The Greek telco market has been dealt a major blow by an agreement between the government and country’s creditors to impose a new tax.
Quoting market professionals, Ekathimerini notes that the tax – 5% on every internet connection and 10% on every pay-TV subscription – will be both impossible to implement and impede growth in the market, including the take-up of pay-TV services.
Even more significantly, it will lead to market distortions in the provision of double and triple play services. These would see operators charging higher fees for telephony and lower ones for internet and pay-TV in order to reduce their tax bill for the latter.
As previously reported in Broadband TV News, Panos Papadopoulos, the CEO of Forthnet, has already expressed his concerns about the new tax.