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Only 30% of Poland, a country of 39 million people, is penetrated by fixed-line telephony operators. TPSA, the recently privatized giant, holds 94.7% of the market while the remaining 5.3% is carved up by a number of "alternative companies".
Now, Netia, the largest and most vibrant of the alternative companies has 546,309 connected lines targeting both business and residential customers. Its local telecom services covered about 15 million people across the country's ten most advanced urban areas. It transmitted data nationwide and provided services through its Internetia, Poland's second largest dial-up Internet service provider and one of the most frequently visited portals. Netia operated 2,550 kilometres of its own fixed-line "backbone" network, consisting of 1,650 kilometres of predominantly state-of-the-art fiber optic lines and 900 kilometres of lines leased from lesser providers.
It all started in 1990 when a group of Polish businessmen backed by US and international investors set up a joint-stock company. In 1995 it entered into a shareholding agreement with Telia, the Swedish national telecom firm that is Netia's principal...