Cosmote S.A.

COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS  (COSMOTE ΚΙΝΗΤΕΣ ΤΗΛΕΠΙΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΕΣ) known as just Cosmote is the largest mobile network operator in Greece. The company is headquartered in Athens and is a fully owned subsidiary of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE), the incumbent telecommunications provider in Greece. COSMOTE has developed business operations in two other Southeast Europe countries through subsidiaries: Telekom Albania (now One Albania) and Telekom Romania, addressing an extended market of 45 million people. In all three countries COSMOTE counts approximately 35.6 million customers.

In September 2015, the parent company OTE announced they are to adopt the COSMOTE brand as their uniform commercial brand covering fixed, broadband and mobile telephony. At this time, the company has chosen not to adopt the Deutsche Telekom brand under which name it operates in its Central and Eastern European operations.

History
COSMOTE launched commercial operations in Greece in April 1998 and reached 1 million subscribers a year later. In 2000, the company was listed in the Athens Exchange. In 2001, COSMOTE reached a customer base of 2.5 million becoming the largest mobile network operator in Greece.

In 2006, COSMOTE acquired 99% of Germanos SA from its owner Panos Germanos, a multinational chain of retail electronic goods vendors. During the same year COSMOTE was listed among the top performers in the technology industry worldwide according to BusinessWeek's Information Technology 100 rankings, being the only Greek company in the list.

Subsidiaries
Telekom Romania: In July 2005, COSMOTE acquired 70% of the Romanian operator COSMOROM which was the mobile arm of Romanian national incumbent operator Romtelecom. Later that year, COSMOROM was rebranded to COSMOTE Romania. In November 2009, COSMOTE acquired Telemobil SA (Zapp), the first CDMA 450 MHz mobile phone operator in Romania, thereby gaining access to 3G license and infrastructure in the country.

Sponsorships


Under its Corporate Responsibility (CR) programme, COSMOTE supports actions related to the environment, society, the marketplace, the workplace and public awareness. Actions undertaken in this context include inter alia a joint sponsorship, together with the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE), of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. COSMOTE has also initiated a Scholarship programme for university studies, awarding scholarships to high school graduates who have been admitted as first year students in higher educational institutions in Greece.

In October 2011, COSMOTE announced that will support, together with OTE, the digitisation of the libraries of the Halki seminary in Constantinople.

In 2012, OTE and COSMOTE announced the sponsorship of the exhibition "The Antikythera Shipwreck: The ship, the Treasures, the Mechanism", of the National Archaeological Museum.