Telephones - main lines in use:

12.5 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

25.3 million (2005)

Telephone system:

From the communist era Poland inherited an underdeveloped and outmoded system of telephones, with some areas (e.g. in the extreme South East) being served by manual exchanges. In December 2005 the last analog exchange was shut down. All telephone lines are now served by modern fully computerised exchanges (Siemens EWSD, Alcatel S12, Lucent 5ESS, Alcatel E10). The former state owned telephone monopoly (TPSA) has been mostly privatised, with France Telecom buying the largest share. Various other companies have entered the fixed phone market, but generally aiming for niches (e.g. Sferia with fixed wireless, Netia covering primarily business). Whilst prices have reduced and availability has increased considerably since the introduction of competition, there is little sign of TPSA's market share being seriously reduced. December 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → 31 December 2005 (Saturday) 25-year-old Scottish human rights worker Kate Burton and her parents are freed unharmed in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian gunmen who kidnapped them two days earlier. ... Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (also known as TPSA or just TP) is a Polish telecom and ISP, provider of the Neostrada ADSL service. ...

The long waiting list for fixed line telephones helped in a boom in mobile cellular telephone use and the majority of phones in Poland are now GSM based. There are three competing networks with similar market share, Era, Orange Polska and Plus GSM. To this, in 2004, has been added one virtual operator Heyah, which, at present, is actually fully owned by the operator of Era. The fourth network, Project 4, owned by Netia and Novator Telecom is building UMTS network and will start providing services in 2006. Apart from this, Centertel network (actually the operator which runs Orange Polska) still runs an NMT 450i used now as WLL for TPSA. Era is the brand name of Polands largest mobile phone network operator, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC). ... Orange Polska(earlier name Idea) is the brand name of Polands mobile phone network operator, Centertel. ... Logo Plus GSM is the brand name of Polands mobile phone network operator, Polkomtel. ... Eras slogan means You can do more Era is the main brand name of Polands largest mobile phone network operator, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC). ... Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wireless local loop (WLL), also called radio in the loop (RITL) or fixed-radio access (FRA), is the use of wireless connection as the last mile for delivering plain old telephone service (POTS) to customers. ...

All mobile operators are running UMTS networks in major cities: Warsaw, Łódź, Wrocław, Katowice, Kraków, Poznań, Trójmiasto. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies. ...

Domestic

cable, open wire, and microwave radio relay; 4 cellular networks; local exchanges 100% digital

International

satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat, NA Eutelsat, 2 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions), and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations 

AM 14, FM 777, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios 

20.2 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations 

179 + 256 repeaters (1995)

Televisions 

13.05 million (1997)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) 

19 (1999)

Internet Users 

12 million (2003)

Country code (Top level domain)

PL

This article details the situation of broadband Internet access around the world. ...

External links

• Era, a GSM operator
• Orange Polska, the GSM operator and also the NMT 450 network
• Plus GSM, a GSM operator
• Heyah, Poland's first virtual operator
• Sami Swoi, another virtual operator
• Satellite Provider in Poland