7 Jul 2009Poland 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 still controls a large proportion of the market. In 2008, the Polish telecommunications market was worth EUR 48.6 billion. TP was the market leader in terms of revenue from sales of fixed-line telephony services. Other operators whose market share exceeded 1 per cent were Netia, Dialog, Tele2 Poland, UPC Poland and Digital Telephony Poland. In 2008, the share of the alternative operators in the total revenue from the provision of fixed telephony services increased to 24.6 per cent, while the incumbent operator’s share fell to 75.4 per cent. TP also had the largest share of lines connected, at around 79 per cent, with the remaining 21 per cent was held by the alternative operators. The largest share among these was held by Netia at almost 3.6 per cent.

The local call market was opened up in 1992, and competition in this market is highly fragmented. Apart from TP no other operator has so far managed to gain a significant market share. In 2008, the incumbent had over 36 per cent of the wholesale market, followed by Elterix with a 17.5 per cent share. In the same year Telekomunikacja Polska released 353,440 local loops and sub loops for alternative operators. The number of WLR lines in 2008 amounted to 894,163.

Telekomunikacja Polska (TP), the Polish incumbent, is 47.5 per cent owned by France Telecom. The Polish government owns approximately 3.87 per cent which it plans to sell by the end of 2009. The operator offers DSL services under the brand name Neostrada and mobile services via its subsidiary PTK Centertel (Orange Poland). In Q108, TP launched trials of FTTH based broadband services in Warsaw with speeds up to 50 Mbps.

Mobile telephony market in Poland is characterised by dynamic growth, both in terms of the number of users and of the number of calls and their duration. At the end of 2008, there were over 43 million mobile subscribers, resulting in 115 per cent penetration rate. In 2008, the market grew in value by around 10 per cent, compared to 6.9 per cent in 2007. New entrants to the market – P4 and the new MVNOs – claimed around 30 per cent of market growth in terms of value and nearly 50 per cent of the net additions. Nevertheless Polkomtel, Orange Poland (PTK Centertel), and Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC) remain the key mobile operators sharing almost 98 per cent of the market.

Polkomtel was the first operator in Poland to launch 3G mobile telephony services including UMTS in September 2004. The operator is marketing its services under five brand names: Plus, Simplus, and Sami Swoi, iPlus and MixPlus. Polkomtel’s network covers 99 per cent of the country. It had 14.47 million subscribers by the end of 2008.

Orange Poland launched its 3G/UMTS service in April 2006. At the end of 2008, the operator had 14.18 million mobile subscribers or a 32.2 per cent market share (down from 34.1 per cent a year earlier). Its mobile broadband customer base reached 352,000, up from 223,000 a year earlier.

PTC (Era), 70 per cent owned by T-Mobile Germany, launched its HSDPA service in October 2006. Its entire third generation network operates using HSPA technology. It covers 18.5 million Polish inhabitants and can be accessed in more than 500 Polish towns and cities. At the end of 2008, PTC’s total subscriber base was 13.27 million, 2.1 per cent higher than in 2007.

In 2008, seven new MVNO operators entered the market: Mobile Entertainment Company (Mobilking) which uses PTC network, CP Telecom (Carrefour Mova) using Polkomtel network, Mediatel using PTK Centertel network, Cyfrowy Polsat using PTC network, Aster (in co-operation with PTK Centertel), Crowley Data Poland (CROWLEY TeleMobile) using PTK Centertel network and Netia using P4 network.

During a six month period from end-June 2008 to beg-January 2009, mobile operators have seen an increase in the number of mobile broadband subscribers by over 330,000, or more than 45 per cent. The mobile operators gained 1.5 per cent of the broadband market share.