Cyprus-Forum.com

[callmered]

areeba's connection and quality of voice is not as good as CYTA

Well where do you base that????

CYTA is using half rate GSM everywhere... areeba is using full rate therefore by default the quality of sound is much better if you are calling from areeba to areeba... this is something everyone has noticed. Unless of course you are using CYTA radio which only rarely happens anymore since areeba has blocked all roaming in the Nocosia area and is now covering most of the island.

As for the SMS well if you indeed are in telecoms business you should know better. For an SMS to be submitted through to a foreign network an interworking agreement needs to be in place between the two networks or your SMS can be delivered through an international SMS gateway. However the foreign network might actually block your SMS unless you have the interworking agreement in there.

How do you expect a less than two years old carrier to have interworking agreements with all the networks a 10 year carrier has.

Finally as for competition in Cyprus you seem to ignore that EU does not allow the state control telecom carriers. Cyta will slowly be privatised and loose its immense pool of money they had. Overstaffing will soon pay its toll and if not partially privatised like OTE in greece it will very quickly become like cyprus Airways...

full rate not always stand for better quality, on most ocassions it is the other way round.

areeba is in his beginning phase of constructing the G netwk, the main goal is to archieve better converage, it doesnt have as many users as cyta so the resource is competent and this is why full rate is provided which can also improve its service quality a little bit.

cyta, on the other hand, has finished covering the island, what cyta is considering is to expand the capacity so that it can hold more subscribers and this explains why half rate is used, cyta doesnt have coverage problem. talking about half rate, this is a very mature technology and it is widely used by most of the big operators and it has been proved that half rate can fully satisfy user's reqirement and can greatly decrease the cost to the operators.

furthermore, AFAIK areeba's vendor is Alcatel which is not as good as Ericsson.

[Strahd]

furthermore, AFAIK areeba's vendor is Alcatel which is not as good as Ericsson.

Again this statement has no basis since Alcatel is now one of the leaders in the field after aquiring Lucent. It might be true that Ericsson is better than Alcatel... however CYTA's equipment is more than 10 years old now, technology has moved forward. So I would prefer a brand new ford to a 10 year old mercedes..

[sadik]

Does Cyprus use a GSM Network? also is there a cell phone provider that has a "pay as you go plan"? and does anyone know the cost of a Sim card?

Thanks

I also recommend Areeba. Areeba has "pay as you go". It's coverage is at least as good as the other operator. It even works in many places in north Cyprus, where I live. It has good rates for voice, gprs and 3G data. I've used both Cyta and Areeba, and you will not see a difference in quality for voice.

[twinkle]

most people have CYTA as they have been around since the year dot. Areeba has only been in Cyprus for about 3 years. I signed up with them back then and get over 300 minutes free a month and text messages for 8.00. A real bargin, but it was one of their first promotions. I kept the CYTA line too and only use that if sending SMS abroad or receiving calls (most people don't have the Areeba number). Have to say, Areeba has improved drastically. The teething problems at the begining (3 years ago!!) are over. I prefer Areeba, they are cheaper and the staff friendly. CYTA is soooo stuck up and it's impossible to park to pay your bill in Larnaca.

There is no difference in quality, just service.

[callmered]

furthermore, AFAIK areeba's vendor is Alcatel which is not as good as Ericsson.

Again this statement has no basis since Alcatel is now one of the leaders in the field after aquiring Lucent. It might be true that Ericsson is better than Alcatel... however CYTA's equipment is more than 10 years old now, technology has moved forward. So I would prefer a brand new ford to a 10 year old mercedes..

however, telecomunication is not like car industry, operators chase for profit not fashion .products dont update very often, especialy for GSM which is a very old and mature tech and actually there are merely improvements or updates on the system side. CYTA begun its G service 10 yrs ago but this doesnt mean the equipments are old. the whole netwk are contructed and improved yr by yr, little by little. and furthermore one big factor to the netwk quality is netwk optimization. this procedure often takes a couple of yrs. its a circle like TEST->AJUST->TEST AGAIN, and if a new basestation joined in, the config of other basestation need to re-configed again. so u see for 2-yr-old mobile operator it is impossible to get got optimization on the netwk within this short peroid of time.
also cuz cyta started much earlier most good locations for antenas were occupied by cyta, areeba have to choose among the rest...
maybe in the city area hotspot u dont feel the difference even areeba is better due to fewer # of users but in some buildings, elevators, highroads u can feel the diff.