Planned KGT has many hurdles to cross to become viable

The Cabinet will soon work on draft proposals on creating the Krajowa Grupa Telekomunikcyjna (KGT) telecom holding, which could be registered as early as later this month. The Infrastructure Ministry claims that creating the group will only make sense if fixed-line operators join it. "It is comparatively easy to create schemes for such a group. However, it will be hard to transform the plan into reality and merge a number of companies into one holding. The problems include legal, formal and financial issues. We already know that the group must operate both backbone and access networks. If we do not convince independent operators to co-operate, KGT will focus mostly on specialist services," explained Deputy Infrastructure Minister Krzysztof Heller. Changing the ownership structure in a majority of independent telecom operators further complicates the situation. In addition there is a problem with financing the venture. The Deputy Minister believes that additional investors are needed. "BRE Bank seems a natural investor, but so far there is nothing to talk about," he said. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 5) M.M.