Vodafone’s Greek subsidiary Panafon will be providing UMTS services in Athens by the end of 2003, following a deal for the provision of equipment and services from Siemens.
Siemens’ Information and Communication Mobile Group will supply Panafon with equipment for the first time, winning the operator as a new customer for its third generation infrastructure.
Siemens mobile is supplying and installing all the infrastructure components for setting up the UMTS radio network and the accompanying network management system. In the first phase, Vodafone Greece wants to cover the Athens conurbation, which the vendor said should be ready by the end of 2003.
Vodafone Greece is majority owned by Vodafone Group with the Greek telecommunications group Intracom holding just under 10%. It is the second largest mobile provider in Greece with around 3.6 million customers and a market share of 34.7%.
Latest figures show that approximately 71% of the total customer base is pre-pay.