OTE Group said it completed on schedule a 12,000-kilometre fibre optic network installation in 2,260 remote locations in Northern and Southern Greece as part of its Rural Broadband project. Already, 323,000 residents in rural, mountainous and island regions have access to VDSL broadband services with internet speeds up to 50Mbps. The project was launched at the end of 2016 to bring broadband services to remote locations from white areas.
The Rural Broadband project was designed by the General Secretariat of Telecommunications and Posts (GGTT) at the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media. It's implemented through PPP, in cooperation with Information Society S.A., co-financed by EU's European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as well as national resources.
Out of 2,260 areas undertaken by OTE Group in the context of Rural Broadband project, 810 localities with a population of 162,000 are located in 19 prefectures of Northern Greece, namely the Prefectures of Drama, Evros, Kavala, Xanthi, Rodopi, Lesvos, Chios, Grevena, Kastoria, Kozani, Florina, Ioannina, Imathia, Thessaloniki, Kilkis, Pella, Pieria, Serres and Chalkidiki. The remaining 1,450 with a population of 161,000 are located in 17 Prefectures of Southern Greece, in the Prefectures of Achaia, Ilia, Zakynthos, Kefallinia, Lefkada, Heraklion, Lassithi, Rethymno, Chania, Argolida, Arcadia, Korinthia, Laconia, Messinia, Piraeus, Dodecanese and Boeotia.
OTE Group, through OTE Rural North and OTE Rural South, launched wholesale distribution of broadband services to retailers in 1,565 areas serving more than 257,000 residents and the services will be available in all areas until November.
