The telecommunications industry in Greece is dominated by OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organization). Between April 1996 and July 1999, six sales of OTE stock were conducted, leaving the operator 37.7%-owned by the state at the time of writing.

The creation of a regulatory body independent of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) had been formulated in legislation passed in 1992, although this law was superseded by the 1994 Law for the Organisation and Operation of the Telecommunications Sector, under which regulation was to be divided between the MTC and the National Commission for Telecommunications (NTC). However, it was not until 1998 that the NTC was formally created. In December 1998, regulation of the postal sector was added to the regulators responsibilities and its name was changed to the National Commission for Telecommunications and Post (NTCP or EETT as it prefers to be known, its Greek acronym). A new Law on Telecommunications, passed in March 2000, transferred all regulatory functions to EETT, including licensing of operators and registration of service providers, interconnection, number and frequency management, and full powers of decision-making and dispute resolution. The MTC retains responsibility for policy and legislation.

Greece had a derogation on the European Union (EU) timetable which required 12 out of the 15 members to open their markets to full competition from January 1, 1998, and the Greek market did not become fully liberalised until January 1, 2001. Although the alternative infrastructure market was opened to competition in March 1998 (later than the agreed deadline of October 1997), the first licence for the provision of fixed infrastructure for liberalised services was only granted in mid-2000. As of April 2005, there was little competition in the fixed line telephony market.

There are a number of competitors in the value-added services market, although none of them pose a threat to OTE. In the mobile communications sector, GSM services are provided by Vodafone-Panafon (majority-owned by Vodafone) and STET Hellas (majority-owned by Telecom Italia Mobile), while personal communications network (PCN) services are currently offered by OTE through the CosmOTE division, which launched commercial services in April 1998. STET Hellas was also awarded frequency in the 1800MHz band in July 2001, as was new entrant Info-quest, which launched services in June 2002.

The three initial mobile operators were all awarded third-generation (3G) universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) licences in July 2001.