Vodafone Greece developing LTE

Vodafone Greece is the second largest cellco by subscribers. Vodafone plans to deploy mobile broadband 4G network in selected areas in Greece this year. Vodafone began in 2010 the deployment of 4G LTE network in Europe, and today its 4G networks are already deployed for commercial use in Germany and Portugal, whereas pilot testing continues in a series of countries.

Vodafone announced the deployment of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband technologies, following domestic rival Cosmote’s recent claim to have installed the first Greek pilot LTE network.

Vodafone says it plans to deploy 4G infrastructure in ‘selected areas’ during the course of this year, to support advanced multimedia applications such as high definition (HD) streaming and HD videoconferencing.

From 29 September 2012 the Greek regulator, the EETT, has cleared all 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum for 3G/4G usage. In November 2011 Vodafone renewed existing frequency licences and expanded its allocation in the 900MHz/1800MHz bands at a cost of EUR168.5 million (USD209 million), while the cellco says that it has invested more than EUR500 million in its network in the last three years.

Further spectrum for 4G expansion will be made available in Greece via the pending award of 2600MHz band spectrum, while from the end of 2012 the digital dividend 800MHz band will become available via the completion of the country’s transfer to digital TV.