Wide response to telecoms consultations
Over 20 companies and groups submitted their views during the recent public consultations on shared access to the local loop, universal telecommunications services and the proposed introduction of public digital mobile services, the National Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) said yesterday. The massive response, from telecoms companies to parents of disabled children and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), underscored the wide interest shown by a wide swath of society in the telecommunications market’s potential, which in theory has been fully deregulated since the beginning of the year. While a number of aspiring telecoms ventures have received licenses from EETT for fixed-line wireless services, the new facilities have yet to be rolled out as the new entrants rush to develop the infrastructure. In the public consultation on shared access to the local loop which expired on October 19, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE), mobile phone operator Panafon-Vodafone and Squire Sanders Dempsey took part, EETT said in a statement yesterday. The public consultation on the subject of universal telecommunications services, which ended on October 22, included as participants the three mobile phone companies, OTE, Exonet, POSKAMEA (the Panhellenic Federation of Parents and Guardians of Children with Special Needs), IKE (Foundation of Social Labor), accountancy firm KPMG, Frontier Economics and IOBE. The telecommunications watchdog said the public consultation on tetra, a scheme offering radio spectrum for public digital mobile services, attracted views from Anko, Epstar, software group Intracom, US telecoms company Qualcomm, Italian telecommunications group Chaos, Olympic organizers Athens 2004, Taxi Kosmos 1300, Finland’s Nokia, Lucent, Inquam and OTE.
