Panafon SA, the Vodafone Group Plc consortium that also includes France Telecom and locals Intrakom SA and Data Bank of Greece SA, won one of the two $160m licences to build and operate digital cellular telephone in Greece, the other going to Stet SpA of Italy: the two companies will invest around $850m in Greece over the next six years; the licences run for 20 years, with the Athens area being covered in the next 18 months and the rest of the country over the next six years; Greece hopes the exercise will create some 7,000 new jobs; unusually, the state phone company is barred from cellular operations.
