Broadband access Greece

Dont know about the cheapest deal but easiest might be to buy a SIM for your vodafone dongle.They are 19 euro for 10 days unlimited use. Used mine for 10 days at end of may and didnt go out of range right across the Cyclades from Hydra to Leros.
Anyone want to buy a repeatit (too much hassle)
 
Depends mainly on how long you're there for, and therefore whether you want a contract of some sort. Also on what you want to use it for - do you need gigabytes or will a couple of hundred megabytes a month do? And finally on how technical you are.

Cheapest is a PAYG SIM, which do work in dongles though I prefer to use a phone as a modem. You may need a 'generic' version of the dongle software - some operators customise that for their so-called 'data SIMs'.

See http://yachtvigdis.wordpress.com/greek-internet-weather/

By 'TIM' do you mean the network now called WIND GR? if so, or the dongle is unlocked, try one of the Wind offers - I got 500Mb for €5 a month. And it's only €5 for a local phone SIM and worth having even if if it doesn't work with your dongle.

Whether any of these mobile internet connections are 'broadband' is debatable.
 
jordanbasset said:
We will shortly be in Greece, can any one tell me what the best internet access options/deals are at the moment via a dongle . We have a TIM and vodophone dongle - thank you
Click to expand...
I'm using a contract data-only Vodafone Gr SIM which gives me 5Gb/month for €30/month + VAT.
I use it in either a Huawei USB modem or a Nokia E75.

That capacity is far more than most people will need and you can buy various PAYG SIMs which give between 100Mb and 3Gb for between €3-30. I'd advise WIND (not part of TIM but a reciprocal partner) or Vodafone rather than OTE as the latter is state-owned and bound to have employee problems in the current politico-economic climate.
Nothing repeats the 5Gb/month I had last year from WIND for €0 - I just had to keep my PAYG SIM topped up to €5.
I'd 2nd the suggestion to use a mobile phone as a modem, rather than either of your Huawei USB (sic) "dongles". Faster, more economic on power and far more sensitive.
An "excellent" 3G connection gives me about 3.8Gb/sec connection - certainly no comparison with the 7.2Gb/sec I get on my BT line in the UK. Optic fibre connections, as I've used in Finland are up @ the 120mark.
The mobile connection I'm enjoying now is just about enough to download a feature film in about 40'.
When you get to a GPRS connection, sending e-mail becomes a tedious task, comparable to the 33kb one used to enjoy with an analogue modem.
Uploads on mobile are horribly skewed, even more than on fixed ADSL - you can expect 10-20% of the speed at which you're downloading. So pix and other big files are not a good idea unless heavily compressed - no bitmaps or *.pub files.
 
I do not really know enough to add any info, I will say that some of the islands do Not have complete 3G,cover kefalonia is one. Also OTEnet.gr the main player are complete incompetant idiots but, they get a better mobile signal than Vodaphone or the rest, they control the infastructure unfortunately. I have a Cosmote phone, I can stand next to my Vodaphone friend, I have a full signal he has half strength, Ote whacks the gain up to knock out competitors. I am on free wifi simply because I cannot get broadband even though the fibre optic cables were laid two years ago. every couple of weeks the municipality does not pay OTE so they cut the wifi.
OTE is having a reshuffle lots will lose their jobs, they do not care about customer care because they have no competition!
 
I don't know about dongles, but what name a mobile operator appears as on a phone depends on the age of the phone (or the age of its firmware). Wind appears as TIM on one of my phones.

And if you select the operator manually* you may see TIM not Wind in the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIND_Hellas

I still use a UK phone on CELLNET ;-)

* If you're using a phone for data it's a good idea to select the operator manually. In the northern Ionian I once got an Albanian signal; it would have cost me a lot if I hadn't noticed. Here in Turkey I have sometimes been using my Greek data deal - there's a good signal in Kaş for example.
 
Many thanks for the replies, very useful. To answer a couple of questions we would be in Greece most of the year for the next couple of years atleast. Also re downloads we have been downloading films etc, especially in winter, so up to now we have been using a lot more than 5 GB a month in the winter, but this is not essential.
I believed Tim and Wind were different only because they have different outlets and different deals. Current deal with Tim in Italy is 100 hours over 30 days with unlimited downloads during that time for 25 euros a month.

Thanks again and will check up on the deals you all have described when we get to Greece
 
Last edited:
TIM and Wind are different companies, and in Italy they are also different networks. An Italian TIM dongle is unlikely to work on the Greek network once called TIM.

You'd be best with a contract IMO. I would go for Cosmote because their coverage is better. But they are not as easy to deal with - they have fewer English speakers in their shops for example, and their customer service is poor - even by Greek standards.

If not Cosmote, then Vodafone is the next best network for coverage I think - and may be better than Cosmote for speed and capacity. I've never used it so I can't comment.

I find Wind better for prepaid data deals - which is probably irrelevant to you.
 
I use Vodafone dongle, on contract, 30 euros a month for 5gb, if we want to download Lots of films, we just go to a local bar (in gouvia marina) with free internet, easy peasy. But if you arent close to a free wifi, then more difficult, of course.
 
DaveRo said:
TIM and Wind are different companies, and in Italy they are also different networks. An Italian TIM dongle is unlikely to work on the Greek network once called TIM.

You'd be best with a contract IMO. I would go for Cosmote because their coverage is better. But they are not as easy to deal with - they have fewer English speakers in their shops for example, and their customer service is poor - even by Greek standards.

If not Cosmote, then Vodafone is the next best network for coverage I think - and may be better than Cosmote for speed and capacity. I've never used it so I can't comment.

I find Wind better for prepaid data deals - which is probably irrelevant to you.
Click to expand...

I can concur that Cosmote was impossible to deal with. Vodaphone did not have any data sim cards at anywhere I went, but Wind was well organised and simple to deal with. I buy a months sub halfway through a month when I come across a wind store. Not the best coverage but 1 GB is plenty for me.

I am on a humble GPRS connection at the moment- Charles - it actually very quick. Most connections have been better than my BT line at home, though ion some of the Cyclades the reception was poor.
 
Chris_Robb said:
I am on a humble GPRS connection at the moment- Charles - it actually very quick. Most connections have been better than my BT line at home, though ion some of the Cyclades the reception was poor.
Click to expand...
I use GPRS (AKA '2G') all the time - my phones are all locked to it and to ignore 3G. Much more available and reliable and the speeds are adequate for getting weather forecasts and a bit of web use such as YBW - which is fine with images turned off.

But if you download films or play youtube ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

Refueler
Strange water accumulation ...
Replies
9
Views
321
Refueler
Refueler

Share this page

Top