Greece's leading mobile phone operator Panafon is preparing to compete head-on with OTE, the public operator, by moving into fixed-line telephony after the telecoms market is fully liberalised on 1 January 2001. Greece has lagged behind the rest of the EU in opening up the telecoms sector. The Socialist government took full advantage of a two-year derogation permitted by Brussels for liberalising fixed-line telephony to give OTE time to modernise its network before facing full-fledged competition. "Panafon will be well placed to take away both big corporate customers and medium-sized businesses from OTE," says an Athens-based analyst. "It will start by offering high quality international and data services in Athens, where about half the country's telecoms traffic originates."
