OTE commits to €3bn investment in fibre

Deutsche Telekom-owned Greek telco OTE has committed to invest over €3 billion by 2027 in upgrading its fixed network.

OTE Group plans to bring fibre-to-the-home to to 3 million households and businesses. The company has also taken a decision to upgrade, free of charge, the fixed broadband speeds that its Cosmote customers enjoy, subject to technical eligibility.

OTE Group’s plan for the country’s digital future was presented to the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Minister of State and Digital Governance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis by the Deutsche Telekom Group CEO, Tim Höttges, the Deutsche Telekom board member for Europe, Dominique Leroy, the chairman and CEO of OTE Group, Michael Tsamaz and the OTE group general counsel – chief legal and regulatory affairs officer, Eirini Nikolaidi, during a meeting in Athens, at Maximos Mansion.

The fibre rollout means that OTE Group will cover almost two thirds of Greece’s lines with FTTH. Today, OTE Group’s FTTH lines amount to almost 560,000.

OTE Group’s investments will significantly contribute to the success of the Greek Digital Transformation Bible 2020-2025 and the National Broadband Plan 2021-2027, as well as improve the country’s performance in EU Benchmark, DESI.

The free speeds upgrade for existing Cosmote customers is expected to begin within Q1 2022 and gradually be completed within the year.

During the meeting OTE’s Tsamaz, said: “The OTE Group builds Greece’s digital future. We respond to the actual needs of the State, the society and the market, by deploying today the network that will foster growth for the next decades and by upgrading free of charge our customers’ fixed speeds. The rapid development of our FTTH network is a big challenge, a complex project of enormous importance for the country. We are not intimidated by this great responsibility. If there is one company that can carry this project through, it’s the OTE Group and its people.”