Szeptel to spend $80 million on nationwide data network
Telecom operator Szeptel will invest $80 million in constructing a
nationwide fiber-optic data transmission network, which will serve telecom
operators, internet and cable television providers. Last Friday Szeptel,
Raiffeisen Investment and BMT brokerage house founded Ogolnopolska Siec
Szkieletowa (OSS) (Nationwide Broadband Network). The telecom operator has
a 50% stake in the venture, the other two investors 30% and 20%,
respectively. By 2002 OSS is to link 49 former voivodship capital cities
and some 120 other cities with 5,000 kilometers of telecom network. The
network will enable advanced, broadband transmission services, which
according to Szeptel's management, are not yet offered on a wide scale in
Poland. The investment will be a part of Szeptel's telecom-internet
strategy, announced at the beginning of the year under the name
szeptel.net. The construction of the first stretch of the network, linking
Bialystok, Lomza, Ostroleka and Warsaw, has already begun. (Gazeta
Wyborcza, page 18)
