By T. Igoumenidi
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The chairman and CEO of Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), the former state-run telephony utility that still enjoys a commanding market share in Greece, on Tuesday blasted the country’s independent telecoms authority as “creating obstacles to investments in order to simply maintain and perpetuate” its presence.
OTE chief Michael Tsamaz described the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) as a “bureaucratic system” that forces his ASE-listed company to seek 35 to 50 approvals for each retail offer to consumers that OTE wants to extend.
According to the Greek executive, in September alone 425 such approvals were pending for various pricing offers and packages that the telecoms provider wanted to promote. He added that the average time necessary for such approvals by EETT is four months.
As a remedy to the independent authority’s “red tape” he proposed that approvals be granted after the fact, instead of the current pre-approval method required for every single promotion.
“We refuse to surrender OTE’s keys to EETT. It’s not acceptable to ask for approval of a Christmas package and receive it at Easter,” he characteristically said.
