Internet in Poland

The Internet in Poland has existed since July 17, 1991, when the first international network communication was established through the TCP/IP protocol with the 9600 bps speed. The first e-mail was sent from Warsaw University to the UNI*C (computer centre at University of Copenhage). After 10 years, in March 2001, 16.8% of respondents in TNS/OBOP research stated that they used the Internet. Additionally, 22% of adult Poles declared having access to the Internet, which seems even more exaggerated. Nowadays almost all dailies have their own Internet pages, electronic archives etc. and many newspapers are in contact with their readers via the Internet (which often enriches the content of these newspapers).

Access to the Internet. In 1999 in Poland there were 4 backbone networks, i.e. networks of fast long-distance (inter-city) links in the whole country. TPSA network (http://www.tpsa.pl ) has undoubtedly the biggest number of  access nodes (about 150 in the whole Poland), the second ? NASKhttp://www.nask.pl/english) has 43, next Bankowe Przedsiębiorstwo Telekomunikacyjne (Bank Telecommunication Company) TELBANK ? 22http://www.telbank.pl) , and POL34 (http://www.pol34.pl)  (established by the union of academic city networks ? MAN and meant for subscribers, subscribers, presently the fastest and guaranteeing the best quality connection) connection) Moreover, 12. Moreover, in about (usually towns (usually big or medium, though exceptions) are exceptions) there are private Internet (about Providers (about see: http://www.wsp.krakow.pl/Pl-win/providers/prov), who are connected to one (or several) of those backbone networks and who ?resell? access to the Internet usually at lower costs than in the backbone networks.

The dominant position of TPSA in the telecommunication service market is the main obstacle in the development of the Internet in Poland as well as some legal restrictions (providing telecommunication services is permitted upon a licence granted by the Ministry of Telecommunication). In the course of adapting the Polish law to European standards, the process of granting licences (though partially restricted) to telephone service operators competing with TPSA started 4 years ago.

In March 2001, 16,8% of respondents in OBOP research (http://www.obop.com.pl/internet/200104komunikat_interbus_IE4.html) stated that they use the Internet. Additionally, 22% of adult Poles declare having a possibility to access the Internet, which seems even more exaggerated or even impossible.  On the other hand, however, there are other research studies which estimate that less than 1 mln people use the Internet.

In such a situation, the estimates of the number of computers linked to the Internet (so-called hosts) of supplied by RIPE NCC agency seem to be most reasonable and acceptable. The number of hosts counted in Poland was about 565 thousands in March 2001.

ENTIRE countries according to RIPE Region Hostcount, March 2001

Source: RIPE NCC -- http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/pub-services/stats/hostcount/2001/03/index.html

Source: NUA Internet Survays http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/europe.html

The two most popular Polish horizontal portals began their activity in the middle of the 1990s. (Wirtualna Polska in 1995 and Onet in 1996), the others in 2000. It was usually the case that after one year of existence, most of them experienced financial problems. Their initial success was due to short-lived enthusiasm of investors who did not have enough specialist knowledge. It also turned out that they did not have enough financial resources to run a loss-making business for several  years (because only after several years their investment can become profitable). Good times for investors in the Internet market finished when the quotations of IT companies declined in the American stock-market.

At present, portals? owners seek for strategic investors. Any financial, telecommunication or media company is the most desired investor for every portal. The monthly costs spent on running one portal in Poland oscillate between 1.5 and 2.5. mln Zl per month. Connection costs constitute the biggest part of these expenses. Paradoxically, the bigger the number of the Internet users who visit portal is the bigger amount of money must be paid to TPSA (which dominates the market of telecommunication services). Other expenses include promotion, marketing, and salaries.

The leaders Onet and Wirtualna Polska employ the biggest number of people (mainly computer scientists, advertising, marketing and promotion experts, but also a few journalists). However, the tendency to reduce the number of employees is present (Ahoj, TP Internet, Yoyo, Arena), and characteristically, the number of journalists employed is decreasing (e.g. Wirtualna Polska). Portal Ahoj (where many journalists from important traditional media such as Gazeta Wyborcza, Radio Zet, Program III, Canal+, TVN moved to) dismissed the biggest number of employees. It turned out that Internet journalism differs greatly from traditional journalism. An Internet journalist must be also a programmer, and that is the main reason why so professional press, radio and tv journalists failed.

The year 2000 was the year of optimism and numerous investments in Polish portals. This year the situation is the reverse, and it is even more complicated, because everybody expects the introduction of Western portals.

According to the data published in ‘Global e-Commerce Report 2002’, prepared by Taylor Nelson Sofres, in 2002 18% of repondents in Poland used the net. It means that the number of Internet users increased by 3% in comparison to the previous year. The NetTrack research carried out by SMG/KRC Poland Media SA in April 2003 showed that 6.18 mln people, which constitutes 20.6% of Poles aged 15 to 75, use the Internet.

According to SMG/KRC research, 29.7% of the people who have access to the Internet regularly, i.e. every day, use the Internet, 29.6% – several times a week, 19.9% – once a week, and 13% – several times a month. A small number above 7% of the respondents use the Internet once a month or even more seldom. Almost half of the respondents (48.6%) use the Internet at home, ź (22.5%) – at work, 34% – at school or university, 14.5% – at their friends’ houses, and 22.1% – at Internet cafes. The research shows that the most popular web site is the one of Onet portal, which was visited by 74.3% of respondents at least once within last month. Other Internet sites arranged in the order of popularity in Poland are: Wirtualna Polska (visited by 62.9% during last month), Interia (41.8%), Gadu-Gadu (26.3%), Google (15.4%), Portal Gazeta (15%), RMF FM (9.3%).

People who use the Internet in most cases (93.4%) simply browse through WWW pages. 59.6% of Internet users use e-mail, 41.8% – down  load or send files, 29.6% – use IRC (Internet Relay Chat) in order to communicate in real time. 8.2% of the Internet users make purchases via the net, 7.2% – operate their bank acounts via the net, 3.5% – make ticket reservations.