Greece « Broadband Prime

FTTx in Greece: One small step closer

On December 28, 2010 / Access, Greece / 1 Comment

Just before Christmas the Special Secretariat of Digital Plan (Ministry of Finance) issued a public consultation on the RfP for managing the public metro+FTTGovernment network infrastructure which was built across the country from 2004 to 2009.

The RfP is very detailed and the consultation aims at clarifying the specifics of administering and expanding the city networks (68 in total). The Greek government seeks 3 or less companies to manage the networks for a period of 25 years. Here’s some relevant details:

The networks are grouped into 3 separated zones, relatively equal in terms of Kms of deployed trenches and invested public funds. That is: Zone A: 26Meuros 440Km; Zone B: 27Meuros, 475Km; Zone C: 26Meuros, 416Km.
Contract duration: 25 + 5 years
The Administrator will be required to invest at minimum 5% of the initial public investment in the first 5 years of operation
Prices will be cost oriented and based on the WACC of the industry plus an additional 5%. WACC is calculated by the NRA and applied nationwide. Prices cannot exceed 1500 euros per connection per year.
All three zones have 3500 points of public interest (minimum guarantee)
Local government will be compensated for facilitation and efficient handling of rights-of-way with a 5% of the annual gross revenues
Services will require at minimum: dark fiber and capacity links
The administrator will be free to pursue other commercial deals (in addition to 5.)

If this project develops quickly I find that nationwide FTTH coverage could easily emerge from these networks in the future; and why shouldn’t it?

You can access the documents here.

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Forthnet and HOL: Another wasted round of negotiations

On December 2, 2010 / Access, Greece / 1 Comment

This week, with a brief statement, Forthnet and HOL announced the end of another round of merge negotiations. The companies have allegedly discussed a few more times in the past the potential for a merger. Until now they haven’t been able to reach a concluding agreement.

HOL on the one hand, has substantially invested in infrastructure, both backbone and access. The company has leveraged on major government co-financing and expanded service coverage to almost half of the Greek territory. They are currently, based on reported figures, the second broadband provider in terms of customer base.

Forthnet on the other hand, has invested on the content market. With the acquisition of NOVA a few years back they are the only service provider with access to high-quality content, although they have not yet been able to bundle it with their broadband services, in operational and marketing terms. They also have an extensive national presence, however they clearly fall behind HOL in terms of coverage.

A merge between the two companies would create the third major service provider in the country, widening, significantly the gap between the prime players and the rest of the crowd. In effect, a joint company between HOL and Forthnet (with the support of Vodafone, which already collaborates with HOL) would combine two powerful business models (one based on access coverage and another based on content delivery) and would create an integrated alternative service provider that for the first time in the modern telecommunications history of the country could directly compete with the incumbent.

The catch: A merge between HOL and Forthnet would completely alter the national competition conditions and would most likely lead EETT to revoke some of the regulatory provisions in telephony and broadband markets, allowing OTE to become more aggressive with its own offerings.

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OTE starts the deployment of its commercial VDSL network

On September 16, 2010 / Access, Greece, The Blog / 2 Comments

OTE builds its FTTN+VDSL (pilot) sites. And we have pictures to prove it!

After a short pilot in the area of Piraeus, OTE started deploying fiber ducts for its FTTN+VDSL network in Zografou, (an area near the university campuses, completed packed with apartments rented to students). Adslgr.com has the story and some nice pictures. OTE’s deployment includes 12 fibers to each KV (outside distribution frames – cabinets) grouping up to 8 KV per fiber cable (of 96 fibers) to reach a maximum of 2000 end-users. The interesting point however is that OTE installs duct capacity in the urban backhaul that far exceeds the VDSL requirements. As stated occasionally by executives of the organization, OTE will deploy FTTH in the future over its FTTN/VDSL network. This explains the additional capacity in the backhaul.

Still, the question is when will OTE offer retail VDSL services. EETT released to the press (what it has stated last year when OTE first announced its plans) that the VDSL market (i.e. sub loop unbundling and WBA) will be analyzed and regulated accordingly to enable fair competition among industry actors, by the end of 2010. Remember that in Germany, after DT’s plans for VDSL the German regulator decided that the VDSL network of the incumbent will be regulated and access to it will have to be provided to alternative operators (following relevant infringement procedures by the European Commission). So I’d consider it rather unlikely that OTE will not have to issue a Reference Offer for the network.

