eKathimerini — Greek telecom networks have a low operating performance, even though Greeks appear to pay more for their telecom services, a recent survey conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found.
Citing assessments by three independent bodies, the Digital Economy Outlook 2015 report said that Greek Internet connections work at low speeds.
Studies show that the landline network of the country has a mean downloading speed of Internet data ( 8.5 Mbps) is the second-slowest among the OECD member states, above Italy (with 7.5 Mbps), while South Korea fares best with 50.5 Mbps.
The low performance of Greek networks is mostly attributed to how they are built, as they use copper wiring. Countries with high performances are those that have replaced their copper wiring with fiber optics.
The same OECD report revealed that telecommunications are relatively expensive in Greece. Greek users of a monthly package with a speed above 10 Mbps spend some $29, making Greece the 16th most expensive country in the OECD.
Greece is significantly cheaper when it comes to landline services, not including Internet supply. A benchmark package of 420 calls per month including value-added tax sets Greeks back by $50 in terms of purchasing power. In this regard, Greece is the 27th most expensive country among OECD members.
However, Greeks pay more for their mobile phones: A package of 900 calls per month with the use of up to 2 gigabytes on the Internet puts Greece at fifth place on the list of the costliest markets.
