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Topic:

Internet Access

Message posted by Stuart on 17 February 2006 at 12:12pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Stuart

Kefalonia

Another question for those of you who already have a place on the island - what internet connections do you use?

The range of possible is very confusing. Personally, I would prefer one option that is easy to understand rather than several that may end up cheaper but it takes a university degree to work out.

Still, having looked through some of them on the OTE website, it looks to me like the main options are:

- a basic dial-up connection, which is charged by the minute at Peak/non-Peak rates. Probably more suitable for infrequent users;

- The slightly faster ISDN connection, which can be found all over the island. This provides two separate lines to the property - one for the telephone and a second for the internet, so you can use both at the same time. It costs 53 euros for an initial connection and then approximately 20 euros per month.

- Then there is the ADSL (Broadband) connection. This is not yet widely available on the island (seems to be just around Corfu Town at present) but it will no doubt start making an appearance throughout the rest of the island sometime soon. It costs 42 euros for an initial connection and then between 20 - 40 euros per month, depending on the speed option you have picked.

Then there are a couple of other things that I am not sure of - perhaps someone can give a better idea of how much value they give. These are:

- OTENET Smile and Web Cards. According to the OTE site, they cost between 3 euros for 6 hours internet connection and 15 euros for 40 hours connection. Of course, you are also charged the relevant landline charge on top.

- TelePassport, which seems to be a mix between Dial-up and ISDN. You pay 6 euros per month subscription but then get cheaper per-minute dial up costs than with OTE.

As I said, these are often quite confusing to decipher so, if I have not understood some of them properly, please let me know. There are probably a few other types of connection available but, after looking at this lot, I felt too tired to go into them.

Stuart

Message posted by mac_corfu on 18 February 2006 at 12:45am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

mac_corfu

Corfu

Hi Stuart

Internet connections.... There are 3 main companies supplying internet connection here on Corfu. I have listed them below together with what I know about them. I have based this on knowledge gained through our personal experience and also from helping others to connect.

OTE/OTEnet.... The Greek phone company's isp. I have personally found this one to be fiddly if you like to set your connection up manually. They will provide you with an installation CD, but the instructions are not that good for English.

Forthnet... our personal choice... easy to obtain and setup

Altec Telecoms... A newer company offering some good delas, but so far I have little experience of their service

The above 3 companies use what is called an EPAK number to dial for connection, which means you pay approx 0.35 euro per hour between 8am and 10pm and 0.18euro per hour between 10pm and 8am. All 3 companies do offer deals ie buy 3 months get 3 months free etc.

Each company offers prepaid accounts 3/6/12/24 months and OTE offers a monthly account payable through phone bill. With these accounts you will get the same sort of service as in UK (email etc)

You can also buy prepaid internet cards, but I do not know of any that offer email services, therefore I usually recommend an account.

OK... type of connections...

The standard connection is PSTN which costs about €45 for 3 months (better rates for longer periods). With this type of connection all you need is a standard phone line and a modem, but remember.. you can't use your phone whilst connected to internet.

ISDN with this type of connection you need to have an ISDN phone line installed which will cost about €44 installation and a sligtly higher monthly phone line charge. An ISDN modem is included in the installation charge. The charges for an ISDN internet connection depend on whether you want 64kbps or 128kbps.. the slower being just slightly more expensive than PSTN. With ISDN you can use your phone and be connected to internet at same time.

ADSL at the present moment ADSL is only available in very limited areas around town. Compared to UK it is expensive and slow... connection speeds offered (where available) at present are 256/384/512/1024 ..... prices starting around the €20 per month for the slowest connection.

There is also a free internet service available... Tellas ... they offer free connection using local rate number but no email service.

Hope this is of some help, but if you would like to know more detail feel free to pm me.

Mac

Message posted by Stuart on 18 February 2006 at 3:57am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Stuart

Kefalonia

Thanks Mac

That's really useful information. Now you've mentioned it, I do remember hearing about Forthnet before. I'll have to look into it when the time comes.

All the best

Stuart

Message posted by Debbi on 03 March 2006 at 11:02am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Debbi

Corfu

Does anyone know how long it takes to get an ISDN or ADSL connection fitted?

Message posted by Bluewhale on 03 March 2006 at 8:47pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Bluewhale

Corfu

Dear Mac, can you tell me what Tellas offers? We have an ISDN connection, use Telepassport for our calls and at the moment I buy a SmileWeb card everytime for Internet. Do I understand it well I don't need that anymore if I use Tellas. We are in Corfu only May till October.

thank you, best regards, Caroline

Message posted by mac_corfu on 05 March 2006 at 2:33am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

mac_corfu

Corfu

Hi all

Caroline:

Tellas do offer a free internet service, however they do not offer email facilities with this service, so you would have to use either Hotmail or Yahoo web based email. Also the service does not use the cheap "EPAK" phone numbers. Instead they use local rate numbers to connect, so it can become expensive if you use the internet a lot. If you need further advice about Tellas connections, feel free to PM me

Debbie:

