Cyprus-Forum.com

[efty]

I was hoping that with the deregulation of the telecommunications we would see some improvement.

Primetel might be good but their prices and their offerings are somewhat the same as Cyta's.

Check the following links and compare the prices and speeds available in
Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_ ... ide#Europe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01537.html

Seems to me that both Cyta and Primetel are happy to milk the consumer offering overpriced services.

[Hazza]

Agreed. Though 2 new players coming in very soom may change everything.

CableNet - From being bankrupt, they have been taken over by somebody with a good financial backing. Maybe they may annoy a CyTA/Primetel with low prices by showing more or less the same channels??

OteNet - They are due to launch their 2-play services soon. 2-play is telephone and internet. They realise that launching cable tv at the moment is too expensive. CyTA are laying their network of Fibre Optic cables underground in order to launch an ADSL 2+ service (which is what Primetel offer). OteNet will have their equipment in CyTA exchanges, their dSLAM in Nicosia and rent the Fibre Optic cables from Cyta.

Should be an interesting few months in the Telecommunications industry.

[G.Man]

Admittedly they are a smidge behind, but they are doing pretty well under the circumstances...

Service wise, I had a problem with my Cyta modem and a new one was at my front door within 30 minutes...

Try getting that service in the rest of europe!

[efty]

When my modem was busted had to wait 3 days because the idiots at the call center made be try it with 3 different ethernet cards.

Then I asked for a refund for the days without service including ISP costs and they came and replaced it immetiately.

Is primetel using its own cable all the way?

[Hazza]

No. Primetel uses its own network of FibreOptic cables on the Electric Boards telegraph poles. They go to the CyTA exchange. They rent the copper cables from CyTA that goes into people homes. Normally there isn't a problem. If the line has a fault, CyTA at Primetels request change the pair (the line).

A quick breakdown of what each company does and what each company offers.

CyTA - ADSL - Telephone - Cable TV through the phone line.

Primetel - ADSL 2+ - telephone - Cable TV through the phone line.

OteNet - ADSL2+** - Telephone**

CableNet - Cable TV - Internet

** to be offered soon.

[efty]

How is 1.5Mbits considered adsl2

This is the whole point. 256kbits was considered broadband in 1999 !!
We are in 2006 and they are still advertising 256 as broadband.

Since primetel has adsl2 ready they should be able to offer 8Mbits+ speeds and not advertise adsl2 with 1.5mbits speed because plainly it is not.!!

[Crivens]

It isn't. Considering ADSL goes upto 8mbit then no. I think their package means 2+. ie. you get ADSL, you get phone, you get crappy internet TV etc. You get more than one thing, with ADSL being one of them. Plus it does no harm to make it sound like the ADSL 2 which you get almost everywhere else that can go up to something like 23mbits.

Personally I think it is a lack of competition. Sort that out and everything would be a lot better. Right now I am paying £23GBP a month in the UK for 10mbit (with 0.5 or 1mbit upload I cannot remember which) broadband and that is probably a bit pricey right now tell the truth. Only reason I don't move is because I have had the same email address for the last decade, and the last time I changed from a long term address was a bit of a hassle (one I had in 1991).

When I move to Cyprus then 1.5mbit will be a bit of a come down, but it will be adequate for now. Hopefully they will sort themselves out sharpish, or start to lose out quite a lot when internet TV *really* starts taking off (esp. if MS get involved like they keep threatening). And no, 1.5mbit just won't cut the mustard for most SD shows, let alone HD.

256kbits was considered broadband in 1999

Can't remember when, but it wasn't long after that where, in the UK at least, they decided 256 wasn't broadband. ie. it didn't pass all the tickboxes for broadband. Can't remember if that argument landed on the broadband or not side, but it didn't really matter in the end as 256k was quickly relegated to your Gran's house in the shetland islands and quick phones/ PDAs. And yes, it is a total pain that my parents use this speed in Limassol (for more than I spend on 10mbits) and conversations are only adequate with video conversations being pretty much unusable

Cheers

[Hazza]

Primetel has the capabilities to deliver 24Mbits. It is ADSL 2+ that they have, BUT, as Crivens said, there isn't any competition out there. They can't go out and offer superfast internet without any competition out there.

They need a good base to work from to begin with, not go in with all guns blazing. That would be economically suicidal. They can offer faster than the competition at a cheaper rate. Crap for the public, but good for the company. They have huge bandwidth they can fall back on!

[tsoifun]

PRIMETEL still does not cover the areas the promissed to be covered long time ago. they say a lot of things to public that they can do faster then others but.... But if you have problems then you will have problems with them on a daily basis...

[Hazza]

Can you be specific tsoifun about the problems?

erm, you do also realise that Cyprus can't be covered overnight with fibre and equipment, don't you? It does take time to build a network.