It is interesting to see how the relevance of the WBA (market 5) – bit stream – increases while the importance of network infrastructure access (market 4) – unbundling - is reassessed (within the context of fiber enabled access networks of course).

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A business model for municipal FTTH/B networks: the case of rural Greece

On July 7, 2010 / Access, Government, Greece, The Blog / 5 Comments

A few weeks ago, Info, the journal of policy, regulation and strategy for telecommunications, information and media of Emerald Press published my article “A business model for municipal FTTH/B networks: the case of rural Greece” co-authored with colleague Vasilis Merekoulias and prof. Vasilis Maglaris.

The article proposes a business model for municipalities for the establishment and management of regional FTTH/B networks in rural areas where competition is unlikely to take any initiative soon. Here’s a short abstract:

Purpose – In recent years, many municipalities have made investments in fiber to the home/building (FTTH/B) infrastructures to enhance the digital future of their local communities. This paper aims to propose a business model for managing these municipal FTTH/B networks. The paper also seeks to form a part of the discussion on the business, social and policy implications of municipal involvement in physical broadband infrastructures.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the international experience in municipal FTTH projects and identifies the best practices. Greece is then used as a case study due to the country’s strategic plans to create efficient broadband infrastructures in the periphery of the country. Finally, the municipal business model is examined on three premises: the extent of horizontal integration; the degree of vertical integration; and the appropriate form of ownership.

Findings – The passive infrastructure model applied within the model presented has strong potentials to ensure fair and open competition. The proposed business model exhibits substantial benefits for the telecommunications industry, the local communities and the managing company. It could become an effective policy tool for future regulation, broadband universal service framework, socially optimal investments and social inclusion.

Originality/value – The paper contributes to the international debates regarding the adoption of the “highway” model (“open access”) versus “vertical integration” and the suitability of public-private partnership (PPP) as a method for developing and operating FTTH/B networks. It also contributes to the discussion about the implications of the public sector’s involvement in broadband infrastructure development.

You can access the article here.

The journal of policy, regulation and strategy for telecommunications, information and media

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Public Consultation on Managing the Greek City MANs

On April 1, 2010 / Access, Government, Greece / 1 Comment

The Special Secretariat for Digital Planning announced today the public consultation for the terms and conditions based on which an administrator for the city metropolitan fiber networks will be selected.

Currently the MANs cover primarily the center of each city and selected areas of interest in the urban periphery and hubs all public buildings and municipal services to a central location. It also expands to a large number of OTE’s outside cabinets (facilitating a potential sub-loop unbundling regulation).

According to the announcement the Secretariat’s goal is to have selected and approved a MAN administrator by the 1st of January 2011. The MAN Administrator will be responsible for wholesale services (unbundling and capacity offerings) over the infrastructure for a period of 25 years.

The consultation asks questions about the criteria of grouping distributed MANs in greater operating entities, the tender specifications, the terms, conditions and financing of the network expansion etc. It is critical in the sense that these networks hold the potential to speed up broadband development in the country if they are properly integrated in the national broadband strategy.

If you want to have a look, the consultation is available in Greek and English here. The deadline for contributions is the 19th of April 2010.

For background on the story read the following posts on Broadband Prime:

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Regulator investigates on OTE’s new marketing campaign

On March 20, 2010 / Greece, Services / Leave a comment

The Greek watchdog asked for comments from the operators regarding the new broadband marketing campaign of OTE. The incumbent came forward last week with an upgrade plan to reduce prices on the high-end of its fixed broadband portfolio. More specifically OTE plans the following:

Upgrade 2Mbps/256k to 2Mbps/512k at no additional cost
Upgrade 8Mbps/1Mbps to 24Mbps/1Mbps at no additional cost
Cut down the prices of 24Mbps/1Mbps (presumably at the level of previously advertised and now cancelled 8Mbps speed)

These plans will be applied to both its retail (end-users) and wholesale (operators – bitstream) business, thus inevitably affecting (pushing down) the prices of LLU-based broadband products.

