He made the revelations regarding his vision for the OTE group yesterday the new head of the group Kostas Nebis. The man who officially assumed the duties of president and CEO on July 1, 2024, after the departure, after 14 years, of Michalis Chamaz.

Mr. Nebi is no stranger to OTE, as he joined initially to the Group’s executive staff in 2009. He remained until 2019 when he moved to Croatia, assuming the duties of CEO and President of the country’s equivalent OTE, Hrvatski Telekom, a listed subsidiary of the Telekom Group on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. With his team he managed to transform Hrvatski Telekom into one of the fastest growing companies, which indeed records the highest indices of the last decade on the Croatian stock exchange.

Now, however, he has returned to Greece and as he characteristically stated “I went back to my home, to OTE”.

The vision for OTE in 2030

“We want to transform OTE, the undisputed leading telecommunications provider in Greece, into one of the leading digital telecommunications providers in Europe. But not only that, we also want to put Greece in the top digitization positions in Europe” said Mr. Nebi in just a few words his vision for the group.

This is an ambitious goal which, as noted by the head of the group, thanks to OTE’s broad footprint and Telekom’s push can succeed him.

And he went on to say how leveraging technology “We want to connect our customers by making their lives better and empower businesses by helping them grow. And all this, to achieve it in a work environment that inspires our people to create, develop and evolve continuously”.

The OTE 2030 plan is based on three key commitments:

  • for the Group to provide the best customer experience through leading digital products and connectivity services,
  • to remain at the forefront of new generation networks and
  • to shape an even more modern and efficient operating model, leveraging digital technologies, always with the support of its people.

These are commitments that are framed by a firm commitment to the principles of sustainable development, harnessing the power of a global giant like Telekom, and increasing shareholder value.

The pillars

The strategic plan for OTE is based on three main pillars: Growth, Transformation, Differentiation.

For her Development of the company’s revenue, Mr. Nebi has set five key priorities. The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network continues to expand dynamically to cover 65% of the country by 2027. “Our goal is to move the majority of our broadband customers to fiber or hybrid Fixed Wireless Access infrastructures in areas that are not expected to be covered by fiber – ours or alternative providers. This, combined with the wholesale agreements we recently signed, will bring our fiber network utilization rate to over 55%.” noted features. In 5G, the priority is the utilization of the 3.5GHz spectrum, with the aim of increasing population coverage to over 80%, with a simultaneous increase in the penetration of 5G devices.

As regards to pay TVthe aim is to increase the penetration of legal pay-TV from the current approximately 30%, close to the EU average i.e. at 50%. Mr. Nebis added that the recent agreements with NOVA and Netflix have already given positive signs in the reduction of piracy, adding that in the third quarter of the year the percentage of piracy was one of the lowest the market has seen. He added that the additional measures that the government is expected to bring will contribute even more to combating the phenomenon.

For the sector of corporate clients, the head of OTE noted that he intends to focus on innovative connectivity, transfer to cloud infrastructures, new digital services, specialized solutions by sector and the utilization of the company’s System Solution skills. Finally, the acceleration of the development of services in the new markets in which OTE operates (COSMOTE insurance, Box, Payzy) and eventual expansion to even more is a priority.

As regards the second pillar, the TransformationMr. Nebi recognized the important steps that have already been taken, setting the stage for the future two main priorities: customer service and more efficient operation of the company. As for customer service, the first goal is to reduce non-sales contacts in physical service and sales channels, as well as unnecessary transitions of technicians in the field. A second objective is the utilization of new technologies and tools, including Artificial Intelligence (AI)to move a significant part of sales and customer service to digital channels, offering a better customer experience in a more efficient way. Regarding the more efficient operation of the company, the goal is to accelerate the transformation of the operational and production model. As pointed out by Mr. Nebi this will happen “through simplifications, digitizations and operational optimizations. But also with the utilization of AI tools, transfer to cloud infrastructures and utilization of automation, but also transition to common platforms and operating models with the Telekom Group”.

The third and last pillar of OTE’s new strategy is Differentiationwith three priorities. As Kostas Nebi mentioned, “the company stands out with the best customer experience indicators in the market, however we know that we still have a lot of room for improvement to bring the customer experience where we want it and get to compare with the leading technology service providers in Europe”. He also pointed out that the Telekom brand will be further leveraged. “Telekom is a Group with a presence in over 50 countries. It has over 300 million. customers and employs over 200,000 workers. Her size allows her to have more collaboration opportunities than anyone else. Google, Apple, SpaceX, Perplexity, OpenAI, Nvidia and Netflix are just some of the most typical examples of Telekom’s partnerships. As we did with Netflix, we want to move to leverage as many partnerships as we can for the benefit of our customers.”characteristically said Mr. Nebi.

Completing the strategic priorities, Mr. Nebis referred to the people of the OTE Group, noting that the investment that has been made all these years in the continuous training of people in new technologies and work methods will continue, with the aim of making the company even higher on the list of top employers.

Fixed Wireless Access is coming

To provide services in areas where there is no FTTH coverageMr. Nebi noted that “5G – both access and backbone (5G stand alone) – is the foundation on which we build the FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) product to deliver ultra-high speeds to customers not yet covered by fiber. The commercial sale will take place in the next period”.

Asked about the possibility of cooperation with PPC, Mr. Nebi replied that “We work with all providers that build fiber optic networks, where there is a need to offer services for our customers. PPC is currently laying fiber in areas where our own fiber optic network already exists. Nevertheless, we would be positive to buy wholesale from PPC in areas that are not on our plan. In this context, we are also testing it on a pilot basis.”

As far as ICT projects are concerned, the head of the OTE Group emphasized that clients, public and private sector, “choose us because we are the largest System Integrator on the market. We have the size and the know-how, and we deliver the projects on time.”

Regarding the high taxation in the telecommunications sector, he noted that “we are in the 2-3 countries in Europe with the highest taxation in fixed, mobile and TV, a remnant of the memorandum period. The first move has been made with the abolition of the 5% tax on high fixed speeds. I hope there will be a sequel.”

T, BOX and payzy

As far as it is concerned the brand Tsaid: “We have long since begun to utilize it in addition to our brand COSMOTE, of which we are very proud, because it ranks among the most loved brands regardless of industry in Greece. However, we also take advantage of the Telekom brand, which has evolved a lot in recent years, is equal in the top 10 worldwide and gives us additional dynamics and international displacement.”

For her BOX food ordering serviceMr. Nebi noted: “We are very satisfied with the progress of BOX. It has already reached 1 million. customers and receives 40,000 orders per day. And we still have a way to go”.

For the payzy respectively, he said that “it has reached 400,000 customers, from 240,000 last year, while 2,000 businesses have adopted payzy pro. It has already been launched in the German market, and we want to take advantage of it even more.”

Regarding the human resources of the Group, Mr. Nebi emphasized: “We have the best professionals in the market, and we are proud of that. We want to keep them and develop them, and we are working in this direction.”

Asked if the sale of another subsidiary, apart from Telecom Romania, is planned, the president of the OTE group said that there is no such thing in the plan.

Also, about the OTE Estatenoted that at the moment it has over 2,600 properties which it fully utilizes and it is not planned to convert it into an AEEAP, while when asked about the energy sector, he replied that it is not included in the Group’s strategic priorities.