Greece’s largest telecom operator OTE said yesterday it had more than 400,000 high-speed Internet (ADSL) subscribers at the end of October, an almost 10-fold gain since the beginning of last year. OTE is seeking to increase the amount of its broadband Internet clients to offset the erosion of its core fixed-line telephony revenues as users change over to other carriers and to mobile phone companies. OTE’s ADSL clients were about 45,000 people at the start of 2005, while in 2004 the number of subscribers was negligible. OTE aims to reach about 500,000 ADSL clients by the end of this year, while its broadband network is expected to have 750,000 portals throughout the country. (Reuters)

A consortium led by Hellenic Technodomiki yesterday signed a contract with the Greek government to build an underwater tunnel in the northern city of Thessaloniki, it said yesterday. The agreement, expected to be ratified by Parliament in four months, will see construction begin on the 6.5-kilometer undersea artery, which will cost about 472 million euros, by March 2007, the company said. (Reuters)