Gearing up for Wi-Fi

By Maria Kowalewska

Mobile operators Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa and Polkomtel are gearing up to offer wireless fidelity service, after rival PTK Centertel along with IT firms IBM and Intel launched the country's first Wi-Fi hot spot at Warsaw's Novotel Airport hotel.

Tomasz Dzideczek, technical consultant at IBM's integrated technology services department, said that his company was in the middle of advanced negotiations with the two other mobile companies to launch Wi-Fi service.

Wi-Fi hot spots deliver wireless radio wave-based access to the Internet, e-mail and other web-based applications in public places, via laptops and palmtops. The service is increasingly available worldwide, particularly in airports and hotels. Experts believe that the country is quickly catching up with western Europe in terms of introducing and implementing Wi-Fi.

"It is a normal practice for operators to try to keep up-to-date with the latest innovations," said Michał Buczyński, an equities analyst at Millennium brokerage house. "There is an element of marketing, but you never know which technology could end up being popular."

The Wi-Fi initiative here is similar to ones in other European countries and the United States, but is only in its introductory stage. Elsewhere in Europe the technology has already been taken to a new level and attempts have been made to introduce its use in homes. Last February, France Telecom unveiled plans for its Wi-Fi broadband initiative, which aims to make broadband Internet access available in rural communities. A trial service by Altitude Telecom is set to begin in May 2003 in a farming area near Le Mans, France.

In the first local Wi-Fi hot-spot undertaking, Centertel contributed the connections, while IBM and Intel supplied the entire infrastructure. Since the service is implemented inside buildings, it does not require permission from the Office of Telecommunication and Post Regulation, the telecom regulator. Therefore, Dzideczek of IBM believes Wi-Fi's popularity in the country is only a matter of time.

"The technology is already in a way popular, and the hardware is selling as well," he said.

Some analysts, however, believe that Centertel's new product is a niche offer, while others say it is simply a publicity tactic.

"From my conversations with (Centertel) representatives, it did not seem that this was supposed to be a significant segment of their operations," said Anna Hess, an analyst at CDM Pekao.

Bob Creamer, telecoms analyst at Raiffeisen Capital and Investment Polska, believes that the country can hardly provide a testing ground for Wi-Fi services.

"No one is clear whether they want to invest in this technology, and Poland is definitely not a test market for Wi-Fi," he said. "This is publicity for (Centertel) at a cheap cost since there is no demand (here) for the technology. And even now there are very few laptops with this technology. It will be two years before we know whether it will be a commercial success."

It is estimated there are around 1,150 hot spots across Europe, 65 of which are in the United Kingdom, while 57 are in Estonia alone. Tech research firm IDC predicts that there will be 118,000 Wi-Fi hot spots available worldwide.

Aleksander Nowacki contributed to this article.