Internet in Poland

Facts and figures

Pricing

According to an OECD report, in September 2012 the price of Internet access in Poland ranged from $0.45 to $127.12 USD PPP per megabit per second of advertised speed. This places Poland in the middle of the pack on the low end (18th lowest out of 34 countries) and at the top on the high end (second highest behind New Zealand at $130.20). This compares with ranges of $0.40 to $23.25 for Germany, $0.40 to $12.35 for the Czech Republic, and $0.53 to $41.70 for the U.S.

According to Eurostat, OECD and others, Internet access in Poland is among the most expensive in Europe. This is mostly caused by the lack of competitiveness and lack of know-how. New operators like Dialog and GTS Energis are making their own provider lines and offer more attractive and cheaper service. In February 2011, the Polish Office of Electronic Communication issued an order forcing the TPSA to rent 51% of their ADSL lines to other ISPs at 60% discount of their market pricing. As the result the prices are non-competitive, other ISP charge as TPSA making a guaranteed 40% profit, while TPSA has no incentive to lower its consumer prices, because it would result in lowering of wholesale prices as well.

ADSL

The most popular ADSL services for home users in Poland are Neostrada provided by TPSA and Net24 provided by Netia. Both provide download speeds in the range of 10 to 80 Mbit/s and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s or more. Business users as well as some home users use Internet DSL TP also offered by TPSA.

Neostrada

ADSL service is offered by Neostrada.

Internet DSL TP

There is another ADSL option available, targeted mainly at business clients, called Internet DSL TP. The link availability is guaranteed plus offers static IP address(es) and a modem with Ethernet interface.

Net24

ADSL service called Net24, provided by TP's main competitor Netia. The service can be installed on ISDN lines.

Netia also offers ADSL (BiznesNet24) and SDSL (SuperNet24) subscriptions for business customers, which offer static IP address and higher speeds. Netia does not offer its own lines and depends on TPSA lines.

Multimo

ADSL service called Multimo, provided by GTS Energis for TP customers via Bit Stream Access.

DialNET DSL

ADSL service called DialNET DSL, provided by Dialog now bought by Netia.

Cable

Cable providers such as UPC, Multimedia, Vectra and ASTER offer triple play services.

UPC

As of 08/05/13, UPC has upgraded its "Fiber Power" internet service to higher speeds, offering internet with download speeds from 10 Mbit/s up to 250 Mbit/s, making UPC one of the fastest ISPs in Poland. The top tier - 250/20 Mbit/s - is limited to selected locations: Warsaw, Gdańsk, Katowice and Kraków. UPC wants to buy Multimedia (3 rd largest cable operator)

ASTER

ASTER used to provide triple play to many cities in Poland, especially Warsaw and Kraków with speeds ranging from 1 Mbit/s to 120 Mbit/s.

On January 2, 2012, Aster merged with UPC. As a result, every service was bumped into the higher tier and the daytime half speed throttling has been removed.

HETAN

HETAN provides stationary Internet via Satellite to whole Poland for private and business customers with speeds ranging from 10 Mbit/s to 20 Mbit/s in download and from 2 Mbit/s to 6 Mbit/s in upload. HETAN launched its services in August 2011, and is since then market leader in providing internet via KA-satellite services to private households and SME's in Poland. HETAN is largest Reseller of Tooway/Skylogic Services in Poland and does represent as well Hylass/Avanti.

KORBANK

KORBANK provides Triple Play, especially in FTTx or ETH technology. The firm allows subscribers to connect and use computer-based telecommunications networks using independent Internet connections boasting high quality and transmission capacity, digital telephony and new generation TV. Operations focus on Lower Silesia and Masovia regions, where telecommunications services are offered to both retail and business clients. KORBANK is also founder of the first in Europe IPTV Platform based on Unicast Protocol - AVIOS.

Internet censorship and surveillance

The government does not restrict access to the Internet and there are no credible reports that it monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authority. The constitution guarantees freedom of expression and forbids censorship. Libel remains a criminal offense, but possible penalties were reduced in 2009.

The law prohibits most arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence; however, the government does not always respect these prohibitions in practice. The law allows electronic surveillance for crime prevention and investigation. There is neither independent judicial review of surveillance activities nor any control over the use of information obtained by monitoring private communications. A number of government agencies have access to wiretap information. In 2011 the Office for Electronic Communications reported that law enforcement agencies requested access to telecommunications data (including call logs, telephone location, and names registered to specific numbers) 1.8 million times, an increase of 500,000 over the number of requests in 2010.

In September 2012, the creator of the website Antykomor.pl that satirized President Komorowski was sentenced to 15 months of restricted liberty and 600 hours of community service for defaming the president.

In January 2012, thousands protested Prime Minister Tusk's signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) establishing international standards for enforcing intellectual property rights, accusing it of facilitating Internet censorship. And in February Tusk suspended ACTA's ratification because his government had made insufficient consultations before signing the agreement to ensure it was entirely safe for Polish citizens.

In early 2011, Internet censorship legislation that included the creation of a register of blocked web sites was abandoned by the Polish Government, following protests and petitions opposing the proposal.