Internet in Greece

Internet users in Greece have long complained of slow internet speeds in the country. In November 2021, the country promised to increase internet speeds in a bid to attract digital nomads to Greece.

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias announced that private companies will provide better internet connection packages.

The Tourism Ministry will initially partner with Greek telecom company Wind to make this a reality. The cooperation will see the company offer attractive internet packages to digital nomads to facilitate their stay as they work from Greece. The Ministry intends to collaborate with other telecom companies at a later stage.

Greece is the perfect country for the post-pandemic, self-disciplined digital nomad. Blessed with a temperate climate, a high standard of living, mouth-watering food, affordability, and a laidback attitude, Greece could become a top destination for digital nomads.

In March, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined a multi-billion-euro plan dubbed “Greece 2.0,” including investments in 5G networks, which Greece began rolling out in December to reinforce its attractiveness to those who can work remotely.

Yet, low internet speeds are one of the reasons that Greece has yet to attract as many digital nomads as it had hoped to do. A recent study by the European Data Journalism Network ranked Greece at the bottom in Europe in terms of average internet speed.

With an average download speed of just 29 Mbit/s, Greece is in last place regarding digital access throughout the EU.

Elon Musk has also joined the effort to bring faster internet to Greece, as he plans to provide internet service to the country through his Starlink satellites.

SpaceX launched its massive internet constellation in May to help provide internet coverage to the world, in particular to those living in remote and rural areas.

To that end, company engineers designed a fleet of flat-paneled broadband satellites to fly over the Earth, beaming down internet coverage to users who can access the service via a compact user terminal.

With its launch success, SpaceX has sent nearly 1,600 Starlink satellites into orbit, including some that are no longer operational.

Starlink’s entry into the local internet market is expected to radically change the existing landscape. Outdated infrastructure and low internet speeds still plague large areas of Greece, even in the capital.

• Top-level domain: .gr[1]
• Internet users: 6.0 million users, 52nd in the world; 56.0% of the population, 71st in the world (2012).[2][3]
• Fixed broadband: 2.5 million subscriptions, 32nd in the world; 23.5% of the population, 40th in the world (2012).[2][4]
• Wireless broadband: 4.8 million, 38th in the world; 44.5% of the population, 35th in the world (2012).[5]
• Internet hosts: 3.2 million hosts, 32nd in the world (2012).[1]
• IPv4: 5,549,568 addresses allocated, 0.1% of the world total, 515 addresses per 1,000 people (2012).[6][7]
• Internet service providers (ISPs): Approximately 23 ISPs. Two Tier 1 ISPs.[8] NCSR Demokritos was the first Hellenic Internet Service Provider ariadnet.

It is expected that Greece by October 2020 will be connected to Cyprus, Israel, Italy, France and Spain with Quantum Cable, 7,700km ultra high speed fiber-optic submarine communications cable.[9][10][11][12][13][14] It is expected to have 160 Tbit/s (terabits per second), capacity enough to handle up to 60% of the world’s internet traffic at peak time (2018).[12] The Quantum Cable will be laid at the same time as the 2,000 MW EuroAsia Interconnector.[12] It will upgrade Greece to telecom hub.

FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) is a form of fiber-optic communication delivery that reaches one living or working space. The fiber extends from the central office to the subscriber's living or working space. Once at the subscriber's living or working space, the signal may be conveyed throughout the space using any means, including twisted pair, coaxial cable, wireless, power line communication, or optical fiber.

The main FTTH provider are:

• Inalan - https://www.inalan.gr (Coverage in Athens & Thessaloniki, Speeds from 100Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s)
• HCN - https://www.hcn.gr (Coverage in Thessaloniki & Kilkis, Speeds from 120Mbit/s to 10Gbit/s)
• Vodafone Greece - https://www.vodafone.gr (Coverage in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Speeds from 100Mbit/s to 200Mbit/s)
• Cosmote - https://www.cosmote.gr (Covarage in Athens, Larissa, Thessaloniki, Speeds from 50Mbit/s to 200Mbit/s)
• WIND Hellas - https://www.wind.gr (Coverage in Athens, Speeds from 100Mbit/s to 200Mbit/s)

A variety of new entrants have appeared since the liberalization of the market and local-loop unbundling. These operators typically offer lower prices than OTE (Cosmote).

The main DSL providers are:

• Cosmote
• Nova (after merger with Forthnet)
• Vodafone Greece (after merger with Hellas Online and Cyta Hellas)
• WIND Hellas

Defunct:

• On Telecoms
• Vivodi Telecom

The available speeds are:

• up to 24 Mbit/s ADSL2+
• up to 200 Mbit/s VDSL2 (with Supervectoring)
• up to 120 Mbit/s FTTB[15]
• up to 250 Mbit/s AWMN (Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network)
• up to 10 Gbit/s FTTO/FTTH

Mobile broadband offers are available from all three national mobile phone operators Cosmote, Vodafone Greece and WIND Hellas, with more than 1Gbit/s[16] downlink speeds. Mobile broadband was heavily marketed during 2008 by all three, leading to a surge in mobile Internet usage, primarily with mobile professionals and young users.

