Energis signs $51 million deal for Ericsson networking

Energis Polska, formerly NG Koleje Telekomunikacja, has signed a $51 million contract with Sweden's Ericsson for supply of voice and data transmission equipment. The venture marks the first phase of the $300 million investment pledged by Energis over a two-year period. The contract envisages the expansion of Polish State Railways' (PKP) fiber-optic network and other domestic broadband networks. According to Energis president George Zbigniew Makowski, the new technology from Ericsson will substantially enhance the transmission capacity of the PKP network, currently at 20 gigabits of data per second. "We are confident that the enhanced service will be available to the first clients as early as the first quarter of next year", added Markowski. Ericsson will administer the service for 12 months; thereafter, a group of Ericsson employees will be transferred and start running the system. Energis is a joint venture of Britain's National Grid and its telecom arm Energis with Poland's PTO Centrala telecom operator and PKP. (Rzeczpospolita, p.B4). S.M.