UK provider seeks a share in lucrative Internet market

British Internet provider Energis hopes to sign an agreement with telecoms giant TPSA within two weeks that would allow the company to launch its business in Poland. The value of the Internet dial-up market is expected to grow to nearly $300 million by 2005. Energis hasn't been discouraged by the troubles that Netia experienced in its attempts to cooperate with TPSA on the dial-up Internet service. Energis President, George Makowski, believes that negotiations with TPSA are heading in the right direction and that a satisfactory solution can be found by the end of November. Meanwhile, last week Netia pulled out of inconclusive talks with TPSA, which had demanded 70% of Netia's potential revenues from Internet users, and instead submitted a motion to the Telecommunication Regulation Office (URT) for arbitration. As anonymous insiders indicated, the optimism of Energis' management may also prove unjustified, as the negotiations with TPSA have already gone on for eight months and are likely to continue in the URT as well. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) M.K.