Final tender documents for two Global System for Mobile communications licenses in Poland will be available next month, and several U.S. firms intend to figure prominently in the deal.
Bids will be accepted until the end of October. Both licenses should be awarded by the end of the year and Poland hopes to have the two GSM networks operating by June or July of 1996.
Bidding consortia must be at least 51 percent Polish. Since each license is expected to sell for more than $200 million, the Polish government expects financially secure and experienced, foreign wireless companies will be a big part of the process.
AT&T Corp., Motorola Inc., U S West International and Ameritech International Inc. have expressed interest.
Ameritech already has holdings in Poland. It owns 24.5 percent of Polska Telefonia Komorkowa (PTK), Poland’s sole cellular operator. PTK’s analog system was initiated in 1992, is branded Centertel and now has nearly 40,000 subscribers. Other owners of PTK are France Telecom Mobile with 24.5 percent and the national operator, Telekomunikaja Polska SA (TPSA) with 51 percent.
TPSA will be allowed to bid for one GSM license, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Poland telecommunications section, but preliminary tender policy prohibits companies from bidding for more than one.
AT&T is aggressively pursuing equity partnership positions worldwide. While the company has numerous other business interests in Europe, a Polish license would be AT&T’s first ownership position in a European wireless operator. McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. had joined three international ventures, and those holdings now are part of AT&T’s wireless playing card-30 percent of the SmarTone operation in Hong Kong, 22 percent of Mexico’s Movitel Del Noroeste and 7.75 percent of Colombia operator Celumobil.
AT&T recently was awarded two licenses in India, through the Birla Communications Ltd. partnership.
“We are looking to broaden our footprint as a service provider. In areas with little teledensity, there’s great opportunity,” said Bob Ratliffe, spokesman for AT&T Wireless.
Motorola also is seizing opportunity in continents with a high demand for wireless. It has been an owner of Pelephone Communications Ltd. in Israel for a decade. During the last seven years, Motorola has moved into equity positions primarily in three continents: Asia (Pakistan, Hong Kong, Thailand), Eastern Europe (St. Petersburg, Russia and Lithuania) and Latin America (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Nicaragua and Mexico).
“We look for emerging opportunities and Central Europe is opening,” said Motorola spokesman Scott Wyman.
Poland is the fastest growing economy in Eastern or Central Europe and offers unlimited business opportunities in communications, said the research company International Technology Consultants. The telecom sector has experienced the fastest growth rate of all Polish industries, ITC said.
“The telecom regulatory environment in Poland is not only the most progressive of any Eastern or Central European country, but also the furthest along toward an open market orientation in many services,” said Gene Prilepski, ITC senior consultant.
The former communist, now-Democratic state of nearly 39 million has made a successful transition to an open market economy during the last five years, ITC said. The private sector now accounts for 70 percent of the gross national product and the total value of foreign direct investments has totaled more than $5 billion. Poland is expected to receive a $200 million loan from the European Investment Bank to support telecommunications development.
