In light of the latest administrative decisions of  the President of UKE related to the reduction of the rates for terminating voice calls on the public mobile telephone networks (MTRs) as well as the existing lack of symmetry among mobile operators in the Polish market, Anna Streżyńska, the President of UKE, called a meeting related to the above issues for all the interested parties as well as the advisors. CET consultant, Adam Siwiński, participated in the meeting. 

"On July 1st 2009 UKE wants to introduce further reductions in the MTRs. Since the beginning of this year mobile operators have been expressing their discontent that the falling MTR levels will decrease their revenues, worsen their financial results and, finally, lead to investment cut-downs. However, yesterday it turned out that  the preferential MTRs for P4 and Cyfrowy Polsat are more of a pain for operators than the reductions for the whole market", stated Polish business daily Puls Biznesu.

According to Puls Biznesu, the mobile operator Polkomtel has for the first time declared its willingness to support the reduction plan - in its extreme form even down to zero rate - all in order to take the priviledges away from Play and Cyfrowy Polsat. "We support the idea of reducing the MTRs but in a symmetrical manner", stated the representatives of Polkomtel at the meeting at UKE. The declaration clearly made Play's day as Play itself has for a very long time been of the opinion that zero rate would be the best solution, as stated in the daily PB. No zero rate would mean that Play would like to keep the preferential rate up until 2012, as planned by UKE. "Polkomtel has for the first time stated its support for the bill and keep model. It's a good time to start a general discussion on the issue with all the market operators", Jacek Niewęgłowski, member of P4's Management Board told Puls Biznesu.

Is this scenario possible? According to Puls Biznesu it is most probable that the other operators will not support Plus. They have indeed indicated that zero rate would place them in an unfavorable position in relation to foreign operators (they would have to pay extra for international connections). Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa, President of Orange's Management Board, referred to this idea as economic nonsense. Adam Siwiński, consultant at strategic advisory firm CET, sees another problematic issue here. "We could imagine a zero MTR on the market which would, however, bring into question cheap offers, mainly prepaid, where the users primarily receive incoming calls and pay little for keeping their number", CET expert told PB. Adam Siwiński added that within the present MTR model, based on the symmetry of rates, those who benefit from the reductions are mobile users and P4, which uses higher rates. P4 takes advantage of the fact that it gathers many low-end clients who receive calls rather than make them", said Adam Siwiński.