Broadband Internet access in Poland is provided through fixed-line and wireless networks. The market’s relatively low saturation and strong growth potential make it an attractive area for operators. In addition, mobile data transfer is the fastest-growing segment of the telecommunications market. As the number of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets increases, wireless Internet services are becoming increasingly popular.
Given that the report of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) on the telecommunications market is usually published in the second half of the subsequent year, the data presented below is from 2011.
According to the data published by the UKE (’Report on the condition of the Polish telecommunications market in 2011’, June 2012), 74.4% of Polish households had access to broadband Internet. The penetration rate was 26% per 100 inhabitants. Nearly 6.7m Polish residents had access to fixed-line Internet and over 3.3m used mobile Internet services. One million new Internet users were recorded, of which more than half had subscribed to mobile services. According to the data presented by the European Commission in the ’Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2011’, Poland was 9th in the EU in terms of mobile Internet penetration per 100 inhabitants, with a rate of 8.3%, 0.2 ppt above the EU average of 8.1%. As regards fixed-line broadband Internet access, the penetration rate for this service was 17.3%, 10.4 ppt below the EU average of 27.7%.
According to the Office of Electronic Communications, the mobile Internet access market in 2011 was still dominated by the four MNOs (jointly controlling 95.6% of the customer base). However, other operators recorded a considerable increase in competitiveness, with a nearly four-fold growth of their market share (including mainly the share of Cyfrowy Polsat).
Operators’ share of the total number of users of 2G/3G modems
Growth forecasts for the broadband Internet access market (by number of subscribers) in 2012–2016 (in thousands)
According to PMR’s estimates, the number of mobile broadband Internet users will increase at a faster rate than the number of fixed-line users in the coming four years. The expected growth is 11.5% and 3.1% (CAGR), respectively.
