Netia puts its merger with El-Net on hold

The reason for delaying the merger are the ongoing negotiations with TP. "The postponement of the consolidation of the companies is a tactical move. This relates to negotiations of contracts between operators. The management can renew the motion some other time," said Netia's spokeswoman Jolanta Ciesielska. Both Netia and El-Net have currently the most beneficial contracts with the leading domestic operator TP concerning voice transfer. Netia has a bill & keep contract with TP, on the basis of which both operators exchange local voice traffic without charging each other. Meanwhile El-Net has a deal with TP according to which the operators pay each other 50% of the subscription costs if a call is made between their subscribers. The issue is that El-Net lets all the traffic go through Netia, which has a much better deal with the telecom. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 6) A.K.