P4, operating as Play
(continued)
According to UKE’s report on the
Polish communications market in 2015, P4 had the largest share in the market
for bundled services in terms of the number of subscribers, with 30% of
subscribers purchasing the service from that operator, up from 10.6% in 2014. Also
according to UKE, P4 ranked third after Orange Polska and Polkomtel in terms of
its share of fixed and wireless Internet subscribers, with a market share of
7.6%, up from 7.0% in 2014.
On January 6th UKE reported 1.75
million users had taken advantage of MNP in 2016 and the company, which had
gained most from the scheme, was Poland’s second largest mobile operator. P4
gained a net 295,241 new users from other networks to reach its market share of
25.8% by subscribers, and 23.6 % in terms of revenues. P4 also made a
meaningful mobile market share gain in terms of subscribers in 2015 compared
with 2014. On January 13th P4 announced that its LTE network, using carrier
aggregation technology, covered 1,378 municipalities with at least 1,000
inhabitants.
On January 17th, local Polish
news-source Telko.in reported informed as saying that P4, which historically
depended on roaming agreements, primarily with T-Mobile Polska (but also with
Orange Polska and Polkomtel), intended to expand its own network coverage with
about 2,000 new locations by 2018/2019. This would give it a similar number of
base stations as Polkomtel and significantly reduce the difficulties of having
to rely on competitive networks.
Polkomtel, operating as Plus
To recap, in January 2014 Reuters
reported that Polish media group and leading national DTH operator Cyfrowy
Polsat, majority controlled by Polish billionaire Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, had
agreed to a PLN6.15 billion ($2.01 billion) share issue to buy mobile provider
Polkomtel in a share-swap based on purchasing a controlling stake in Polkomtel’s
holding company, Metelem, giving the latter’s owners a 45.53% stake in the
enlarged group. The merger of Cyfrowy Polsat with Polkomtel was designed to
significantly help to alleviate the latter’s debt burden. The deal closed in
May 2014. The impact of the deal was described as follows In the Cyfrowy Polsat
annual report for 2014, published in March 2015:
– “By adding
the operator of Plus network to Cyfrowy Polsat Group, it has become the biggest
media and telecom group in the region, servicing 6.1 million contract customers
and providing a total of 16.5 million pay TV, mobile telephony and LTE Internet
services, as well as one of the biggest private Polish enterprises with the
capitalisation of PLN 15 billon… total consolidated revenue of Cyfrowy Polsat
Group in 2014 was PLN 7.4 billion, with EBITDA of PLN 2.7 billion and profit at
PLN 292.5 million”.
According to the UKE report on the
Polish communications market in 2015, Polkomtel:
·
Had a 22.6% subscriber
market share of the Polish mobile services market, but a remarkable 27.9% share
by revenues.
·
Had a 9.2% subscriber
market share of the combined fixed and wireless Internet market, up from 8.8%
in 2014 (Polkomtel has virtually no position in the Polish fixed-line market).
·
Had an almost dominant
position in interconnection revenue, with a market share of 38.5%, more than
half as much again as P4, the second-placed player with a market share of
23.0%.
·
Had an 8.1% subscriber
share in bundled services, up from 6.6% in 2014.
(NB: It should be noted that Cyfrowy
Polsat and other subsidiaries of the company also participate independently in
some of the same markets as Polkomtel.)
Cyfrowy Polsat, which had introduced a 300 Mbit/s mobile data service in the
first half of 2016 based on LTE Plus Advanced aggregation technology, announced
the LTE Plus Advanced network of Group Cyfrowy Polska covered more than 15
million inhabitants (40% of the population), while its standard LTE coverage
was approaching 100% of the population.
On February 2nd Poland’s UOkIK
announced that it was fining Cyfrowy Polsat and Polkomtel a total of over PLN40
million for misleading advertising campaigns concerned with smartDOM and Power
LTE products (both service packages offered by Cyfrowy Polsat and Polkomtel),
all of which focused on the slogan ‘Power LTE – LTE Internet with unlimited
data’. PLN 30.7 million of this will be paid directly by Polkomtel. UOkIK is
also requiring the two companies to publish details of the decision on their
websites and explain it on TV.
On February 14th Cyfrowy Polsat and
Polkomtel/Plus announced a new phase of communication of their smartDOM
strategic bundled services offer, which would include up to nine household
products and services that customers would be able to combine and thus obtain a
significant reduction in their collective annual costs of running a home. Apart
from mobile telephony services offered by Plus, as well as Cyfrowy Polsat’s DTH
, the other options include electricity supply, banking services, insurance
services, security services for homes, as well as the sale of telecommunication
devices, home electronics and household appliances. On March 1st it was
announced that natural gas supply for homes would be added to the program.
(Errata: the reference in
Part 3 to Orange Polska’s 40% share of mobile revenue was meant to refer only
to its revenue from outgoing voice calls. For total mobile revenue, Orange’s
share was given by UKE as 26.7%, 1 point below its previously quoted subscriber
market share of 27.7%.)
Update on the telecom market in Poland – Part 1
Update on the telecom market in Poland,- Part 2
Update on the telecom market in Poland, Part 3