OTE

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For other uses, see OTE (disambiguation).

OTE (NYSE: OTE) is the national telecommunications provider of Greece.

Aerial view of OTE Headquarters

Standing for Hellenic Telecommunication Organization (Οργανισμός Τηλεπικοινωνιών Ελλάδος), OTE is the incumbent telecommunications operator of Greece. Up to 1998, the telecommunications market in Greece was a monopoly. The market was opened to competitors and OTE was gradually privatized. As a result, the Greek government currently holds under 50% of the company's stock. Along with the rest of the telecoms market, OTE is regulated by the National Telecommunications and Post Commission (Εθνική Επιτροπή Τηλεπικοινωνιών και Ταχυδρομείων - EETT).

The company covers the whole country with digital PSTN and ISDN telephone lines and also offers ADSL in all urban areas. OTE is a group of companies owning, besides the OTE fixed-line company, an ISP (Otenet), a mobile phone company (Cosmote) and many other companies including OTE International Investments which in its turn owns lots of telcos in Southeastern Europe (Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, etc.). On November 3, 2006 OTE sold its 90% stake in the Armenian telecom provider ArmenTel to a Russian company OJSC Vimpel-Communications.^{[citation needed]} OTE also runs a TETRA network.