26 Aug 2011Poland Broadband Overview

The Polish telecommunications market was opened to competition on all levels following the gradual liberalisation of the sector between 1990 and 2003. However, Telekomunikacja Polska (TP) still controls a large proportion of the market and is the market leader in terms of revenue from fixed-line telephony. Other major operators are Netia, UPC Poland and Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa.

Until today, one of the key issues for alternative operators remains TP’s lack of compliance with the non-discrimination obligation, especially regarding access to infrastructure. Even though such an obligation had been imposed on TP, until recently the Polish regulator continued to receive complaints from alternative operators. These complaints were made on the grounds that TP’s lack of co-operation made the retail market less competitive. This is one of the reasons behind Poland ranking very low in terms of accessibility and quality of telecommunications services.

To address the problem, in 2008 the regulator initiated the functional separation of TP. To avoid such a far-reaching regulatory measure, TP launched negotiations with other operators in order to improve collaboration in the market. TP also submitted an action plan addressing the problems indicated by the regulator. Finally, in October 2009 the regulator and TP signed an agreement outlining a commitment on the part of TP to improve cooperation with alternative operators as well as deploying at least 1.2 million broadband lines. Between signing the agreement and end-2010, TP built more than 454,000 broadband lines including over 420,000 lines with over 6 Mbps speeds. Around 30 per cent of the investment will be used in unprofitable rural areas (up from the initially planned 23 per cent). Furthermore, in April 2011 TP started negotiating a deal with the regulator to deploy 3 million FTTH lines starting from 2012.

In October 2009, the regulator announced the estimated growth in demand for broadband services in Poland during the period 2010-2012. The regulator expects that the fixed broadband customer base will increase by 1.1 million to 1.5 million, along with an additional 1 million new subscribers to mobile broadband services. A several percentage point drop in DSL connections is predicted (they comprised 50 per cent of all connections as of early 2010). In contrast, the share of mobile broadband accesses is expected to double from about 10 per cent in 2010 to about 20 per cent in 2012. This increase is due to the adoption of an aggressive marketing policy, the increasing perception of mobile Internet as a good alternative to fixed broadband, the growth in laptop and notebook sales and the demand for mobility, especially among young people.