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Up to the start of January 2008 my 1Mbps ADSL connection with Otenet was working ok, apart from some very scattered disconnections when somebody was calling my home line. It was a minor problem, as I use the home landline only for Internet work and since OTE -the owner of Otenet- is the largest Greek telecoms company that effectively owns all lines in my hometown in Greece I did not dare move to another ISP.

So when OTE advertised 24Mbps speeds in January 2008, I jumped to the opportunity and applied for such a line on the 8th of January 2008. Here is what followed:

• I was informed that the necessary ADSL2+ modem that was necessary was not in stock, so I agreed to wait for its arrival. I asked for my line to be upgraded after the modem’s arrival, since the modem I was then using was not able to handle speeds higher than 8Mbps.
• Guess what! Next Saturday morning -12th of January 2008- my line was upgraded to 24Mbps and I was stuck all weekend without Internet as OTE offices were of course closed and the hotline could not do anything about my modem upgrade. The dirty story is that Otenet does all speed upgrades on Saturdays so that technicians get paid overtime. I am in no position to confirm the validity of this statement.
• After four visits to the OTE shop and a lot of pressure, I finally got a modem on the 18th of January, one week after the line speed upgrade! One week of paid Internet without any access…
• After connecting the new modem I realised that my connection was still not working :-( After a lot of phone calls, Otenet proposes to slow down the speed to 8Mbps. I have no other choice, but I wonder why I needed a new modem since my old model could handle this speed…
• Throughout the week my line keeps not working and I finally have to go to the OTE shop to ask for the change to 8Mbps. This is the fifth time I go there in three weeks!
• My Internet connection starts to work but disconnections are regular. They happen every 3-5 minutes during the day but I have none during the night. Does that tell you anything?
• Throughout February I spoke countless times with the Otenet hotline. They measured the line to my home to find out that it cannot handle 24Mbps but can only go up to 8Mbps. So why did not they tell me this before? And why do I still have disconnections? Nobody can give me a clear answer. Finally, Otenet proposes to lower the connection speed to 4Mbps! What a novel idea! They measured my line again and this time it could only handle 4Mbps…
• And when this has not worked, in April we go even further down to 2Mbps. This is Otenet’s and OTE’s technical support. It doesn’t work? Lower the speed!!!!
• After wasting countless hours, the final blow is when technical support tells me that disconnections happen because many users get online! That really answered all my questions.

I have now lost all my faith in OTE and have already written my opinion about how to have reliable Internet in Greece. A further opportunity might exist in June, when a new optical network will become operational. However, the fact that the last part of the connection to my home will again be a line belonging to OTE scares me to death so I am not sure I will take the risk.

So you might ask why have I not taken legal action? For two reasons. Firstly because the procedures are so long and cumbersome with few or in most cases no tangible results or compensation. Ask the many Greek users that have taken this route. You see OTE is seen in Greece as a national treasure that should be preserved at all costs, even if our Internet connections do not work…

Secondly, the best way to show my dissatisfaction is to vote with my feet. At the moment, Forthnet is the only alternative and it uses OTE’s lines to my home so I am in no mood to risk again. The move will be done when it is safe to do so.

After 3 1/2 months of trouble, my connection is not working well and on many days there are frequent disconnections every 5-10 minutes. So if your area in the EU or the US is not covered by a super fast optical network but your current connection is reliable, stop complaining and get on with your work.

Link: ElectronRun – 2 ways to get reliable Internet connections in Greece