Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency
Telecommunications infrastructure
By the end of 2004 there were 12.5 million exchange lines and over 50
telecommunications local operators. The leader on Polish market, former national
monopoly, Telekomunikacja S.A. (TP S.A.) has a share of 91.2% of the exchange
lines. Annalists from PMR consulting claim that the further development of fixed line
telephony network will limited and the density of fixed lines telephony will be rising
but at a low rate. In 2004 the penetration rate (number of all lines to total population)
was 32.6%. It is expected to rise to 34% by the end of 2005. The cost of plugging in
to the network is estimated to range from 30 to 90 euro. However on going promotion
may reduce this cost significantly. The price for subscription differ among tariffs and
range from 5 to 15 euro. It is worth mentioning that the higher price the cheaper the
calls are.
Fixed line telephony
The fixed line telephony market is fully liberalized. In 2004 TP S.A. had 90% share in
local calls market, 80% share for long-distance and 73% in international calls. Due to
market liberalization the shares of TP S.A. in long-distance and international calls
market are decreasing over the years. The average cost of three minute local call in
2004 was 8 euro cents. Comparing to prices in 2001 and 2003 the prices dropped by
28.26% and 5.71% respectively. This price is lower than the EU average. As for longdistance call the average cost of one minute call in 2004 was 7 euro cents.
Comparing to prices in 2001 and 2003 the prices dropped by 26.5% and 12.24%
respectively. This price is also lower than the EU average. Prices for international
calls depend on the zone one is calling to. The average cost of one minute call to
USA and Western Europe in 2004 was 27 euro cents. Comparing to prices in 1999
and 2003 the prices dropped by 74% and 54.92% respectively. This price is around
the EU average. The cost of one minute call for the fixed line telephone on a mobile
phone in 2004 was 24 euro cents. Comparing to 2003 the prices dropped by 11%.
Mobile telephony
The market fro mobile telephony is nearly equally distributed by three firms:
 Polkomtel S.A. (PLUS GSM, Simplus Team, Sami Swoi)
 Polska Telefonia Komórkowa Sp. z o.o. (Idea POP, Jedna Idea oraz Nowa Idea
dla Firm).
 Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa Sp. z o.o. (Era, Era TAK TAK oraz Era BIZNES,
Heyah).
All of them operate on 900 and 1800 GSM frequencies. The number of users
reached 23.1 million, which is 32% more than a year before. This large increase was
a result of instruction of new operator owned by PTC, Heyah. Growing
competitiveness on the market forcing the operators to cut prices. The penetration
rate of mobile telephony in Poland in 2004 was 60.4% of a market worth over 4 billion
euro. The market is expected to rise by 25% in 2005, 12% in 2006 and 8% in 2007
when a penetration arte will reach 80%. The plugging in costs are from 30 to 90 euro,
however due to on going promotions one must pay no more that 1 PLN plus VAT.
The price for 120 - 140 minute subscription is 35 to 39 euro. The price of one minute
call of the subscription costs for 25 to 27 euro cents. The average cost of pre-paid
mobile one minute call was 23 euro cents in 2004 comparing to 30 cents EU
average. The prices are falling and the cost of mobile telephony is dropping. However
the contracts are signed for minimum two years and during that time no price cutting
is possible. The largest price cuts occurred on the pre-paid mobile market after the
Heyah entered the market.
UMTS
In the second half of 2005 mobile provider ERA sells UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System) services and only in Warszawa. Plus GSM began
selling UMTS services only in Warszawa. The providers are slowly testing the
market. Until 2007 the providers are obliged to provide access to UMTS to at least
20% of the population. Mobile telephony started operating later than in the Western
Europe and the providers didn’t acquired substantial capital to be able to implement
UMTS in a short period. Further more the cost of concessions where very high and
that also lower the investment capabilities of firms. The creation of UMTS
transmitters’ network is a slow process and providers are stetting up their network
only in largest cities. At the beginning of the prices for UMTS are quite high.