The access technologies used by all three providers are primarily LTE (and LTE+) as well as 5G with 90th percentile figures for Cosmote reaching over 240Mbit/s and for Vodafone Greece and WIND Hellas over 110Mbit/s.[17]

Greece is covered by two satellite internet providers:

• Hellas-Sat offers satellite service under the "Hellas Sat Net" brandname. OTE, as one of the owners of Hellas Sat, offers Hellas Sat Net service through its distribution channels (website, shops etc.). The subscription packages either include a one-year commitment that is automatically renewed as unlimited time service after one year, or as a six-month limited subscription for "seasonal business" (as described on the oteshop website) that is renewable on demand.

The equipment is installed by Hellas Sat accredited engineers and it includes a Satnet S3020 DVB - RCS VSAT Terminal (Advantech) satellite modem and a 0,96m Antenna (satellite dish with transmitter receiver). Hellas Sat Net connections are also used to interconnect public administration offices and schools in remote areas (mostly remote islands of the Aegean Sea) to the national administration network Syzefxis and to the Internet).

• Tooway covers Greece with broadband satellite Internet. Since 2011 they offer a downstream speed of up to 22 Mbit/s and an upstream speed of up to 6 Mbit/s. They address private and business customers and have a variety of packages reaching from traffic metered packages to flatrate programmes.
• BigBlu is a UK company that begun offering satellite internet connection since August 2019 to the Greek market. Unlimited packages with speed of up to 50 Mbit/s and an upstream speed of up to 6 Mbit/s. They address private customers all over the country where telephone lines do not exist or underperform.

Greece practices some internet censorship, including the blocking of websites that offer unauthorized online gambling.[18]

The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. Independent media are active and express a wide variety of views. Individuals can criticize the government publicly or privately without reprisal, and the government does not impede criticism. However, the law provides for prosecution of individuals who "intentionally incite others to actions that could provoke discrimination, hatred, or violence against persons or groups of persons on the basis of their race or ethnic origin or who express ideas insulting to persons or to groups of persons because of their race or ethnic origin." In practice the government has never invoked these provisions. The law permits any prosecutor to order the seizure of publications that insult the president, offend any religion, contain obscenity, advocate for the violent overthrow of the political system, or disclose military secrets. The law provides criminal penalties for defamation, however, in most criminal defamation cases, authorities released defendants on bail pending trial and they served no time in jail. The constitution and law prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence. However, NGOs such as the Greek Helsinki Monitor report that authorities do not always respect these provisions in practice.[19]

On October 28, 2012 police arrested a Greek journalist, Kostas Vaxevanis, for violating personal privacy laws for publishing the "Lagarde List" of more than 2,000 alleged Greek tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts. On November 1, a court acquitted him; prosecutors appealed the verdict, and a re-trial date was pending at the end of 2012.[19] In the 2013 re-trial, he was acquitted again.[20]

In September 2012 the cyber-crime police arrested a 27-year-old man, F. Loizos, charging him with "malicious blasphemy and insulting religion". The man reportedly created a Facebook page under the name "Elder Pastitsios" that played on the name of a legendary Mount Athos monk famous for his prophecies about Greece and Orthodox Christianity, and the name of a popular Greek dish. The cyber-crime police seized the man’s laptop and removed the Facebook page.[19] On January 16, 2014, he was found guilty of "repeatedly insulting religion" and was sentenced to ten months in jail, suspended[21][22][23] while the prosecutor had recommended a smaller sentence.[24] In the 2017 re-trial, however, the court acquitted Loizos.[25]

On August 6, 2009, the most-visited Greek blog (troktiko.blogspot.com) was shut down. Although Google cites potential violations of the terms of use, comments implying other reasons behind the closure of the Troktiko blog were published in several leading Greek blogs. The blog went back on-line a few months later and suspended its activities in July 2010, after the assassination of Sokratis Giolias, its administrator.[26]

On June 29, 2009, Georgios Sanidas, the soon-to-be-retired Prosecutor of the Greek Supreme Court (Areios Pagos), declared that "Internet-based communications are not covered by current privacy laws" and are thus open to surveillance by the police. Such surveillance would be, according to Sanidas's mandate, completely legal. Following this proclamation, Greek bloggers, legal experts and notable personalities from the media have claimed that Sanidas's mandate contravenes both the Greek constitution and current EU laws regarding the privacy of Internet communications. Furthermore, this mandate has been greatly criticised as being a first step towards full censorship of all Internet content.[27]

• Greek Internet Exchange (GR-IX), an independent, non-profit Internet exchange point located in Athens.
• Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) (Greek: Εθνικό Δίκτυο Έρευνας και Τεχνολογίας, ΕΔΕΤ), the national research and education network of Greece.
• Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. (Greek: Οργανισμός Τηλεπικοινωνιών Ελλάδος Α.Ε.), known by its Greek initials OTE, is the dominant telecommunications provider in Greece.

•  This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/.
•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State.

• Greece on the Internet, IPduh.
• www.adslgr.com, an independent review site for broadband in Greece (in Greek).
• .GR Registry, domain name registry, Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas (FORTH).
• .GR.COM, alternative domain name registry, CentralNIC.
• GR-IX, Greek Internet Exchange (in Greek).
• ΕΔΕΤ (in Greek), GRNET (in English), research and education network of Greece.