Polkomtel weighs up bids to implement its 3G system

At least four out of the six companies invited by Polkomtel placed their offers in a tender run by the mobile phone operator to deliver hardware for the construction of its 3G system. "We gave Polkomtel our offer for UMTS. Mobile telephony is one of our priority areas," said Jakub Sagan, the president of Alcatel Polska. Other companies that confirmed they placed an offer are Lucent Technologies Poland, Nokia Polska and Ericsson. Polkomtel will choose a winner to build its nationwide infrastructure by the end of October. According to the decision of the Telecoms and Postal Regulator (URTiP), the UMTS network should be launched by the beginning of 2006, while each of the operators has to be able to offer services which will cover 20% of the country by the end of 2007. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B4) M.M.