New broadband service arrives in Poland; Eutelstat to go private
United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) announced last week it will launch its high-speed broadband Internet service locally this month through its subsidiary, chello broadband.
The Netherlands-based UPC, which also provides cable and telephony services, said the Internet service will first be introduced in Warsaw and Krakow via UPC Telewizja Kablowa and Wizja TV digital television, its Polish affiliates.
The chello broadband service, which launched last month in Hungary, is in line with UPC's triple-play strategy to provide telephony, Internet and television services through a cable connection.
UPC is also testing a service that would enable Internet access for Wizja TV's satellite subscribers who have computers, said Dorota Zawadzka, head of PR for UPC's Polish operations. "It will be introduced gradually," she said. "It's a challenge for (UPC) since the company specializes in Internet services via cable. It will be a completely different kind of service."
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers's latest "Consumer Technology Survey," carried out in the United States, U.K., France, Germany and Australia, analog telephone lines are still the predominant method for accessing the Internet. In Poland, Telekomunikacja Polska, the national telecommunications operator, only provides Internet access via analog lines. The survey also revealed that only Germany displayed a penchant for speed as 48% of respondents said they accessed the Internet via a broadband connection. In the United States, 85% of respondents said they reached the net through a telephone line.
Eutelsat, a Paris-based satellite operator, will soon transform itself from an association of 48 national telecom operators into a private company. On Nov. 27, the European Commission announced it had approved restructuring plans for the intergovernmental treaty organization, whose signatories and shareholders also act as distributors of Eutelsat services to users or sub-distributors. Under the restructuring, Eutelsat's assets and operational activities will be transferred to a new company incorporated in France on July 2, 2001. Within two and a half years, Eutelsat is expected to go public and float 30% of its shares.
Eutelsat's Polish shareholder Telekomunikacja Polska has a 3.72% stake while other shareholders include Deutsche Telekom (10%), Telecom Italia (20%), British Telecommunications (19.19%) and France Telecom (20%).
Apart from telecom services, Eutelsat broadcasts more than 750 television channels to 81 million homes in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
In Poland, Eutelsat's satellites enable transmission of TV stations Polsat, TV4, Canal+, RTL7, public broadcaster Telewizja Polska and two digital platforms, Cyfra+ and Polsat 2 Cyfrowy.
By the first quarter of 2002, Eutelsat plans to add five satellites to its fleet of 18, which according to the company's press information will allow Eutelsat to consolidate its position in Europe and expand to new markets.
The company's main competitor in Europe is the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES), which has 10 satellites.
According to Krzysztof Surgowt, managing director of Astra Marketing Polska, SES' representative in Poland, Eutelsat has more satellites than SES but isn't likely to threaten SES' leading position on the European broadcasting market.
"If you really want to compare their activities in the broadcasting sector, you need to take into account their prime geostationary orbital locations," Surgowt said. "In (terms of this) we have eight satellites while Eutelsat has four." According to the company's press information, Eutelsat transmits more than 500 television channels and 350 radio programs from Europe's prime geostationary orbital location. On the other hand, in Europe Astra transmits more than 1,000 television and radio channels in analog and digital format as well as multimedia and Internet services to almost 80 million homes. Four additional satellites are under construction and due for launch before mid-2002.
"(Eutelsat's) satellites have different orbital locations (Astra's satellites have two) and in most cases provide transmission of data in the telecommunications sector such as telephony and to a smaller extent are used for direct-to-home (dth) broadcasting," Surgowt said. "And from the very beginning we have been focused on dth satellite services."
Astra's customers in Poland include Wizja TV, owned by UPC, and Catholic station TV Niepokalanow.
