Hard-line Regulator Shakes Up Broadband In Poland

摘要

Poland's alternative operators look set to finally challenge the dominance of the country's broadband market by incumbent Telekomunikacja Polska (TP), thanks to a slew of tough rules recently introduced by the country's telecoms regulator, UKE. France Telecom-backed TP had 1.5 million DSL subscribers at end-3Q06 (see fig.), accounting for 94% of DSL subscriptions and 70% of the total broadband market. To date, only the cable operators with a market share of 30% have offered any real challenge to the incumbent. Meanwhile, alternative operators' attempts to gain a significant share have been held back by a lack of wholesale DSL from TP and unattractive local loop unbundling (LLU) pricing. This has until now limited leading players Netia and Dialog to offering DSL only over their own copper local loops.