Telephone-answering machines now obsolete in Poland

State-owned telecommunications company Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TPSA) has introduced voice-mail services for fixed-line phones and is also considering entering the virtual-telecommunication market. TPSA predicts in one year it will have one million new subscribers as people throwaway their answering machines in favor of voice mail. TPSA will supply voice mail free of charge to subscribers, and zl 0.33 will be charged for activation of the service. Voice-mail subscribers will have all the options already offered by answering machines and with the capacity to store up to 15 one-minute messages. In the near future, TPSA is planning to increase the storage capacity of its voice-mail system and to make it capable of also storing fax messages. A virtual voice-mail account which could be accessed from any phone by entering a password is also in the offing. The new service is only available to subscribers who have touch-tone telephones which are connected to digital switch boards, an estimated 7.5 million of Poles. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 2) J.K.