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Founding of OTE: a telecommunications milestone
11 November 2020

Founding of OTE: a telecommunications milestone

OTE officially went into operation on 10 November 1949!

The next day, 11 November 1949, the Athens daily Empros wrote:
“Yesterday, at 12 noon, the Telecommunication Organization was officially inaugurated, with King Paul in attendance.”

A new era in telecommunications had just begun in our country.

Telephony would reach the major urban centers and, gradually, every village!


Before the founding of OTE, telephones were a luxury item reserved for the upper classes and large enterprises. Ten years later, in 1959, telephones were no longer seen as a privilege of the few – now belonging to the many, with 102,601 subscribers in Attica.

In 1959, Manolis Chiotis could pen the song “Phone me so we can talk a little...”

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