Communication (Polish market)

Main article: Economy of Poland

2023: 5G frequencies sold at auction for $449.54 million

On October 18, 2023, the Office of Electronic Communications of Poland announced the completion of an auction for the sale of frequencies for 5G cellular networks. The state budget will receive a total of more than 1.9 billion zlotys (approximately $449.54 million at the exchange rate as of October 19, 2023).

As part of the auction, four 100 MHz bands were sold in the range of 3400-3800 MHz. It is noted that for telecom operators, obtaining frequencies means the possibility of further stable development of network services. In addition, telecommunications companies will be able to increase the capacity of their channels, which is important in the context of growing consumption of mobile traffic.

Almost half a billion dollars went to the Polish budget at the end of the auction

New services based on 5G will allow market participants to increase revenue, and therefore receive funds for infrastructure modernization. In particular, it is expected that until 2030, operators will provide a throughput of at least 95 Mbps for 99% of households, as well as cover 95% of the main road and railway routes and 90% of Poland with mobile communications.

As a result of the auction, the A frequency block (3400-3500 MHz) went to Polkomtel, which will pay 450 million zlotys (approximately $106.47 million) for the resource. Bands B (3500-3600 MHz) and C (3600-3700 MHz) worth 487.095 million zlotys ($115.25 million) each were purchased by operators P4 and Orange, respectively. Block D (3700-3800 MHz) was bought by T-Mobile for 496.837 million zlotys (about $117.55 million). The regulator will finally approve the results of trading in early December 2023. But operators can already start deploying networks at the specified frequencies. In the long term, this is expected to lead to a significant improvement in the quality of data services, as well as an expansion in the set of services provided to subscribers.^[1]

2018: Internet penetration rate 73%

2018

2016: 2.1% growth despite strong competition and market saturation

On December 28, 2016, analysts at PMR Research released brief results of a study of Polish telecom. Its volume in 2016 increased by 2.1%.

According to PMR estimates, in 2015 sales of telecommunications services (mobile and fixed communications, broadband Internet access and pay TV) in Poland amounted to 41.5 billion Polish zlotys ($9.8 billion), an increase of 0.6% compared to 2014. In 2016, the figure reached 42.3 billion Polish zlotys (almost $10 billion), according to preliminary data from experts.

Dynamics of changes in the Polish telecommunications services market between 2014 and 2017, PMR data

Despite the weak rise, experts consider it a positive result, given the high level of saturation of demand in the industry and fierce competition.

Analysts consider the main events in the Polish telecom in 2016 to be the acquisition of Multimedia Polska by UPC Polska, the introduction of requirements for the registration of prepaid SIM-cards and the issuance of permits to receive 800 and 2600 MHz frequencies to the winners of the corresponding auction.

Dynamics of changes in the number of subscribers of telecommunication services in Poland from 2014 to 2017, PMR data

In 2015, the number of subscribers of telecommunications services in Poland increased by 3% compared to the previous year and reached 82.2 million. In 2016 and 2017, a decrease of 3.8% and 7.4% is expected, respectively, largely due to the requirements for registration of prepaid SIM-cards and the determination of the real number of customers of mobile operators. Cellular companies decided to liquidate inactive contracts, which also affected the improvement in the performance of the telecommunications industry in terms of revenue.

Researchers expect that in 2017 the volume of the Polish telecommunications market will rise by 1.1%, and in the period from 2016 to 2021, the average growth dynamics will be lower than in 2017.

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