British Telecommunications ventures into CEE via Poland

British Telecommunications (BT) opened its office in Warsaw, which is eventually to become its marketing center for the Central and Eastern Europe region. BT's offer in Poland will include a variety of services including application management and call center servicing. BT is already operating HP's call center in Poland. "We are entering this market for the same reasons as other foreign companies: the first are low costs and the second is fast economic growth. Our ambition is to penetrate the Polish market more deeply," said Aad van Waveren, vice-president of BT Global Services. Aside from servicing corporate clients, BT is also interested in government tenders for providing e-government platforms. According to IDC, the value of the Polish telecoms market exceeded $8.14 billion in 2003. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 21; Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) T.J.