WIND Hellas

Vantage Towers Greece sees significant growth prospects in Greece, using as a vehicle the collaborations with all the "players" in the telecommunications sector, but also of the wider market, also winking to energy companies as well.

Wednesday sees the start of the state auction of bandwidth for the development of fifth-generation telecommunication networks (5G) in Greece, but the state-of-the-art services to subscribers will also come at an added cost.

Wind Hellas announced this week it has selected Ericsson for the development of its 5G network across Greece, with the Swedish company also cooperating with the Greek service provider in the sector of business support.

The deal for the acquisition of a 33% stake in Forthnet between the BC Partners investment group and the creditor banks of the Greek telecommunications company was all but sealed on Friday, with the only issue still pending being the bridge funding of 15 million euros from the British group to Forthnet for the period until the acquisition is approved by the competition authorities.

Referring to ekathimerini's Sunday report titled "Claims upset Greek telecom market," Rewheel head Antonis Drossos noted that neither the study by his company nor Rewheel executives had ever mentioned "coordinated activity" between Vodafone and Wind in Greece.

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.

Vodafone Greece announced on Monday it has scooped the exclusive rights to the premium TV content of US giant HBO for its VTV cable TV subscription service.

This 'defection' of HBO's content from Nova's service is the second major blow for the troubled satellite platform after it lost the rights to soccer's Champions League to Cosmote TV.

Investor interest in the Greek state's UltraFast BroadBand (UFBB) project illustrates the swing toward infrastructure: A total of 10 investors have expressed non-binding interest in the project, including one from abroad. The latter is Oman Fiber Optic (OFO), which is based in Muscat, Oman.

Foreign investment funds are said to be focusing on Greek telecommunication services provider Wind Hellas.

This minor player in the Greek cellphone market has garnered the attention of at least four investment groups that want to invest in the country's telecommunications sector, Kathimerini understands.

Despite the fact that Greece appears to be over the worst of the financial crisis, telecoms firms are still suffering from negligent payers.
Total nonpayments are expected to be around 100 million euros this year, as was the case in previous years.
Accumulated nonpayments in December 2018 stood at 1.2 billion euros, only slightly lower than the 1.29 billion at end-2017.