Taken from The Broadband Coverage in Europe 2023 Report - a study prepared for the European Commission DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology
by OMDIA and Point Topic Ltd.
National coverage by broadband technology
Fixed broadband coverage reached 86.9% at national level and 74.0% at rural level by the end of June 2023. But despite an improvement of 4.0 and 5.2 percentage points at national and rural level, respectively, Poland recorded the third lowest broadband coverage among EU member states. Poland also fell below the EU average in terms of NGA coverage, but it significantly narrowed the gap to the EU average compared to mid-2022. Rural NGA grew to 65.9%, up by 25.6 percentage points.
The coverage of 1Gbps-capable fixed VHCN networks (FTTP & DOCSIS 3.1) grew by 10.4 percentage points and reached 81.1% by mid-2023, reflecting an accelerated pace of FTTP deployment. In rural Poland, fixed VHCN coverage grew by 24.3 percentage points over the 12-month period.
FTTP remained the most prevalent broadband technology in Poland, with three quarters (75.4%) of homes passed. Strong growth of 15.9 percentage points enabled Poland to exceed the EU average by 11.4 percentage points.
DSL was the second most prevalent technology, despite a 2.2 percentage point decline in coverage. Polish operators also progressed with upgrades to VDSL and VDSL2 Vectoring which were available to 39.5% and 29.0% of Polish households, respectively. The upgrade of cable networks to DOCSIS 3.1 standard is almost complete, with 99.7% of the footprint upgraded as of mid-2023, up from 98.4% in the prior year.
5G coverage improved by 8.5 percentage points but remained 17.4 percentage points below the EU average. As frequencies in the 3.4–3.8 GHz band had not yet been allocated as of mid-2023, Poland had no 5G coverage in that band yet.
In rural Poland, FTTP overtook DSL to become the largest broadband technology, with 56.3% of homes passed by mid-2023. FTTP recorded the strongest growth among broadband technologies, up by 24.3 percentage points, and unlike in previous years, it exceeded the EU average.
Poland remained below the EU average across all other categories, with the largest gap in DSL (46.4 percentage points) and FWA (38.9 percentage points). Cable remained a minor technology in rural Poland, with just 1.7% of homes passed, but almost the entire cable network (99.8%) had been upgraded to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.
5G deployment in rural areas progressed considerably over the 12-month period, with 58.5% of rural households covered by mid-2023, up by 55.7 percentage points compared to mid-2022.
Regional coverage by broadband technology
Four out of 73 regions in Poland recorded more than 95% fixed VHCN (FTTP & DOCSIS 3.1) coverage, while no region fell below the 35% threshold. Coverage ranged from 48.2% in Chojnicki to 99.6% in Miasto Warszawa.
Miasto Warszawa was the only region that exceeded the 95% threshold in FTTP coverage, while Chojnicki was the only region with less than 35% coverage.
In rural Poland, only six regions fell below the 35% threshold which is a significant improvement to last year. 19 regions exceeded the 65% threshold, up from seven regions in mid-2022. None of the regions exceeded the 95% threshold in rural fixed VHCN (FTTP & DOCSIS 3.1) coverage.
Data tables for Poland
Note: The 2023 figures represent the state of broadband coverage at the end of June 2023. The 2022 (end of June) and 2021 (end of June) figures are drawn from the previous studies conducted by IHS Markit, Omdia, and Point Topic.
All restatements are highlighted in italics.
Taken from The Broadband Coverage in Europe 2023 Report - a study prepared for the European Commission DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology
by OMDIA and Point Topic Ltd.
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