Telecom services for business account for PLN 18bn in Poland

Telecommunications services for companies and other operators (wholesale market) are an important element in the structure of revenues in the telecommunications industry in Poland. By the most recent measurement, the revenues generated by telecom services rendered to business customers amounted to approx. PLN 18bn in 2011, which represented 45% of the total value of the telecommunications services market in the country.

In 2011, the total value of business and operator services was at the level of almost PLN 18bn. Compared to 2010, the market shrank by a little over 2%. The drop in the general value of the market was mainly due to the decreased value of its largest revenue segment – wholesale services. Conversely, the relatively fastest growing segment was data transmission.

Over the last four years, the share of the business and carrier segment in the total value of the telecommunications services market in Poland has dropped by 5 p.p. to some 45%. The main reason behind the decrease was the legal and regulatory changes on the market aimed at lowering termination rates in mobile networks, which in turn negatively influences and erodes the abovementioned revenues on the wholesale market.

According to PMR research, the market of telecom services for business is very diverse in terms of the number of providers. Depending on the segment, the number of active businesses ranges from a dozen to over a thousand. The relatively most polarised market is wholesale line rental, where the activity is conditioned by appropriate network resources. On the other extreme is the market of internet access, where – according to UKE – in 2010 there were close to 1,400 players with even minimal revenues. On the list, apart from locally active telecom micro-operators, there are also businesses from other industries, for which telecommunication services are not a basic activity.
The telecommunications industry expects a rise in the outlays of enterprises on telecom services in 2012. Three-quarters of companies predict increased spending on data transfer and hosting, while one in four believe the spending will be high. Forecasts for mobile telephony appear more moderate than for services connected directly with the internet, although close to 40% of respondents expect outlays on mobile services to increase, 45% believe they are going to remain at the same level and only one in five (17%) think that enterprises will reduce their spending on such services.

The situation of fixed-line services is the least optimistic. More than a half of telecom businesses expect the level of outlays to drop in Polish enterprises and one in ten that the decrease will be substantial. Only one in twenty respondents thinks that spending on fixed lines is likely to grow. Other respondents (39%) are of the opinion that the outlays will remain on the current level.
The opinions are in line with the overall trend on the market of fixed voice services. According to PMR data, in 2011 the value of fixed telephony services for the business segment in Poland, excluding revenues from wholesale, reached PLN 2.2bn. Compared to the year before this was a decline of 9%. As on the market of fixed telephony in general, also in the business segment we can observe a yearly decrease in the value of the market. Just like on the mass market it is a consequence of a trend of fixed-line to mobile telephony substitution. It is worth noting that since 2007 the number of lines in the business segment has been systematically shrinking. “According to our estimates, over the last four years the number of fixed lines registered by companies decreased by around half a million. On the other hand, when analysing the market of fixed-line voice services more comprehensively, one should not forget about IP telephony. The growth of VoIP lines in the business segment in 2007-2011 has at least in part protected the market from further erosion in the number of subscribers” – concludes Pawel Olszynka, a PMR analyst.

This press release is based on information included in the PMR report “Telecommunications services for business and carrier segment in Poland 2011. Market analysis and development forecasts for 2011-2015”.

For more information on the report please contact:
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This release was published on openPR.