BT eyes up data transmission and internet technology

The British fixed line operator British Telecom (BT) is venturing into the Polish market with the launch of an office in Warsaw. Apart from its general focus on eastern Europe (BT already has offices in Prague and Budapest) the company declined to reveal detailed plans. Unofficial sources claim BT will target data transmission and Voice over Internet Protocol technology in Poland. "This is a reasonable solution. The traditional solutions market is hardly accessible and alternative operators have great difficulty entering it as they have to deal with TP SA. By focusing on data transmission, BT will be able to avoid those difficulties," commented CDM Pekao telecom sector analyst Bob Creamer. It's thought that initially BT will want to target large corporate clients and experts believe they may not want to widen this target market, just like their competitor Energis. The BT group sells their local and long-distance fixed line services to 19 million individual and 1 million corporate clients across Europe. With almost 100,000 employees, BT's sales were $34.1 billion and it posted a net profit of $2.6 billion in 2003. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) D.W.