Internet
The largest internet providers are TP S.A. Netia, GTS, Croweley Data Poland, and
Pro Futuro. Their total share is 88%. Most clients (71%) use broadband 1 connections
while the rest (29%) the dial-up. The dial-up connections are very popular in rural
areas, because it is cheaper and it does not include a monthly fee. The penetration
rate of broadband services is 0.86%. However if we look at the percentage of
broadband connation users compared to the number of computer users the
penetration rate reaches 8.18%. The costs of internet connections for business in
euro by different type of connection and transfer capabilities are presented below.
2048
30,8
23,4
1024
17,1
11,6
Wi-Fi
DSL
Dial-up
13,4
14,3
512
7,2
Source: ”Raport o stanie rynku telekomunikacyjnego w 2004” Urząd Regulacji Telekomunikacji i Poczty
1
Connections of transfer capabilities higher than 128kb/s
The average cost of internet access compared to the average wage is 3.66%
compared to 0.50% for the Netherlands. This ratio is higher for Czech Republic and
Slovakia.
The firms provide several internet services for business such as:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Collocation
Quality Internet
Secure Internet
Security services
Public Key Infrastructure PKI
Quality IP Transit
ISDN&Internet Bundle
Internet Back-up
Data transfer
There are several firms that supply companies with data transfer and voice services
over internet. Most of firm serve advanced services like:
 Data Transmission services
o VPN MPLS
o Frame Relay/ATM
o National Leased Circuits
o Dialup VPN MPLS
o International Private Leased Circuits
o IPSec
o X.25
 Voice services
o ISDN
o Voice traffic termination
o Poland and abroad.
The largest companies in business sector are: Telekomunikacja Polska S.A., Exatel,
GTS (in 2005 it took over Energis S.A.), ATMAN (ATM S.A.), Crowley Data Poland,
Netia S.A., Super Media Holding S.A., NASK, eTel, TTCOMM S.A., Telekomunikacja
Kolejowa Sp z o.o..
Private wire circuit
TP S.A. is also an important player on this market; however, its share is decreasing
fast. In 2004, the share decreased to 41% from 57% in 2004. In 2003, there were 90
firms that provided private wire circuit services. The shares of other operators in
terms of level of revenue are presented below.
TP S.A.
Exatel S.A.
Telekomunikacja Kolejowa
Sp z o.o.
Netia S.A.
ATM S.A.
TTCOMM S.A.
Others
Source: ”Raport o stanie rynku telekomunikacyjnego w 2004” Urząd Regulacji Telekomunikacji i Poczty
Number of digital circuits in 2004
Channel
Length
Up to 5km
5km to 50km 10km to 200km
capacity
1871
1226
916
2Mb/s
45
43
36
2Mb/s to
34Mb/s
20
22
40
Over 34Mb/s
Over 200 km
628
34
International
234
2
28
33
Source: ”Raport o stanie rynku telekomunikacyjnego w 2004” Urząd Regulacji Telekomunikacji i Poczty
Largest Companies related to data transfer business
Company Name
Revenue form data transmission and
internet provision(in million PLN)
1680
250
159
115
95
As a share of
telecommunications revenue
9%
75%
47%
45%
95%
TP S.A.
GTS Polska
Exatel
Telekomunikacja kolejowa
TeliSonera International Carier
Poland
Netia
90
Dialog
53
Pro Futuro
45
Multimedia Polska
36
ATM
33
NASK
27
Telewizja Kablowa Vectra
27
TTCOMM
15
Telenet Polska
8
SuperMedia
3
Media Tel
2
Source: ComputerWorld 2005 „Ranking firm informatycznych I telekomunikacyjnych”
10%
70%
12%
90%
98%
80%
40%
100%
100%
6%
65%
GTS back-bone network
Exatel tele-transmission network
Author: Jakub Marszałek; Last modification date: August 2005