Telecommunications in Cyprus

Telephony

Old telephone boxes in the Trodos mountains

Cyta, the state-owned telecommunications company manages most Telecommunications and Internet connections on the island. However, following the recent liberalization of the sector, a few private telecommunications companies have emerged.

Telephone system: Excellent in Cyprus
domestic: open wire, fibre-optic cable, and microwave radio relay
international: tropospheric scatter; 3 coaxial and 5 fiber-optic submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean), 2 Eutelsat, 2 Intersputnik, and 1 Arabsat

Land lines

Telephones - main lines in use: 418,400 (2004)

Companies that offer land-based telecommunication services:

• Cyta
• Cablenet
• TelePassport
• OTEnet Telecom
• PrimeTel
• Omega Telecom

Mobile

Telephones - mobile cellular: 640,500 (2004)

Companies that offer mobile cellural services:

• CytaMobile-Vodafone (a subsidiary of Cyta)
• MTN Cyprus - (used to be named: Areeba Cyprus before September 1, 2007)

Broadcasting

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) (Greek ΡΙΚ) is the main broadcaster in Cyprus, although there are also privately owned radio and TV stations. A TV channel from Greek state broadcaster ERT is also available. The British Forces Broadcasting Service also operates radio and TV stations, although the TV signal is now confined to the Sovereign Base Areas or encrypted for copyright reasons.

Subscriber TV: The first subscription channels in Cyprus were LTV and Alpha, offered by Multichoice since the mid-90s. Some major platforms today are:

• AthenaSAT, offering approximately 15 channels via satellite
• Cablenet, offering services over their cable network with their triple-play package with over 30 channels
• NOVA Cyprus with approximately 35 themed channels via satellite.
• CytaVision, offering approximately 30 channels via an ADSL IPTV platform, and LTV and Alpha
• PrimeTel offers more than 30 digital TV channels using ADSL IPTV, as well as LTV and Nova packages.

Radio broadcast stations: AM 7, FM 60, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios: 310,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 4 plus 225 low-power repeaters

Televisions: 248,000 (1997)

List of public TV stations:

• ΡΙΚ1 (CyBC 1st channel - island-wide coverage)
• ΡΙΚ2 (CyBC 2nd channel - island-wide coverage)
• ANT1 (private - island-wide coverage)
• CNC PLUS TV (private - island-wide coverage)
• MEGA Channel (private - island-wide coverage)
• SIGMA TV (private - island-wide coverage)
• FRED TV (private - Nicosia local coverage)
• VOX TV (private - Larnaca local coverage)
• Extra TV (private - Limassol local coverage)
• Paphos TV (private - Paphos local coverage)
• Omega (private - Paphos local coverage)

Internet

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 11 (2006)

ADSL technology (up to 8 Mbit/s) is available in most urban and sub-urban areas. In several areas cable connections (up to 10Mbit/sec) are also available.

List of Internet providers in Cyprus:

• Cytanet
• Cablenet
• Logosnet
• Netway
• OTEnet Telecom
• Spidernet
• Wavespeed
• PrimeTel
• Valicom
• Inter Sat, Internet & Satellite Services
• AvacomNet
• ThunderWorx

International codes

Country codes: CY Country calling code: 357