Greece HSPA (prepaid and postpaid offers)

[gmmour]

I thought I should open this thread for greek HSPA mobile broadband offers, prepaid and postpaid.

I'm copying my post from the Greece GPRS thread (the GPRS title isn't that correct). I should just mention the the Wind plus non-stop "trick" that allows you to tether your laptop to your phone and get GSRS, 3G or HSPA access (depending on your phone) is thoroughly described in the Greece GPRS forum. Here are the "real" HSPA mobile broadband offers, and I say "real" because Wind plus non-stop is supposed to give you access for mobile internet through your phone but can also be used with your laptop as easily, it just has a 1MB limitation per downloaded file, i.e. you can't download pdf files, videos or streaming videos using Wind plus non-stop. The offers described here are mobile broadband ones and some of them can be used for short visits in Greece as described below (either WIND prepaid non-stop ADSM or an unlimited time postpaid connection for the time you will be staying in Greece, if you're staying for more than a week)...

[gmmour]

Here's the copy-paste of my post on the "Greece GPRS" thread:

Originally Posted by gmmour

Here's an update on the new WIND GR tarrifs for its mobile broadband (HSPA 3,6 Mbps) offer. The product is calles WIND ADSM (a marketing name to show that the prices are comparable to fixed ADSL)...

The new prices for postpaid subscriptions are:

Wind offer monthly charge
ΑDSM Basic (1 MB) 3,5 €
ADSM 300 MB 17 €
ADSM 5 GB 32 €
ADSM Non-Stop (30 GB) 49 €
Student pack* (33 GB) 30 € 3 GΒ from 08:00 to 20:00, 30 GB from 20:00 to 08:00

*The WIND student pack is offered to greek university students, it offers interconnection with the Hellenic Academic Network and provides an IP address from inside the student's university LAN for free access to international online libraries that have agreements with the student's university and can only be accessed from a valid university IP. Since it is funded from the Ministry of Education applications must be first filled online through the greek student internet portal www.diodos.edu.gr and then be printed and brought to a WIND store for product purchase. A one-year contract and free HSPA modem (USB, PCMCIA or PCI-Express) must be purchased with the student plan.

A user can either subscribe to these programs with an unlimited time contract (can be cancelled at any time after the first month), or sign a one-year contract and get an HSPA modem for free (either a 3.6Mbps Huawei E220 USB modem, a 1.8Mbps PCMCIA card or a 3.6Mbps PCI-Express card). A wireless WiFi HSPA router (1.8Mbps) is available with a subsidized price for one-year contracts.
http://www.wind.com.gr/pages.fds?langID=2&pageID=1442

There are also two prepaid packs available to WIND F2G prepaid subscribers:
ADSM Non-stop 2 which offers 2 days unlimited access for 10 Euro
and ADSM Non-stop 7 which offers 7 days unlimited access for 30 Euro
(There is a cap of 1GB per day for ADSM Non-stop 2 and 7)
These prepaid offers can be activated on any F2G prepaid SIM by sending an SMS with the words "NS 2" or "NS 7" to 3553 and having 10 or 30 Euro respectively on your account balance.
http://www.wind.com.gr/pages.fds?pageID=1443&langID=2


PS: The Wind plus non-stop offer described in this forum with unlimited HSPA access and a 1MB per downloaded file limitation is still available for 3,49 Euro per month and remains the best offer in the greek market!

Here are the offers of vodafone.gr and cosmote.gr respecitvely. (Cosmote covers almost all of Greece with 3GSM and most cities with HSPA, Vodafone covers most of the cities with HSPA while Wind also covers most of the greek cities and has HSPA coverage enabled all over its 3G network). Only wind offers an updated map with its 3G coverage on www.wind.com.gr
All three offer HSPA @ 3.6 Mbps. Cosmote has announced that they will be upgrading to 7.2Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA for incresed upload speeds beginning from big cities soon. Vodafone and Wind are expected to follow. The Huawei E220 USB HSPA modems offered by all three are said to be able to be upgraded to support download speeds up to 7.2Mbps and increased upload speeds with HSUPA with a simple firmware update so if you go for a free modem, get the USB one which is future-proof.

