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GETTING ONLINE IN CRETE

A few words about internet connections, ISPs and the likes in the Lassithi Area - Posted Jan 2004

Just like the UK the Crete internet market place is awash with ever changing offers and tariffs - the prices included in this article are a guide only. It also only outlines the simplest route from where you can begin to hunt down deals better suited to your own telephony and internet habits. As many new residents started off as internet dreamers an internet connection is an important priority when they first make the move to Crete. But where on earth do you start?

First of all, of course, is the telephone line. For those of you who don't know already the Greek national telecoms company is OTE. They have offices in most towns and resorts and should be your first port of call for installation / transfer of a line. However you must have certain paperwork first - primarily a contract for the lease of your property or deeds. You will also need a copy of your tax number, and perhaps other documents such as printed birth certificate ....perhaps not. Anyway if you haven't got the correct paperwork most of it is all run of the mill stuff that you will need for other purposes anyway. Getting a telephone line in your name for your exclusive use should be regarded as a must in order to avoid possible disputes over shared lines and shared responsibility for bills. You should be advised of a date for the line activation and the necessary steps. Just like in the UK this will mainly be down to whether you are taking over an existing line or installing a new one. You may or may not need an engineer to visit your home With mine, I took over a line that had previously been a payphone number between a few apartments. This meant it had to have its connection type modified by the engineer at the exchange box in town but wiring to the building already existed. It then just needed a new RJ11 socket to enable standard Greek telephone and modem connections. Anyway you have a telephone line that works and you are now OTE's latest customer. Line rental works out around 20 euros per two months.

So now we come to the real scope of this. You have two main decisions to make.

a) Do you just require dialup or ISDN
b) Which of the ISPs offering your required services do you prefer

However this process is complicated by ever changing special introductory offers and extra goodies.

Now, much as this may come as a shock to those from the UK accustomed to the ubiquitous Freeswerve discs, fifteen pounds unmetered and under thirty pounds for 512k connections each month - the Greek 56k dialup system falls into a particularly peculiar category. You should expect to pay from one hundred to one hundred and sixty euros for a one year subscription to a major ISP such as OTEnet , Panafonet, Forthnet or ACN (aias). In return for your three crisp fifty evros you get a CD to put in your computer and the prospect of an online signup. Those of you who want to get someone to help with the procedure can go to any of the many excellent PC technicians in most towns. On top of your subscription fee you will pay for your time online through your telephone bill. However, for heavy users this doesn't turn out to be as horrific as it sounds. When I'm home I'm online about five hours a day. I also use it to make international calls and the bills are nowhere near as bad as they would have been when the same structure was the norm in the UK (thankfully). All of these dialup services are decent enough and the companies seem to offer far more specific and precise b2b services than their UK counterparts.

The main advantage of ISDN is that it frees up your phone line. In houses with families this may be an important issue. To be honest the speed premium isn't a huge advantage and reliablity is similar to 56k dialup. You can get 64k or 128k at reasonable rates. You will need an ISDN modem pack (often supplied as part of a subscription package at a reasonable rate) - I've only ever installed OTEnet ISDN and at the time (May 2003) the signup page was only in Greek and required most of your details in Greek script. So - just in case - have someone with you who can help should you run into problems that need translating from Greek into English.

ISDN is definitely appropriate for people who anticipate over a thousand hours of internet access per year. It will cost around sixty euros for the hardware plus the cost of activation and use

For mobile connection I just hook up using cheap and cheerful GSM at 9.6k. It's worked fine with OTEnet and Hellas Online connecting via a PAYG Telestet number or my Orange contract number roaming on different networks). If you are a junkie for 3G or GPRS then Greece is a mobile catwalk and if you want to pay for the services they tend to get rolled out at a similar time to the UK. Vodafone is a heavy presence under the Panafon brand in the mobile and ISP marketplace. OTE, Cosmote and OTEnet can be approximately compared to BT, O2 and BTInternet in terms of their relationship and presence in respective markets. Telestet is another major player in the mobile market and landline calling plans offered by OTE or third parties such as Telepassport can be incorporated into your setup