Dead line?

According to experts from the Adam Smith Centre (CAS), the popularity of fixed-line phones in Poland is decreasing fast. A new study from CAS has found that the number of active fixed-line connections in the country has been falling by as much as several hundred thousand per year, amounting to a three- to five-percent annual decrease - a rate much higher than that of Western Europe.

According to Andrzej Piotrowski, a CAS telecom-market expert, the decline of fixed-lines is the result of excessive state subsidizing of GSM operators since 1997. "This was understandable, when such technology was developing, but [GSM] is not a child taking its first steps anymore," he says.

Another problem lies in the pricing system for connections. While the cost of mobile-to-mobile calls are gradually decreasing, the connection fees between stationary and mobile phones remain high enough to discourage users of fixed lines. A solution to this might be the promotion of so-called fixed cellular terminal (FCT) devices, which, when connected to a stationary phone, cut the price of a connection between a stationary and a mobile phone by up to four times.

"Massive implementation of [FCT] is a short-term solution," says Marek Dietl, an expert in economics from the Sobieski Institute. "A fixed-line connection does not offer people anything special anymore," he argues, adding that Poland should move even closer towards mobile- and internet-phone technology.

Piotrowski cautions that fixed lines still have uses which will keep them around for some time yet. "Fixed-line connections are still very useful," he says. "They provide, and will provide, a range of other services apart from telephony -  the internet, for example."