Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – TP telecom will lose while Tele2 will get most thanks to recent decision of the Electronic Communication Authorities UKE liberalizing the telecommunication market in Poland.
UKE has issued recently many decisions which should free the telecommunication market. According to the regulator, the Poles will save PLN 3-4 billion (EUR 759-1,092m) thanks to the changes. The decisions of UKE force TP to lower the fees. The changes may adversely affect the results of the former monopoly telecom in the second half of the year.
“The biggest problem of TP consist not in the new regulations but in how fast they are implemented and TP’s inability to reduce costs so quickly”, Michal Marczak, DI BRE Bank analyst commented.
TP accuses the regulator for discrimination.
“UKE is trying to enlarge its competences beyond the law. Its CEO comments EBITDA margin in TP and suggests that it should be lower. This is a very worrying signal that a state entity wants to influence the results of a listed company”, Marek Jozefiak, TP CEO said.
“In every segment of the market where TP managed to be a monopoly for 15 years, and there are lots of them, their margin is a monopoly one”, Anna Strezynska, UKE CEO reposted. Tele2 is the operator who will win most thanks to UKE decisions. The operator estimates that the decision allowing it to serve subscription services will enable it to double sales within two years. This year, however, the company will fight for new clients and may have a net loss again.
“Tele2 will get most thanks to the liberalization because its best prepared for the process”, Janusz Arciszewski, Aster City CEO believed.
Netia telecom, however, believes, that regulator’s decisions will adversely affect its results. (PLN 1 = EUR 0.25 3)