Update April 2000: Poland

1. Telecom Operators

1.1 In January 2000, the government announced a new tender for the strategic foreign investor for the privatisation of Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. On the short list are two foreign telecom operators, France Telecom and Telecom Italia, which are currently undergoing due diligence investigation. It is expected that the new strategic investor will be announced during the first half of 2000. By 2001 the strategic investor will be able to increase its shares in TPSA to over 50%.

1.2 On March 15, 2000 Netia was awarded a license to provide voice telecommunications in Warsaw. From April 2000 dial-up Internet services will be launched by Internetia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Netia Holding. There will be seven Internet access points, including Warsaw, Torun, Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Lublin and Katowice. To access the Internet, Internetia’s clients will only have to pay local call charges.

2. Governmental organisations

2.1 The new Minister of Posts and Telecommunications is Mr Tomasz Szyszko. Minister Szyszko is 40 years old. He was recommended by his parliamentary party, ZCHN. Minister Szyszko has declared the continued liberalisation of the telecommunications sector and the acceleration of new regulations in the sector.

2.2 The Parliamentary representative Ms Grazyna Staniszewska becomes the President of the Interkl@sa Programme Board. The Programme was presented during "Komputer Expo 2000" in Warsaw, which was organised under the auspices of several key persons of the Polish government, namely President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski; Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz; Marek Biernacki, Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration; Prof. Miroslaw Handke, Minister of Education; Janusz Steinhoff, Minister of Economy; Prof. Andrzej Wiszniewski, chairman of the State Committee for Scientific Research; and Ms Grazyna Staniszewska, President of the Parliamentary Commission for Education, Science and Youth. Mr Waclaw Iszkowski, President of Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications (PIIT) <http://www.piit>, represented NGOs.

3. Associations

3.1 A Meeting for the members of PIIT was conducted on 24 January 2000 in Warsaw.

3.2 After formal registration, the Polish Information Society Forum (SPIN) conducted its first meeting on 10 January 2000 in Warsaw. Mr Jozef Orzel was elected the president.

4. IT Companies

At the beginning of the year 2000 several rankings on telecommunications companies were published:

4.1 TELEINFO 1000 Raport, a 2-volume directory of the Polish tele-computer market, lists 1000 biggest IT companies in alphabetical order. This directory includes full address, legal status, key persons, date of founding, number of employees, sector and profile, services, short description of activities, and target clients. Some companies also include general financial data. In addition, there is an alphabetical index of company names with telephone numbers.

4.2 Another ranking is the list of 100, which consists of the "tycoons" of the Polish computer and telecommunications business. The list was published in TELEINFO 4/2000 on January 24. On the top of the list is Ryszard Krauze, president of the Prokom Software S.A., followed by Boguslaw Ciupal, the founder of Tele-Fonika s.c. and the winner of the 1999 ranking. Included also in the top twenty are presidents and owners of ComArch SS.A. Optimus S.A., Techmex S.A., 2SI S.A., ABC Data Ltd, Liberty Poland S.A., Grupa TCH, Apexim S.A., FF Computers Ltd, Computerland S.A., Lumena Ltd, Baza Ltd, MSCI Ltd, Hector S.A., Net-Technology S.A., and Invar Group.

4.3 The first Polish Internet Television started in January 2000. It is a new form of interactive communication. MEGA program is the first product in the Internet TV to offer entertainment, news and educational information for young people. The Internet TV will also present programs such as INTERTOK, multimedia debating club; CASTING TV, presentation of young people; and SZOK NET, information service on drastic and thrilling events.

5. Competitions and awards

5.1 During the "Komputer Expo 2000" Fair in Warsaw, awards were presented to the following winners at the Gala on January 25:

• "Salesman, Reckoner and Inspector" system in the category of "Computer software for business";
• Lex Polonica database in the category of "Computer software for individual users";
• Novell NetWare system (v. 5.1) in the category of "Computer network hardware and software";
• computer "Adax Gamma siedem 800" in the category of "Computer hardware for business";
• digital camera Casio QV-2000 UX/lr in the category of "Computer hardware for individual users";
• digital Document Centre Color Series 50 in the category of "New technologies".

In addition, TCH Systems company took the prize for the permanent introduction of a new product every year. The President of the Polish Chamber of Commerce awarded Internet Banking System, a product of Comp Rzeszow S.A., a prize in the category of "Polish Product".

5.2 Twenty-five products contest for the Golden Medal of INTERTELECOM, a contest which accompanied the INTERTELECOM 2000 Fair. In the Gala on March 14, the following winners were announced:

• ERICSSON company for MINI-LINK BAS broadband wireless access system;
• POLKOMTEL for the service program for deaf and partly deaf clients;
• ZWUT S.A. for the HiNet VS 1600 converging network server.

During the Gala ELEKTRIM KABLE received the Cup for the best Polish product for its optic telecommunications cable.