Depends on if you already have a phone line connected. It took roughly 10 days for OTE to change ours from PSTN to ISDN. Once you request the service they contact you to make an appointment to come and install the ISDN equipment in your home and it is activated at the same time. Unfortunately when we ordered they had some major repair work going on so it did take a little longer than they first said. As for ADSL, well we have now been waiting 2 years for ADSL to become available in Roda and Acharavi. First they said it would be available by end 2005, then by end Feb 2006... now by June 3rd 2006. We have our names down, but do not yet know how long it will take once available

Mac

Message posted by Debbi on 06 March 2006 at 11:02am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Debbi

Corfu

Thanks very much for the info Mac, thats quicker than I thought

Message posted by Bluewhale on 06 March 2006 at 2:05pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Bluewhale

Corfu

Mac, I am in Agios Ioannis, Karousades, apparently not far from you. Do you think ADSL will become available for the whole North Coast? And any idea on the price per month already? thanks, Caroline

Message posted by mac_corfu on 07 March 2006 at 12:26am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

mac_corfu

Corfu

Hi Caroline

Must admit not sure if ADSL will be available for the whole of the North coast, all I know at present is that numbers served from the Acharavi main point (numbers beginning with 6) should be OK. The main problem seems to be distance from exchages or main points.

As for prices, we have an ISDN phone line at present but only use a PSTN internet connection. We have been advised that the fastest spedd available to us will be 384kbps and as charges are based on speed then the following should apply:

Cost of 384 ADSL line connection with OTE = €18.92 per month

Cost of 384 ADSL internet connection with Forthnet = €16.90 per month

In addition to above is your normal phone line rental, in our case €14.90 pm (ISDN)

There is also a one of connection fee payable to OTE = €41.64 and the cost of a new modem/router which is approx €60.

This may seem expensive, and yes compared with UK this is very expensive for such a slow speed, however when you take into account that with ADSL the connection is "always on" and you do not have any additional phone call charges it can work out cheaper if you use the internet regularily.

To give you an example, at present our internet usage costs approx €52.50 ( line rental + internet charge + calls)

Once the one of costs are paid then our monthly costs should work out at €50.72

Hope this is of some help

Regards

Mac

Message posted by Debbi on 24 March 2006 at 5:35pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Debbi

Corfu

Hi again,

Can anyone tell me how long it would take to get a telephone line installed where there is no existing line already?

I have e-mailed OTE to ask the question, but thought I'd ask and see if anyone on here has any first hand experience too

Thanks in anticipation

Debbi

Message posted by Graham T-A on 24 March 2006 at 7:49pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

Graham T-A

Corfu

It only took us three days Debbie but others in the same village have waited for 2 or 3 months.

Message posted by oaf on 19 June 2006 at 9:12am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

oaf

Corfu

Internet access over here is expensive and frustrating. I'm online one way or another 24 hours a day - I originally had an ISDN line and was receiving phone bills of over 500 euros.

The main gripe is that the ISPs (OTE, Forthnet etc) always charge for dial-up (PSTN/ISDN) by the minute. There's no option like Freeserve have in the UK, where you pay a flat fee and can be online for as long as you like.

There are alternatives to dial-up:

1. Using a small satellite dish, you can receive internet traffic at broadband speeds, but you also need a traditional pstn/isdn connection for the uplink (for you to transmit out to the net). This is handy for downloading large files, but you still have to pay per minute.

2. Two-way satellite (this is what I use), offers broadband speeds without any kind of phone connection needed, but it's expensive! I have a 512K connection, which costs me 110 euros a month, plus I had to fork out a couple of grand for the equipment. Only for the seriously dedicated net nerd!

As I mentioned in my hello post, I'm seriously considering setting up my own ISP offering broadband services without needing a phoneline. I've also heard the stories of ADSL arriving in Aug'05, Feb'06 and now July, and I've got to the point now where I don't believe them. Certainly in villages outside the main towns I can't see it ever becoming available.

Message posted by AgiosGordis on 19 June 2006 at 9:24am - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

AgiosGordis

You can check at ote site www.otenet.gr about Broadband connection availability, by entering your phone number.

Charge in dial-up is per call and per minute, so every time you connect there is a connecting fee.

Message posted by SLD on 27 June 2006 at 12:38pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

SLD

Corfu

Hi all!!

Found this thread really useful, and whilst looking at the OTE page trying to find out if my number has ADSL capability (it doesn't - quelle suprise!!!) I found this interesting link;

http://english.oteshop.gr/home/adslwizard.htm

Here you can check your availability and when it says that no ADSL connection is available present, it gives you a link with a form for requesting ADSL in your area. OK it's in Greek this bit (with the previous being in English) but if you have a dictionary and can read Greek it's simple enough.

Do it now!!!! Maybe we'll all be on broadband by the end of the century!!!!

Message posted by oaf on 27 June 2006 at 12:50pm - IP Logged Legal Disclaimer

oaf

Corfu

That page is good for finding out if you've definitely not got ADSL, but I've heard from quite a few people who have had a "yes" from that page, only to be told by OTE that it's not correct.

So reserve your "woohoo!" till you actually speak to OTE :)

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