Comments will be published on the regulator’s website, so if I see something truly interesting I will come back to you on this.

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HoL passes 300k LLU subscribers

On March 17, 2010 / Greece, Services / 1 Comment

Hellas on Line, the primary fixed broadband competitor of OTE, the Greek incumbent, announced that it passed the 300,ooo subscribers mark. This figure refers to local loop unbundled connections. The figure is substantial and if you take into account the fast pace by which the company has been connecting customers the last year I am sure we are in for much more exciting developments from them.

HoL, as friends like to call it, has been in a strategic partnership with Vodafone for a few years already, so do not expect to see HoL’s brand on all of these 300,000 bills. No information is known about what portion of HoL’s LLU share comes from their wholesale business. Nevertheless, Vodafone and HoL (if you consider them close partners – why shouldn’t you) is the second largest all-in-one Telco in the country after the incumbent’s fixed and wireless business and before Tellas/Wind.

HoL has also announced that it will soon publish a detailed business report for 2009 (due before the end of the month).

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On selecting the Consultant for the Greek FTTH Vision

On January 17, 2010 / Access, Greece, The Blog / 4 Comments

The Ministry of Infrastructure released this Friday a public consultation regarding the tender for selecting the national FTTH project’s consultant. The consultant will undertake a techno-economic analysis on the project and will have to provide input to the ministry regarding the proposed business model and plan, sustainability study, sensitivity analysis and so forth.

There are a few things that stand out in the tender prototype:

1. Previous passive-only model (a.k.a. EFODIA) is being reassessed and a comparison with a 3-tier model (based on Singapore’s plan) will be made by the consultant to conclude for the best option. This clearly assumes that the new team is eventually considering the option of a distinct or compound NetCo/OpCo layered model.

2. The national FTTH network will consider leveraging on existing public fiber metro networks (Calls 93 & 195) and other private access and backhaul networks (Call 157).

3. Finally, the FTTH coverage (i.e. the number of participating cities) is also under revision.

The way things currently are, these considerations can greatly improve the Greek FTTH plan.

The consultation will run until the 22nd of January and you can access the document and participate from the ministry’s web site.

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Greek IX traffic slashed down to 30% – torrents closed

On December 21, 2009 / Greece, Services / 25 Comments

greek Piracy closed Greek IX traffic slashed down to 30% torrents closed

Last week EPOE, a copyright protection authority pressed charges against the administrators of a Greek owned torrent site (greek-fun.com). After the police arrested one of the owners most of the torrent sites with Greek owners, voluntarily, shutdown (temporarily as it is rumored in the underground scene) resulting in an almost 70% slash to the average GR IX traffic. See below:

grix aix total week1 Greek IX traffic slashed down to 30% torrents closed

Fore the rest of the statistics visit http://www.gr-ix.gr/services/statistics/grix-aix-total/

This is the first time that a torrent site administrator is arrested in the country. A funny background of the story is that this guy was arrested because he was boasting on his facebook account of actually being the owner of the site… (which I think proves the high level of amateurism in the scene). If you speak Greek visit this link or read the google translated version.

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Internet HDTV and ADSL Quality in Greece

On December 3, 2009 / Greece, Services, The Blog / 4 Comments

Last Sunday I watched the “el classico” of the Greek footbal via a High Definition broadcast from SKAI.gr, a pioneer radio/TV station of the country. With a 720p resolution and a relatively low bit rate (around 700Kbps) the broadcast made a decent watch. The thing is that it would not be possible to watch the match at a bit rate higher than this. And even its actual rate could not be sustained for a long continuous period (i.e. 90 minutes) by the network. Hickups and stalls happened all too often.

Maybe, those who argue that ADSL in Greece is enough to meet the service demand in the country should reconsider!

On a different tone this broadcast has many firsts for Greece. It was the first real-time HD emission over the Internet and it was also the first internet broadcasting whose analog rights were owned by another broadcasting station. By the way, SKAI was (if not) the first station that went live in the Internet and now broadcasts its entire program over the net.

If you follow the Greek broadcasting market it wouldn’t be a bad idea to watch out for news from SKAI.

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