OTE

OTE telecom will be implementing two new voluntary redundancy programs at the end of the month.
The programs concern more than 400 employees across the various departments and subsidiaries of the group and will cost a total of 55 million euros, or about €130,000 per departing employee on average.

OTE Telecom, Greece's biggest telecoms operator, reported on Thursday a 3.6 percent rise in core profit thanks to increased data traffic and usage of broadband services amid the coronavirus lockdown.

Greek broadband internet users have to wait from one to three weeks for connections to be repaired, according to data from the National Commission for Telecommunications and Post (EETT).

The government announced on Monday it had reached an agreement with Greece's main mobile network operators for free access to the virtual tools used for distance learning by schools during the pandemic. The deal with Cosmote, Vodafone and Wind goes into effect Tuesday.

Education Minister Niki Kerameus and Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis have secured zero-rating cellphone access to government platforms being used for distance learning by schools during the coronavirus pandemic, the Education Ministry announced on Monday.

Greece has seen an increase of at least 50 percent in internet use in recent days following the government's decision to restrict citizens' movements to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, according to officials at the Digital Governance Ministry who indicated however that telecommunications networks are handling the strain so far.

Telecoms market leader Cosmote is set to launch the modernization of its cellphone network next month, based on the new contract it has signed with Ericsson. Cosmote will also begin working on the creation of Greece's first fifth-generation (5G) network.

Greece's biggest telecoms operator OTE posted a 9.4 percent rise in fourth-quarter core profit on Wednesday thanks to growing business at its home market.

Negotiations on setting the new minimum wage in the private sector   are to begin in the coming days.

The government is entering the talks with trade unions having pledged in its electoral campaign last year to support wage hikes in 2020 that are double the country's growth rate.

Originally from New York and now based in Thessaloniki, artist Barry Feldman presents a series of paintings titled "Living in the Greek Topos" which can be viewed in the display windows of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) building at 33 Karolou Ntil Street in the northern port city of Thessaloniki.