ESIS extension / Poland / Regulatory Developments / Update Memo 6

The following report outlines new developments in the past three months and the state of on-going developments.

During this quarter, the main regulatory developments are connected with the expected call for tender for UPMS and with the new initiatives by the Polish Parliament related to Information Society.

During the last quarter, there is an acceleration of regulatory initiatives, both governmental and parliamentary, concerning IS development in Poland. The Polish law will be compatible with EU directives and standards before year 2002.

Key measures	Objective	Date
Law on Telecommunications	Main principles regulating the telecommunications sector harmonised with European Communities Laws	21 July 2000
Law on Posts and Telecommunications as amended in 1995	Main principles regulating the telecommunications sector	23 Nov 1990 11 May 1995
Decree on the Conditions of Provision of Public Network Services	General conditions of telecommunications services provision	8 Feb. 1996
Decree on the Quality of Services	Quality of service	9 April 1997
Decree on Interconnection	Regulation of interconnection conditions	26 Oct. 1995

The President of Poland has signed the new Telecommunications Law, which is fully harmonised with aquis communautaire provisions and provides for full liberalisation of the telecom market in Poland.

The Telecommunications Law is enacted on 21 July 2000 and will be effective starting from 1 January 2001.

The resolution of the Polish Parliament on Building Basis for Information Society in Poland was passed on July 14, 2000. The resolution underlines the necessity of national strategy for Information Society in Poland to be presented by the Polish Government until the end of September 2000. It includes the following issues:

The Polish Parliament requires the Polish Government to prepare urgently regulations concerning e-economy development including electronic signature, electronic document, information safety, cryptography, consumer protection, information protection, any matters related to e-business.

The initiative of resolution has been undertaken by Inter-sector Launch Team, including Members of the Polish Parliament representing different political options.

The most advanced in information technologies applications is banking and telecommunication sector now. Six banks in Poland offer Internet banking services to individual clients. There is a very low percentage of IS applications in the insurance sector.

Some public sector projects are still non-operational or incomplete. Due to budget limitation, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration cannot extend and accelerate these projects in the near future.

The new tariffs of TPSA, although lower local calls prices, are still unacceptable. The Ministry of Telecommunications asked the Office to protect economic competition. It also assessed the monopolistic position of TPSA.

The leadership of two portals, Onet and Wirtualna Polska, is stable. There is difference between rankings among other top Polish portals. Such difference depends on evaluation criteria. Some portal owners will sell them to other investors after initial stage. The number of Polish portals is growing. It is, however, estimated that only 3 to 5 portals in Poland will be successful.

Some banks in Poland are launching Internet services. Account holders can check their accounts, make transfers, etc. There are differences regarding both internet services offered and methodology used in security systems.

Wirtualna Polska provides at wap.wp.pl news from various aspects of daily life in Poland, including regional information, entertainment and sport. It contains train and flight timetable, exchange rates etc. Companies and individuals can create their own WAP pages. A search engine for WAP Internet pages and e-mail service is accessible as well. The scope of services is still growing. The next step is Mobile Positioning System MPS.

The investment necessary for the development of the new PIONIER computer infrastructure based on optical network project for research community in Poland for 2001-2005 is estimated at 180 million Euro. All regional computer centres in Poland will be connected with broadband optical network.

At present, there are 5 000 internet classes at Polish schools. The process of establishing new ones, especially in remote rural areas, will be continued.

The monitoring system of heavy traffic in Warsaw is in experimental phase now. It will be possible to check, in the WWW or WAP service, the current situation on streets and roads in Warsaw area.

The new portal clinica.pl is the further step in consolidation of the Polish pharmaceutical and medical sector. It is developed by Computerland S.A. and Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna PGF. The level of investment will be 6 million Euro. E-commerce, information service and specialised software will be offered.

The new weekly "Puls Medycyny" published by Medicine Today will start in October 2000. It will cooperate with Pharmanet portal.

There are still technical and organisational obstacles concerning the computerisation of Social Security Administration (ZUS) by Prokom Software S.A.

A local telephony licence for the Warsaw area was granted to Elnet. After that grant, the duopoly in the local voice licences in each region has been reached. Additional licence was later issued to Netia. Elnet (Elektrim) complained about such issuance. In the end, the Ministry of Telecommunications lowered the Elnet’s license fee to the amount Netia was required to pay.

Access for all is a subject of the resolution on Information Society in Poland undertaken by the Polish Parliament. (See: 2.2) Telephone density in rural areas is 14,9%, which is almost a half of the density in urbanised areas.

The new Copyright Law was enacted on 9 June 2000.The Law is harmonised with aquis communautaire provisions.

There are two parliamentary initiatives related to public access to data. The first is the Act on Access to Public Information, which was submitted on 30 June 2000. The second is the Act on Decision Procedures, Openness, Lobbying and Public Access to Information, which was registered on 25 July 2000. The first reading was taken on 15 September 2000. Both projects are currently being discussed in the Parliamentary Commission. As to the new environmental law, the issue of public access to environmental information is one of the crucial elements.

