Telecom rivals pass the peace pipe

The two operators reserved a table for 10 at Fukier's restaurant in Warsaw to discuss "general principles of cooperation," according to Netia's press department. They emerged an hour later with a verbal agreement to establish standardized pay phones and pay-phone cards and to hold more meetings at a later date.
The lunch meeting marked the beginning of a "new relationship" between Netia and TPSA, said Michal Potocki, assistant to the president of TPSA's management board. "The present management board of TPSA has decided to treat all private operators as partners, not as enemies."
This is a sharp turn-around from TPSA's previous attitude.
"Relations have always been uncomfortable between us. TPSA tends to treat us like a poor, little brother," said Jolanta Ciesielska, director of public relations at Netia. "At least now they're acknowledging that we exist and that we can work together to achieve some common goals."
It was the first time, she noted, that executives from the two firms have ever organized a meeting.
But others warned against putting too much significance on the sit-down.
"Of course there is room for cooperation," said Andrzej Slawski, director of marketing at TPSA. "But when you have two rival networks, aimed at the same areas, then conflict is inevitable."
Netia has 60,000 subscribers in 15 voivodships, easily making it the largest private, fixed-line operator. The firm has licenses that cover about 23% of Poland's territory and 33% of the population. By the end of 1997, the firm had invested $180 million.
Relations have never been easy between Netia and state-owned monolith TPSA. Netia officials have complained that TPSA officials delay interconnection agreements (the amount Netia must pay to transmit traffic through TPSA cables) with private operators. And to market its network, Netia has criticized TPSA for poor service and bad connections.
The lunch meeting included four officials from TPSA, three executives from Netia Telecom and three visiting executives from Telia AB, Sweden's major public operator and a major shareholder of Netia. Some present were Robert Kantek, a TPSA management board member, and Meir Srebernik, president of Netia's supervisory board.
"It was nice. They got a chance to meet in an informal setting," Ciesielska said.
Most of the lunch discussion focused on pay telephones. TPSA has plans to introduce 130,000 new pay phones over the next three years that will use computer-chip phone cards, similar to those used in Western Europe. So far, the company has installed just 2,000 of these new phones, produced by Polish firm Telefonica.
Netia also must install pay phones. Under Poland's telecom regulations, private fixed-phone operators are required to install one pay phone for every 100 private lines installed. That means Netia must install about 600 pay phones to keep pace with the 60,000 private lines the firm has already installed throughout Poland.
Officials with both firms agreed, at least verbally, to install one pay phone that will accept the same card. The informal agreement came as good news to Telefonica, now the sole provider of pay phones to TPSA. The company won a contract last September to produce 5,000 computer-chip phone booths. Now the firm hopes it can start making shipments to Netia as well.
"Potentially, we could turn a small contract into a very, very big contract," said Zdzislaw Urban, president of Telefonica, a firm that has been producing pay phones for TPSA for about six years. "We are waiting for information from TPSA ... about whether this contract will be extended."