TELECOMMUNICATION

POLKOMTEL – leading telecommunication operator in Poland

  • Polkomtel Sp. z o.o. is the leading telecommunication opertor in Poland who provides its services under the Plus brand. The company is the leader of LTE technology and relies on the most advanced telecommunication solutions while developint services for its customers:
  • Our residential contract offer is standardized and includes a variety of contract plans. Currently, it is available in the postpaid and prepaid model as well as in the mix offer (a combination of a prepaid and postpaid offer)
  • Contracts are concluded for a fixed term - typically 24 months.
  • Contract plans give customers the possibility to choose from a broad selection of handsets offered in the installment plan model. Customers can also select a tariff without a handset. The subscription fees range from PLN 29.99 to PLN 119.99.
  • Business customers are mainly offered contract solutions, often on the basis of solicited tenders for their mobile requirements on a competitive basis. We also offer fixed telephony services, LAN (local area network)/WAN (wide area network) solutions, mobile broadband Internet access, SMS Center services and other dedicated solutions. Business contracts specify the tariff, contract duration and the value of the monthly subscription fee. The contract may provide for a subsidized handset that can be chosen from a broad selection of available models.
  • Business mobile voice services for SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) customers are more standardized. The offering comprises several monthly subscription fee options, taking into account the specific preferences of this segment. Small Office/Home Office contracts have a fixed term, which is usually 24 months.
  • We provide international roaming services to our individual customers, who can use telecommunications services while being abroad and logged on to foreign networks. Vodafone is Polkomtel's key partner in retail international roaming.
  • Plus offers a wide array of state-of-the-art handsets and smartphones from such leading manufacturers as: Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Sony, LG but our offer also includes low and mid-end handsets of smaller manufacturers. The share of traditional handsets remains in a declining trend and amounts to several percent of total sales. Handsets are sold in two sales models: the subsidized model and the installment plan model (with or without an initial fee).
  • In 2016, smartphones constituted over 90% of handsets sold by us. As a result, at the end of 2016, the penetration of our voice customer base with smartphones reached 63% and continued to grow successively.

Mobile telephony market in Poland

The Polish mobile telephony market is a mature one. Based on data published by the Central Statistical Office of Poland (GUS), the number of mobile telephony SIM cards as at December 31, 2016 reached 54.7 million, which translates into a penetration rate of the population of Poland of 142%.

Over the past two years, the reported rate of penetration with SIM cards in Poland has decreased considerably (from the level of 153% according to the data of the Central Statistical Office of Poland (GUS) as of September 31, 2015), which should be explained by treating the number of reported SIM cards in a more realistic way, corresponding to the actual use of such cards by Polish customers and which was a result of the change of policy of reporting SIM cards introduced by one of the big mobile operators at the end of 2015 as well as the new regulatory restrictions introduced in 2016 related to the sale of new SIM cards in the prepaid model.

According to the UKE data, published in the “Report on the telecommunications market in Poland in 2015” (hereinafter “UKE report”):

  • The total value of mobile telephony market in Poland, estimated at PLN 39.5 billion, has increased for the first time in a few years;
  • In 2015 81% of revenue from mobile services was generated by postpaid service customers;
  • At the same time, however, prepaid cards accounted for as much as 41% of the SIM cards reported by Polish mobile operators at the end of 2016, which in our opinion proves that the size of prepaid bases reported by the operators was still being distorted by including, in the reported statistics, the cards which generate neither real traffic, nor revenues.

It is worth mentioning, that the Polsat Group very early decided to report only active cards which actually generated any traffic during the previous 90 days, arguing that this method of reporting improves transparency and credibility of published data. As of the date of preparation of this Report, however, reporting of prepaid SIM cards based on actively used cards has not become a generally applied practice on the Polish market.

PMR expects that, after the corrections introduced in the years 2015–2017, making the volume of SIM cards on the market more realistic, the number of reported SIM cards used in Poland will return to the growth path at the pace of 2.2% per annum (CAGR 2017-2021). In the opinion of PMR, the growth will continue to be generated by the mobile Internet segment, machine-to-machine cards and business segment.

Four Biggest Operators

Polish mobile telephony market is relatively polarized and highly competitive. Four leading infrastructural operators operate on the Polish market. Based on UKE (Office of Electronic Communications) data, 99.4% of total revenues generated on Polish mobile market in 2015 can be attributed to Polkomtel, Orange, T-Mobile Polska and P4. The remaing part of the revenue was generated by MVNO’s and other MNO’s.

  • Polkomtel (Plus network) – 25.8% market share; it operates under Plus umbrella brand and also owns an alternative brand called Plush. On May 7, 2014 Polkomtel was incorporated into Polsat Group.
  • Orange Polska (Orange network) – 287% market share; it operates under Orange umbrella brand and also has an alternative brand called nju.mobile. As of December 31, 2016 Orange reported ca. 16.0 million SIM cards. Apart from the operations on the mobile market, Orange Polska is also the leading Polish fixed-line telephony operator, currently focusing its strategy on the development of broadband access services based on the fiber optic infrastructure, also delivered to residential customers.
  • T-Mobile Polska (T-Mobile network) – 20.1% market share; it operates under T-Mobile umbrella brand and also uses additional brands such as Heyah, Blueconnect and Tu Biedronka. As of December 31, 2016, T-Mobile reported 10.6 million SIM cards. T-Mobile is currently providing fixed-line telephony services addressed to business customers based on the infrastructure of GTS Poland which it acquired in 2014.
  • P4 (Play network) – 25.4% market share. P4  operates under Play umbrella brand, and also has additional brands Red Bull Mobile and Fakt Mobile. As of December 31, 2016, P4 reported 14.4 million SIM cards. P4 operates solely on the mobile services market, supporting itself with a wholesale purchase of access to mobile networks of its competitors.

In addition there are 20 MVNO’s on the market but their share, both in terms of revenue and customer base, is relatively low (3.2% in terms of numer of users in 2015 according to a report published by UKE).

Five mobile network operators (MNO) operate commercially in Poland. The operators have their own radio spectrum and technical infrastructure which enables them to provide mobile services on their own. They include: Polkomtel, Orange, T-Mobile, P4 and Aero2 Group. Both, Polkomtel and Aero2 Group are currently part of the Polsat Group.

Aero2 Group operates on the wholesale market through Aero2 and Sferia, providing wholesale access to its network mainly to Polsat Group. At the same time, Aero2 operates on the residential market, where, in line with its license obligations, it offers free-of-charge broadband Internet access and provides residential services in the prepaid model based on “wRodzinie” and “a2mobile” brands, while Sferia provides telecommunication services to residential users based on its “Sferia” brand. As of February 29, 2016, both Aero2 and Sferia are part of Polsat Group.