OTE Group's next-generation networks saw significant growth last year, thanks to its €1.3 billion investment plan. With the Group's investments in 2016, more customers are enjoying new high-speed fixed and mobile internet and better quality services.
OTE Group Chief Technology and Operations Officer, Mr. Stefanos Theocharopoulos, stated in this regard: “For 2016, we set high goals for the development of New Generation networks. We achieved them and this means that more customers have access to higher connection speeds and new services. Behind every call, every email and every post, there are the network and IT technicians who create the new networks and ensure their smooth operation, as well as all the employees in the group who ensure the quality service of our customers every day. I thank them. We will continue, with the same enthusiasm and commitment, to upgrade the experience enjoyed by our customers.”
2016: High internet speeds and new services for even more people
In mobile telephony, the population coverage of the 4G network increased to 93% at the end of 2016, remaining No. 1 by a large margin from the competition. OTE Group also significantly increased the population coverage of the 4G+ network, LTE Advanced (LTE-A) technology, which now exceeds 82%, offering a unique mobile internet experience. Furthermore, by leveraging the acquisition of new spectrum, the Group made available to consumers, the first in Greece and one of the first in the world, speeds of up to 500 Mbps. OTE Group’s mobile telephony network also received “Best in Test” certification in 2016 from the internationally recognized network measurement and control company P3 Communications, confirming the high quality of voice and mobile internet services enjoyed by COSMOTE subscribers.
In fixed line, OTE Group continued to replace the copper network with fiber optics, providing access to VDSL speeds of up to 50 Mbps to even more consumers, with population coverage increasing to 46%. Now, over 2 million households and businesses have access to speeds of up to 50 Mbps.
Furthermore, with the new COSMOTE Home Speed Booster service, which became available last year and combines the speed of fixed broadband connection with the speed of 3G & 4G networks, through Hybrid Access technology, OTE Group offers faster fixed Internet with final speeds of up to 100Mbps.
Investing in research and innovation
In order to be a pioneer in technological developments, OTE Group participates in a series of innovative research programs and evaluates new technologies and telecommunications equipment of the future in its laboratories.
By participating in 4 European Union research programs aimed at the design and development of new 5th generation technologies, infrastructures and services, the Group is actively contributing to the research and development of 5G. Accordingly, it presented the Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology, which changes the IoT as we knew it, since it drastically reduces energy consumption and the volume of data transferred between devices, no matter how far away they are, and will become an indispensable tool in the smart cities of the near future.
It is worth noting that in 2016, the OTE Group mobile network, after many years of research and preparation, introduced the new Internet addressing protocol IPv6 to better support IoT technologies. Furthermore, after continuous testing in collaboration with manufacturers, COSMOTE was the first in Greece to introduce Voice over WiFi & Voice over LTE technologies, which allow subscribers to call and send SMS via WiFi, make their calls faster and enjoy even better quality communication.
