TeliaSonera bids for Polkomtel
Dominant Nordic telco TeliaSonera has confirmed a bid for Polish operator Polkomtel, joining a rumoured ten other operators (including Spain’s Telefonica and Norway’s Telenor) looking to expand into the area.
Orange’s Polish operation, PTK Centertel, and T-Mobile’s PolskaTelefoniaCyfrowa this week signed an agreement to share their radio access networks. The network will be managed by a new joint venture called NetWorkS! owned 50-50 by the two operators and responsible for the management, planning, support, development and maintenance.
Mobile operator Orange has expanded its mobile wallet offering to another market with a commercial offer targeting several thousand users in Poland.
Dominant Nordic telco TeliaSonera has confirmed a bid for Polish operator Polkomtel, joining a rumoured ten other operators (including Spain’s Telefonica and Norway’s Telenor) looking to expand into the area.
Polish mobile operators, Play (P4) and Orange are to form a joint venture dedicated to selling wholesale broadband access. The venture will allow both operators to sell services under a common name, rather than the seperate brands of P4 (Play) and PTK Centertel (Orange). The still to be named organisation will take part in the LTE tender for the provision of wholesale broadband data transmission.
Poland’s telecommunications regulator, the UKE, has begun a tender process for frequencies in the range 2500-2570/2620-2690MHz and 790-862MHz, which will enable operators to deploy LTE. The tender is expected to be carried out in mid-2011.

A lawyer by trade, specialising in Polish and European telecommunications and media law, Anna Strezynska was appointed president of the Polish communications regulatory body in May 2006.
The rolling out of 3G services in the 900MHz spectrum band, traditionally reserved for 2G operations, is making headway. This week, the world’s first HSPA+ commercial network in the 900MHz band launched in Poland.
Mobile operator Orange has struck a deal with dispute resolution tool and fact finding site Wikipedia in a bid to boost mobile data traffic.
Chris Bannister is CEO at Polish carrier Play, which launched into a saturated market two years ago. He talks to telecoms.com about the trials of the small independent and the dirty tricks he believes are being employed by powerful international incumbents.
Netia has switched its WiMAX focus from urban to rural areas as the regulator forces the incumbent to open up its broadband network to competitors.