious FTTH project for the 52 largest cities of Greece does not seem to materialize though. A committee comprised of senior executives from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Communications assembled last week to re-assess the time-schedule and actions.
The goal of the new leadership of the ministry remains to initiate the tender by the second half of 2009 as it was initially planned. It has been announced that actions to secure the necessary approvals for the required public-private partnerships to move forward with the project are being taken.
Responding to a question about the project, Panagis Vourloumis, OTE’s CEO declared the organization’s aim to play the major role in this project commenting that current plans for VDSL access (note: OTE has already VDSL pilots in place) will complement the FTTH network, in areas where fiber will not be made available yet.
According to current project requirements, OTE and other potentially interested telcos can only participate in the bid by forming a separate company as it is not allowed for firms active in the telecommunications service business to take part in the project.
On a different front, this Friday the Memorandum of Cooperation for the “Broadband Network of Southwest Greece” will be signed by the participating cities of the area. Read this to recall the details. What’s more important is that the Hellenic Central Union of Municipalities and Communitites fully supports these regional initiatives and has played an important part in these developments.
So, there you have it, on one hand, the central government’s plan and on the other, a series of ambitious local authorities driven initiatives, both aiming to bring fiber reality closer to the public. Which is going to last, which is going to perish? Under which circumstances may they co-exist – or merge? (add this to my posts-to-do list).
