‘Wind’ are a recent Internet provider that’s predicted to dominate the telephony market within Greece in the next couple of years. (Reuters)

Walking into their local shop on the Island of Lefkas. I purchased a ‘Wind USB Modem’ plus 7 days of pay-as you-go credit. The cost of the USB stick is €126.00 (There is a cheaper option) which provides mobile broadband coverage throughout their extensive 3G Network. Due to the language barrier my Greek is not that good. I was able to ask the staff  (In English) to activate my first pay-as-you-go-card within the shop. For a total of €140.00 (€14 = 7 days credit) I was ready to plug and play my new Internet access from my boat.

Software: You can downloaded the software from their website, it’s in Mac or PC format with comprehensive instructions in the form of and English PDF. The software interface is very simple to use and easy to understand. An unexpected bonus is that  ‘Wind ADSM Connection Manager’ enables you to choose the network of your choice but I’d assume you’d need to be pre-registered with these other networks first (Comments welcomed on this issue)

Wind 3G is the default option. The software manager also has an SMS manager built within it, giving you options to store your contacts and organising your SMS messages. If this manager was able to send one message to multiple recipients at the same time it would be ideal for a rep’ wanting to send one singular message to multiple clients located all over an Island and beyond. (Comments welcomed on this issue)

Support: http://www.wind.com.gr/ website is very comprehensive and fairly easy to navigate it’s in both Greek and English; it has a logical layout that takes a little time to understand. Tariff plans and comprehensive detail about starter packs can be found at Wind Mobile Telephony – Individuals – Prepaid – Wind F2G.

Conclusion: The Wind USB Modem is very easy to use once it’s activated. The language barrier can be a problem for first time users so it’s recommended to get ‘Wind’ to do it for you within one of their local shops. Sailing between the Island I’ve found the coverage to be very good. In very secluded anchorages the speed has dropped off.  I tend to surf when near a town and only check my email when the coverage is slower.

The price for the USB Modem stick is uncomfortable high at €126.00 (3.5 times higher than a T-Mobile Pay-as-you-go in the UK) however the quality of service between the two are about the same.

Recommendation: It’s  frequently recommended by staff to unlock a cheaper USB Modem stick and just purchase the top-up cards from the local newsagents etc’, this is a much cheaper option. You’ll still have to download the ‘Wind ADSM Connection Manager’ from their site but that’s free. This option is probably the best way to go for the budget conscious traveller.

http://www.wind.com.gr/

Returning from a recent trip with ‘Peter Sommer Travels’ to the eastern Aegean. I made a point of researching cheap and effective ways of maintaining reliable Internet access whilst on the move. In my previous post 3G Mobile Internet Access with Wind. I’d researched an effective pay-as-you-go method of using Mobile broadband in Greece.

There were some down sides namely the initial cost of buying a ‘Wind’ mobile broadband stick at €90 however its frequently recommended by their staff to use an unlocked broadband stick and use their pay-as-you-go cards that can be found in most shops.

In reality if you don’t have an unlocked mobile broadband stick the cost of the ‘Wind’ stick is not only expensive it’s not always easy to get hold of outside Athens. Walking into their local shop in Vathi (Capital of Samos Island) I was informed that it would have to be ordered from Athens and would take a couple of days.

Currently ‘Wind’ is the only pay-as-you-go mobile broadband service in Greece without a contract. Walking three doors down to the Vodafone.gr shop around the corner I was offered the same service with a €66 charge for the stick with a 2 year contract. At the ‘Prova Café Bar’ yards away from both shops, they have Wi-Fi Internet access for €2.50 per hour (Using a Wi-Fi code) there are no banks of computers out the back as you’re expected to bring your own. Looking around I could see I was not alone using my Laptop.

Returning to Pythagorea by taxi €14 my driver was a fountain of knowledge, every Modern Greek is a techno geek apparently. The government in Greece are implementing public Wi-Fi hotspots in every town; the local government on the island need only implement this free Wi-Fi program. According to the taxi driver, ‘Connex’ are the current service provider for the nationwide scheme and the default Wi-Fi code to log on is 1234567890–123 or 4 I never got the opportunity to test this myself so I’d welcome any input from others.

During my trip visiting the Islands of Samos, Patmos, Leros, Kos and eventually Bodrum on the Turkish coast. I was able to pick up 4 –5 Wi-Fi signals from our Gullet within every harbour. Many were labelled with a bars name that could be found with ease. It’s only a matter of selecting a bar paying the €2.50 minimum charge and reading your emails at leisure.

Finding myself without full-time Internet access left me with time to explore and reduce my tendency to surf. I found myself considerably reassured that there was reliable Internet access on the move as long as I had my own Laptop. The down side is the reliable Wi-Fi access is only available where you find competing bars for your service.

3G does have its advantages with its much broader internet coverage than Wi-Fi hotspots so a combined use of both services will provide maximum possible coverage in Greece.

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David Mutlow travelled with ‘Peter Sommer Travels’ on their North Dodecanese Archaeological tour for seven days visiting Samos, Patmos, Leros, Kos and Halicarnassus (Bodrum) the site of the Mausoleum. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. http://www.petersommer.com

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‘Wind’ is an Athens based mobile telephony company that invested 88 million euros into its start-up business and is predicted as becoming the main mobile Internet provider in Greece (Reuters)

Prepaid: Wind has two prepaid sim cards that can be bought at their stores or any ‘Periptero Stand’ on the side walk the cards are available for 2 or 7 days. Costing 5 euro and 15 euro respectively with a 2GB & 7GB fair usage policy. http://www.wind.com.gr

These prepaid WIND ADSM packs might be the only available solution for travellers wanting cheap mobile Internet access within Greece.

Coverage: Cosmote covers almost all of Greece with 3GSM and most cities with HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), Vodafone covers most of the cities with HSPA.

However Wind also covers most of the Greek cities and its HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) coverage is enabled all over its 3G network.

Hardware: Wind also offers competitive prices for their dongles but say that their prepaid Sims can easily fit into an unlocked dongle quoting the ‘Huawei E220 USB HSPA’ as the preferred choice.

Looking at eBay the ‘Huawei E220 USB HSPA’ unlocked is going at around $75.00 (£52). This unit combined with the Pay-As-You-Go option from Wind looks to be a very competitive option.

According to http://www.howardforums.com/. The Huawei E220 USB HSPA modems can 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 this modem, get the USB one which is future-proof.

Special Deals: Wind are also offering a prepaid 2 week unlimited package including hardware for 99 euros with an option to extend for a further 1 week at 10 euros.

Conclusion: The competition amongst the top three providers and a market place of 10 million citizens in Greece. Has brought prices amazingly down in the past few months! Vodafone is expected to lower its prices in line with Wind ADSM competitive pricing structure, very soon. However they are still not able to compete with the Prepaid market that Wind ADSM currently dominates.

Further reading on this subject can be found at 3G & Wi-Fi Internet in Greece

I would welcome any feedback or information covering this subject so that any developments I may miss is posted for all to see…
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