P4 finally coming?

After nearly two years, Poland might finally get a fourth mobile telephony operator. Project 4 (P4), which won the UMTS tender in spring 2005 and was granted a license in August 2005, has promised to unveil its brand and start activities in the first quarter of this year.

The company has big ambitions. "We don't want to be a niche operator. I'm here to take clients from the main operators," P4 president Chris Bannister declared.

But the plans and the launch of services are being hampered by the lengthy process of obtaining permission to set up transmission towers. "In the summer of 2005 new, very strict environmental regulations were introduced and this has delayed the investment process," explained the president of P4's subsidiary, 3G Network Services, Jacek Grochowina.

By the end of this year P4 wants to have 1,500 towers in place, and at the end of 2008 the number is expected to reach 2,500. The cost of the investment is estimated at EUR 250 (zł.967.6) million. When it launches, the company should have around 100 transmission stations and its services will be available to clients in Warsaw and the Tri-city. By the end of the year, the new operator wants to cover 20 percent of Poland's population, including the country's eight largest cities.