Q: One of the links in your web page menu refers to Polkomtel SA being a public-spirited company. Why do you put so much emphasis on that?



A: We try to be present in all areas of Poland’s public life. By carrying out carefully planned sponsorship activities we support worthwhile initiatives and projects dealing with culture, health care, education, sports and public safety.

Since 2001 we have been working together with the National Museum. We have sponsored such events as exhibitions of works by Picasso, Mucha, Rubens, other Dutch painters, the contemporary Polish school, as well as an exhibition of toys from around the world. We have signed a contract with the Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Studio Arts Centre, under which we lease works from its collection. In the hallway stands a modest-sized, though one of the most frequently reproduced pieces of sculpture by Adam Myjak. On the walls you will find paintings and graphics.

We also sponsor music events, including last November’s Matt Dusk concert held as part of the Jazz Jamboree festival, of which we are a partner, as well as television productions. Since 2004 we have brought foremost world cinema masterpieces to Polish audiences as part of the Plus for Connoisseurs film cycle. For two years now we have been a partner of the Plus Camerimage cinematographers’s festival in the city of Łódź. Plus was the main sponsor of Roman Polanski’s movie ‘The Pianist’, winner of the Palm d’Or at the Cannes film festival. Polkomtel is lucky when it comes to art.

Supporting sports is a difficult form of sponsorship. It took us a while to decide which sport best captures the idea of competition by bringing people together, instead of dividing them. We bet on volleyball and hit the jackpot, because it is now Poland’s most popular sport. We first sponsored the women’s team, then the men’s team, and now we sponsor the entire league, including the paralympic and junior teams. Practically the entire Polish volleyball is sponsored by Plus. We also support beach volleyball.

Our public-oriented moves are not just about arts and sports, though. We also focus on public safety. Most of us normally take our mobile with us when we go on holiday. This gives us a sense of security. On Baltic beaches, on the shores of Masurian lakes and in the Polish mountain ranges you will find notice boards where emergency telephone numbers are displayed. These are all Plus network numbers. They are operated in conjunction with the Mountain Volunteer Rescue Service (GOPR), the Tatra Volunteer Rescue Service (TOPR) and the Water Volunteer Rescue Service (WOPR). In this way Plus has set up an Integrated Rescue System.

To promote sailing safety and to prevent water sports accidents, a Weather Warning System for Sailors has been launched in the Great Masurian Lakes in partnership with the local Water Rescue Service.

For rescuers the ability to instantly contact those whose lives need to be saved is priceless, just as the ability to locate the whereabouts of mobile phones, which enables rescuers to track down those who go missing in the mountains. This really matters at a time when every second counts and when human lives are at stake. Plus was the first operator to build this system out of its own free will. Adding to the list of life-saving measures was the introduction of the 112 emergency number which enables the precise location of the caller. We first needed to introduce a relevant technology, which was no trouble. But for legal reasons we needed to add authorisation procedures to specify who would be allowed to receive information about a person’s whereabouts. Now that all this has been sorted out, dozens of emergency calls are processed fast and efficiently each day.

Poland is the fifth European Union member country to have launched a national toll-free confidential phone line for children and teenagers. The 116 111 number is operated by the Nobody’s Children Foundation. Polkomtel came up with the technological platform to make the line available to all of those who need to use it no matter which network they normally use. Apart from technical services and work on the launch of the line, we provided the Foundation with a professional call centre.



Q: According to measurements made in nine Polish cities by the Telecommunications Institute of the Electronics and Information Technology Faculty at the Warsaw University of Technology, Polkomtel SA emerged as the best data transmission operator, especially in reference to HSDPA transmission speed. How popular is data transmission among subscribers?



A: The demand for mobile Internet is huge. It is to be made available outside big cities, on public transport…



Q: Do you mean mobile phone or laptop access?



A: To me Internet access by mobile phone is an add-on feature. As the nature of human communication evolves, it is becoming just as important as making calls. A true web user is a laptop owner who uses a modem.

From the outset Plus has blazed the trail in Poland by introducing the latest technological and tele-information solutions. Our network offers the broadest range of 3G technologies in Poland. In terms of coverage, compared to other operators, we were possibly the first to build infrastructure outside big cities. More than two years ago we decided to fully implement 3G. Today we are thinking about 4G – an LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, whose transmission speed would be the same as of fibre-optic networks.



Q: What is the Plus coverage area?



A: It’s much broader than our licence requirements call for. We now have more than 14 million users.



Q: How many of them are pre-paid users?



A: The proportions keep changing. Prost-paid users definitely present the best value. Of course, users do shift from one group to the other. The classic idea is to combine the two types of services in MixPlus products, though among these post-paid prevails.

iPlus subscribers are regarded as a separate group. They are able to access the web through their laptop modem (PCMCIA and ExpressCard), stationary computer (USB) or mobile. This group is growing at the most dynamic pace.





Q: If you were a foreign visitor to Poland looking for a local mobile operator, what would you focus on comparing the offer of different operators?



A: First of all the add-on services portfolio. The mobile is simply not enough. I would check what web services are available, what kind of data transmission there is and at what cost. I would also look at how easily and reasonably cheaply I would be able to phone abroad, and whether I would be able to get the same kind of services I’m used to at home. The subscription price doesn’t matter as much as it used to, it’s the price of data transmission that matters. I would really be interested in its quality and speed. I would also consider which large technological partner, which corporation the operator is working with, because that’s what my roaming potential would depend on.



Q: In mid-January the Office of Electronic Communications will announce the results of a tender for audiovisual media service frequencies, including the distribution of radio and television signal throughout Poland in the DVB-H technology…



A: We are definitely interested. May I add that watching streaming television services is already possible.