Guarantee for privacy of an enterprise, which is proposed in the project on the public information law, may be an obstacle to public access to information. In the future it could cause limitations of data access.

The inter-sector Launch Team for electronic commerce headed by V-Minister of Economy Wojciech Katner has developed the act on electronic signature. Technical and organisational measures were accepted by the Polish government on 11 July 2000. The Act on Electronic Signature will be prepared and sent to Parliament before the end of year 2000 and should be effective by the second half of 2001.

128-bit code is used during Internet banking transactions. In Pekao S.A., Lukas bank and WBK, token methodology is adopted. Pekao S.A., Fortis Bank and BPH offer safe electronic correspondence to their clients.

2.17. Freedom of expression and information as far as the distribution via electronic networks is concerned

Ministries who will be mainly involved in the preparation of Information Society related acts are:

Ministry of Telecommunications; Ministry of Economy; and State Committee for Scientific Research (Ministry of Science)

The Council for Electronic Banking affiliated to Polish Banks Association will provide electronic access to any bank in Poland for clients.

The State Committee for Scientific Research is responsible for RTD policy in Poland.

Chambers of Commerce and Associations have statutory obligation to promote IS in Poland. During Hannover EXPO, the Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications in Poland promote 6 computer companies, 9 telecommunication operators and 6 telecommunication hardware providers. Promotion materials are presented on tele-beams near the Polish pavilion.

5. Market: Privatisation, foreign investment, mergers, acquisitions, call for tenders

Prokom Software S.A. is planing to merge with Softbank S.A. It will be the biggest integration of IT companies in the Central and Eastern Europe.

Elektrim S.A. has made an acquisition in the Internet sector by buying 55% of the shares of Poland.com portal of MCI Management in Wroclaw city for over 16 million Euro. This is the biggest investment in an Internet company in Poland. After this transaction, the ownership of Poland.com will be as follows: Elektrim - 55%, MCI Management - 30,6%, vogel Publishing - 13,9%.

Elektrim Online division of Elektrim Group EL is the owner of Easy Net e-commerce company. It is currently planning to acquire Access.com. All these companies will be dedicated to retailed clients. Elektrim OnLine will create or buy several vortals for SMEs, financial portal and clearing services.

There are two new incubators for IT start-ups: (1) Informix and ZETO Szczecin and (2) Hewlett Packard Polska (HP Garaz).

Poland is the first country in Central Europe to grant licences for service provision in the UMTS standard. Consortia with an involvement of a global or pan-European mobile operator will be preferred.

The tender for five UMTS licences will entitle the license owner to provide telecommunications services over a third generation mobile network in the territory of the Republic of Poland, in accordance with the European UMTS telecommunications standard. "3^rd Generation Mobile System Release 1999 Specifications" will be the basis for determining the technical specifications of the network issues.

The Licences will be valid for 15 years. An UMTS Licence will contain an authorisation to install and operate a telecommunications network and an assignment of radio frequency spectrum in the 2 GHz band. The assignment of radio frequency under an UMTS Licence shall cover 20 MHz of frequency in the paired frequency spectrum (10 MHz in each of the following frequency bands: 1920-1980 MHz, 2110-2170 MHz) and 5 MHz in the unpaired frequency spectrum (1900-1920 MHz, 2010-2025 MHz). By 1 November 2001, the necessary numbering ranges from the resources of the National Numbering Plan for the Public Telephone Network of the Republic of Poland (PNK – TF 2000) will be transferred to the UMTS Operators.

A licence fee for granting an UMTS Licence shall be composed of a basic fee and an additional fee. The basic fee will be an equivalent in Polish Zlotys of EURO 750,000. Planned payment of licence fees is 50% in the first instalment on 1 March 2001 and 10% per year from 2006 up to 2010.

GMS Operators wishing to participate in the UMTS Tendering Process will be obliged to submit, as a necessary element of their tenders, an application for an amendment of their GMS licences, inserting an obligation to provide roaming services to UMTS Operators that do not hold a GMS licence. UMTS Operators not holding GMS licences will be entitled to roaming between their UMTS networks from the day of the commencement of their UMTS network’s operation up to 31 December 2009. UMTS Operators holding a GMS Licence will not be entitled to roaming between their UMTS networks.

The launching of UMTS network operation by individual UMTS operators should take place between 1 January 2002 and 31 March 2002.

The evaluation of tenders will be carried out in three stages. An invitation to tender is planned on October 2, 2000. The deadline for submission of tenders is November 6. On November 29 results will be announced by the Minister of Communications. The licences will be issued by the end of December 2000.

Every future UMTS operator should guarantee for data transmission, with transmission capacity above 144 kb/s, coverage of 20% of the country population by the end of 2003, 40% by the end of 2005 and 60% by the end of 2009. For voice transmission, 25% of the country population by the end of 2003, 60% by the end of 2005, and 80% by the end of 2009. (Source: Min. of Telecommunications).

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.