OTE promotes increasing fiber optic connections – proposal to reduce wholesale prices up to 28%

To increase connections to the house (FTTH) appears to contribute by having even submitted the relevant proposal for approval to the National Telecommunications & Post Committee. According to the relevant OTE Communication, the relevant proposal for fibre connections provides for a system of reciprocal discounts that can reach 28% between wholesale price providers, with binding login volumes. In particular, providers will be able to commit to each other for the volumes of connections they will bring to each other’s network, depending on the areas covered by FTTH, ensuring significant discounts. This system is open and available, under the same conditions, to all market operators, or intend to operate in the future. Once approved by EETT, OTE’s proposal will allow more people to enjoy the connectivity experience and super-high speeds offered by optical fiber to the house. By combining the FTTH services of providers in future, with the state’s actions in connectivity coupons (Smart Readiness & Gigabit voucher), the country will be able to move faster than copper to optical fibre, cover its lag in super-high-speed services and converge with the European average, achieving the EU’s goals for the Digital 2030s. In terms of prices, OTE has moved towards reductions in retail prices in both fixed and mobile telephony. As the company notes, in relation to the 1st half of 2019, the actual average price, before tax, for mobile data has decreased by 85%, from 1.6 Euro/GB to 0.3 Euro/GB., while prices have decreased by 50% in popular fixed mobile programs, as well as in payphone. Compared to steady, prices in the most popular programs of 50 Mbps and 100Mbps have decreased by about 30%. It is noted that the price per Mbps decreased by 26%, following OTE’s initiative to upgrade free of charge the speeds of subscribers who did not yet have access to visual fiber up to the house. It is indicative that in 2023 a COSMOTE customer could enjoy 500Mbps speeds, via FTTH, at a lower price than that for 100Mbps speeds in 2020. Prices reductions in telecommunications are also confirmed by the Consumer Prices Index (IMF), which in December 2023 experienced an increase of 3.5%, while for telecommunications a fall of 3.2%. Accordingly, for 2022, while the IDC increased by 9.65%, the Telecommunications IDC in Greece decreased by 2.44%. Source: RES – ICM