New legislation could enable URT to influence TPSA as dominant operator

Today, a long-awaited Telecom Ministry regulation comes into effect, which could enable designation of Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TPSA), Poland's leading telecom operator, as the dominant player on the market. Thus the Telecommunications Regulatory Office (URT) will be able to exert influence, at its discretion, on TPSA's pricing policy. Ever since the Telecommunication Law came into effect on January 1, the status of TPSA has been the same as any other Polish telecom operator and the company could not be controlled by URT. The new regulation establishes special criteria for fixing operators' market shares. The key criterion will thus be the total revenue from general telecom services, while a supplementary ones will be the number of connections, terminals or subscribers, and total billing hours. Today, the URT Chairman will send a request to all operators asking them to provide, within 7 days, the details on their market position. After the information has been analyzed by both URT and the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), the chairman will issue its determination of the dominant operator. (Rzeczpospolita, B3 ) M. S.-C.