Telephone operators, Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) ( Source : Aspect of Cyprus)

CYTA (short for CYprus Telecommunication Authority) (ATHK - Αρχή Τηλεπικοινωνιών Κύπρου in Greek) is the national telecommunications provider of Cyprus and the main operator of phone, Internet and mobile communications (CytaMobile, a Vodafone'network partner') in Cyprus.

Services

The company covers the whole country with digital PSTN and ISDN telephone lines and also offers ADSL in all urban areas. Cyta is a group of companies owning an ISP (Cytanet), a mobile phone company (Cytamobile -Vodafone) and many other companies including CYTA International Investments.

Fixed telephony

Cyta has a virtual monopoly on fixed line telephony with an extensive penetration.[2]

Mobile Telephony

Cyta introduced NMT mobile telephony to the island in the late 1980s. NMT was phased out with the introduction of GSM technology. Mobile telephony services were rebranded CytaMobile and in 2004 forged a partnership with Vodafone.[3]

Television

In 2004 Cyta launched MiVision a television platform based on broadband IPTV. By October 2008 the service was renamed to Cytavision.

Subsidiaries

* Cytanet [2] Internet provider
* DSL Access [3] DSL internet Access via Cytanet
* Cytavision [4] Cable TV
* Cytacom [5] Networking solutions
* Cyta UK [6] Telephony services in the United Kingdom
* CytaGlobal Hellas [7] Telephony services in Greece
* Cytacom [8] Networking solutions
* EmporionPlaza [9] e-commerce services
* Iris [10] Iris
* Digimed Communications
* Cyta Hellas [11] Cyta Hellas

On many occasions Cyta has been subpoena to huge amounts of fines by the Commission for the Protection of Competition and by the Commissioner of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation for antimonopoly practices. Many alleged illegal takeovers have also been investigated recently (ref. secret agreements of CYTA miVision and Lumier TV, investigation is undergoing by the Cyprus Parliament){[12]}. It has been accused and fined on aggressive antimonopoly behaviour against other rival internet service providers, lease intenet lines (Callsat Telecom Vs CYTA invicted by the Commission){[13]}, mobile phone providers, rival phone hotlines and helplines, fined for huge over profits (81 million in 2000) and many more{[14]}.

The estimated profit after miVision & LTV takeover yearly 200-300 million skyrocketing the yearly cash flow of the company to 700 million{[15]}.

Also, the General Director has failed to provide access to his company email and its history to commissioner which CYTA is being fined 8500 euros daily. The commissioner is expected to proceed to a confiscation of the email history{[16]}.

Cyta was one of the first ADSL providers in Europe and became one of the last in services after very poor investments of their huge over profits[citation needed].

References

1. ^ 2005 Annual Report [1]
2. ^ "Government in Cyprus liberalizes to join EU", Taipei Times (November 30, 2001), pp. 19. Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
3. ^ "Vodafone welcomes Cyprus to its global community", UNI global union (2004-02-20). Retrieved on 2008-01-20.