LivinginCrete | BritsinCrete Blog | Grrr OTE Crete

Every month, I outlay nearly 40 euros for the usage of OTE Broadband package called Conn-x. Someone wrote in the Brits in Crete Forum that the island of Crete was having its telephone cable network improved - supposedly, I guess to bring better broadband, faster broadband and happier customers.

I am not one of those beings. In the mountain village of Vrahassi, Lassithi we are more than the 5kms from a "node" or distribution "hub" to have the advertised optimum capacity. But we are paying the same as anyone else.

Here's the rub, there are times in the day where capacity on the cable is so reduced, using broadband is unproductive. That is at those times in the day when our friends and neighbours start their post siesta telephone chats, and the Internet dial up users get going online, there is little room for data distribution for broadband.
So the network gets clogged.

It takes so long at these peak times to access the Brits in Crete Forum or the main web site - both in the UK, if in different server locations, that I give up and take a break. Another congestion period can be 1400-1500hrs on working days. Perhaps that is when the day's outgoing e-mails are dispatched before everyone goes for their lunch and siesta.

Of course when I applied originally for Broadband service I was told it was impossible. "You are too far away" OTE staff said. But a after a special cable here and some dickering there, in the end I got online in a matter of days.

OTE have got smart. They now have an online tester to see if your telephone can have ADSL capability - for broadband. Check for yourself for your own number. If the answer is negative, do not give up, check around from friends and neighbours to see what they have heard.

Now here I am whingeing but I know of one expatriate lady in Drapanos village, western Crete who has been told she has to wait 2 years for a telephone line. How ridiculous is that? If it were me I would be on my bike to the OTE regional head office in Heraklion and challenge the top brass there, seeking explanations!
Or get online at Brits in Crete and write chapter and verse about the OTE episode. Grrr.