Vodafone offer monthly charge
VMC 1 MB 6 €
VMC 25 MB 19 €
VMC 80 MB 29 €
VMC 5 GB 39€ student*: 29 Euro
VMC 20 GB 99 €

*The Vodafone Student VMC is the same product as VMC 5GB. It does not offer an academic IP address and can be directly purchased at any vodafone shop with a valid student ID card (no need for application through the www.diodos.edu.gr student internet portal)

Cosmote offer monthly charge /monthly charge for Cosmote postpaid subscribers*
CDP Basic (1 MB) 3,5 €
CDP 200 MB 15 € /13€
CDP 5 GB 34,5 € /29,5 €
CDP 20 GB 60 € /50€

*To benefit of the reduced price the user must also have an active postpaid voice subscription with cosmote.
These reduced price data products for existing Cosmote voice customers are offered either on a stand-alone SIM (with optional free modem with one-year contract) or on the existing subscriber's SIM (for his voice postpaid subscription) without subsidized HSPA modem (ideal for those who want to tether their laptop to their HSPA phone). In any case, customers will receive their data plan charge on their existing cosmote bill.

All companies offer either an unlimited time contract or a one-year contract with free HSPA modem, all three of them offer a selection between USB, PCMCIA or PCI-Express modems.

The Vodafone and Wind products are offered only on a separate SIM and cannot be combined on the existing voice postpaid SIM.

For visitors in Greece the Wind prepaid packs for 2 or 7 days and the unlimited time contracts from all three providers for visits of one month or more are coming to complement the existing unbeatable offer of wind plus non-stop described on this thread! Non-EU citizens might have problems to sign an (unlimited or one-year) contract though and wind plus non-stop and the two prepaid WIND ADSM packs might be the only available solution for them.

Have fun in Greece and don't forget to bring your laptops and HSPA phones or modems! The competition has brought prices amazingly down in the past few months! Vodafone is expected to lower its prices after the Wind ADSM products have brough 30GB down to 50 Euro and 5GB down to 32 Euro!

[thepnume]

So it seems that there is not a real prepaid offer for internet access in Greece, except the Wind ones. I'll go there for a month or two, and I will need continuous access to the internet, so the Wind ADSM offer is not really an option (120 euros a month!). What do you think is my best option, then? thank you very much.

[gmmour]

Definitely Wind Plus non-stop which is described thouroughly in the "Greece GPRS" thread!
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/greece-gprs-t2183.html

You will find all the information you need to activate and use this offer on that thread!

This offer gives you really unlimited access to the internet with the only limitation of 1MB per downloaded file! I.e. you can't watch streaming files or download files more than 1MB in size! But it costs only 3,49 Euro per month!

For larger files you can go for access through the gint.wind.com.gr profile with per KB charging or with the 1GB per day Wind ADSM packages which are quite expensive though...

[thepnume]

Yes, you are right. The 1 Mb limit is annoying, but the cost is unbeatable. Let's hope that Wind will not close this opportunity. Thank you very much. Your posts are very helpful for me and I have bookmarked them.

[AndreA]

@ gmmour: do you know if in Athens i can find some wifi zone (for payment)?

[gmmour]

Yes, there are WiFi zones for free at Syntagma square (city centre) and Thisseion square (outside the metro station and up the pedestrian way towards the Acropolis), you'll see a lot of youngsters with laptops hanging around these places. Free WiFi zones are also available at the University of Athens buildings in the city centre and all Athens universities' campuses around the city.

At Starbucks coffee-shops there are Forthnet Wifi hotspots, you can buy a "Forthnet WiFi NetKey" card from the cashier but it's quite expensive. So you can buy a plain "Forthnet NetKey" prepaid card from any kiosk (periptero) and this will give you more time for WiFi with the same money than the "WiFi Card" at Forthnet hotspots. Go to the www.forthnet.gr website and find out the map with available hotspots around Greece.

Also at Flocafé coffee-shops around Athens there are free WiFi hotspots and in general you might be lucky enough to find free private hotspots from offices or houses anywhere in the center of Athens. Also there are hotspots at the airport and in almost all hotels in the city, but these are not free!

[AndreA]

well, good. A last question Maybe I'll @ AEK's stadium, do you know if they have a wifi access for journalists? Their press office is not so... ready to answer :P

[gmmour]

AEK plays at the Olympic Stadium right?

I don't think there is anything there unless they have some kind of access for the staff and the journalists but there is no public hotspot in the Athens Olympic Complex. Nearby though at the Neratziotissa metro/suburban rail station there is "The Mall Athens", a big shopping centre, which has public hotspots... Neratziotissa is the northern station serving the Olympic complex and it is on walking distance from the Complex, so you might be able to pick up some WiFi from the shopping mall... (There is a flocafe at the mall so you might pick up a flocafe free hotspot or a FNAC hotspot among others...)

[stewpot]

Can anyone advise if it is possible to place voip calls if connected through Wind Greece non-stop tariff €49 euro deal (Something lke 35Gb max per month) I am proposing a connection via HDSPA modem thingy and the lap-top

Something tells me that it will not work as the two carriers are then in competition for voice traffic? Any wisdom gratefully received.