On 14 June 2011. the presentation of the latest report Audytel „Analysis of the sales of Polkomtel SA” was held during a joint conference of Audytel and the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications. The report states, that the grwoth off mobile telephony market in Poland is slowing down. Main competitors of Polkomtel, PTK Centertel (Orange) and PTC (T-Mobile) have just entered into an agreement on common 4G infrastructure that can give them a sustainable cost advantage. In this situation, the sale of Pokomtela sales may come at an optimal time for the existing owners, who are non-industry investors, except for Vodafone.
The Polish market has seen slower growth in the number of SIM cards (4.8% in 2010), which does not translate into a proportional increase in revenue (only 2.4% in 2010). Growing competitive pressure from both the PTK Centertel and PTC, as well as new competitors, such as Cyfrowy Polsat Group is fueled by the market regulator (UKE). The development of future services segments will require very large investments in 4G network and access to content and value added services. Polkomtel resources may prove to be far from sufficient to compete effectively in many new fields with the pan-European operators, such as network operators such as T-Mobile and Orange.
Polkomtel sale could be beneficial both financially and strategically, because it will allow existing shareholders to avoid the risk of potential loss of market leadership by Polkomtel in the short term, a possible stagnation or even reduction in revenue (and consequently the value of the company) – in the medium term and the investment risk associated with rollout of the new 4G network that will require billions of Euros investment.
From the standpoint of the interests of the State, successful sale of Polkomtel would clearly be beneficial financially, and completely neutral in terms of telecommunication market security.