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WiMAX, Greece, CEE: The Hellenic
Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), Greece’s largest telecoms
operator, is now piloting Aperto's WiMAX solutions in Northern Greece.
If successful, the service will be rolled out nationwide.
Now, we at Developing Telecoms appreciate that Greece is
a highly established telecoms market and that she has even acted as a Balkan
super-power when it comes to setting up businesses and communications systems
on her neighbours’ soil.
We would not normally cover internal news stories from Greece
but we could not resist the temptation of carrying this report about WiMAX
reaching that most spiritual of all localities, Mount Athos. Known locally as
the Holy Mountain (Ayion Oros) Mount Athos in Northern Greece is home to a whole complex of monasteries which will now be
benefiting from wireless broadband!
We wish the monks and abbots of Athos well, even if those
from OTE and Aperto who are now introducing WiMAX to the monks must be male -
no female has been allowed onto Athos for many, many centuries!
Sexual discrimination apart, Aperto Networks is a WiMAX
Forum Certified builder of base stations and subscriber units and won the
contract to supply OTE with its PacketMAX broadband wireless networking gear.
This part of the contract will be focused on a pilot deployment on Mount Athos in advance of the
nationwide rollout.
Heletel SA, Aperto Networks’ Greek distributor, has been
contracted to provide the turnkey installation of the pilot network, as well as
ongoing technical support and training. OTE, which holds a 3.5 GHz
point-to-multipoint nationwide licence from Greece’s
regulatory authorities, currently provides telephony services to approximately
200,000 consumers living in isolated agricultural areas across Greece
using legacy wireless systems operating in the 1.5 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands. OTE
plans to transition to wireless broadband services as part of a nationwide 3.5
GHz WiMAX network. The company will deploy Aperto's PacketMAX 5000 base
stations, along with Aperto’s PM 100 subscriber units, PM20 indoor VoIP Gateway
Routers, and Aperto’s WaveCenter EMS Pro element management system. “After
rigorous technical analysis, OTE reached the decision to deploy the network
based on Aperto gear as it showed superior performance and resilience,” said
Kostas Drossos CEO of Heletel SA. “A nationwide WiMAX network powered by Aperto
Networks will enable OTE to offer consumers and enterprises a wide range of
value-added, high bandwidth data communications services, such as MPLS, VPN,
leased line, and Internet access, as well as VoIP, telemedicine, e-education,
e-governance, and e-commerce in remote areas.”
* OTE (Hellenic
Telecommunications Organisation) is Greece's leading telecoms
enterprise. Outside Greece OTE has expanded its
geographical footprint throughout South East Europe. Companies in which OTE
has an equity interest employ over 30,000 people in six countries, and its
portfolio ranges from fixed and mobile telephony to Internet applications,
satellite, maritime communications and consultancy services.
** Aperto Networks is
a founding board member of the WiMAX Forum as well as a founder of and
contributor to IEEE 802.16a/d/e and the ETSI-BRAN standards. Serving more than
200 customers in 65 countries, Aperto Networks is based in Milpitas, California.
*** Mount Athos, also known as Holy
Mountain, is the oldest surviving monastic community in the world. Dating back
to Byzantine times, the community has been the cultural and spiritual treasury
of the Balkans and Europe for a thousand years and is the place where precious
objects of the Christian world, its history and tradition, have been created
and kept.
More info:
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Date: 14-15 October 2008