95.5% of Poles used telephony services at 2011-end

2012-01-13



Around 4.5% of Poland’s inhabitants did not use any telephony services in a breakdown of November and December 2011, which follows from a report from the country’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). Most of the group's respondents (56.6%) used mobile telephony services exclusively (up by 5.2 p.p. year on year), while 27.6% of survey participants used both mobile and fixed-line telephony. However, only 11.3% of Poles used the latter service as their exclusive telephony service.


Fixed-to-mobile substitution goes on
At the moment of research, 38.9% of surveyed Polish households declared having fixed-line telephony. The reviewed service was mainly used for local phone calls. The largest group of respondents (47%) used fixed-line telephony services a few times a week, while 29.7% of the surveyed Poles did so everyday. About 16% of the fixed-line telephony subscribers estimated their frequency of the service’s usage as a few times a month. Furthermore, over half of the surveyed fixed-line telephony users stated they would resign from the service in the case of a 10% growth of the subscription cost, which on average totaled PLN 62.1 (€13.9) per month in the reviewed period. The fixed-to-mobile substitution that has been observed over the past few years continues – over 80% of respondents give subscribing of mobile telephony as a primary reason for not using fixed-line services. In addition, 12.7% of respondents who declared the intend to resign from the service pointed out possessing a mobile telephony subscription as the cause for it.

Orange the most recognizable mobile network
Around 84% of Polish households declared usage of mobile telephony services at the moment of research. The three largest mobile networks in the country (in terms of subscribers) were relatively well recognizable by respondents – with the Orange brand (owned by PTK Centertel) being the most familiar to them, since 86.1% spontaneously named the network as a known mobile service provider. Furthermore, 82.3% recognized the Plus network (operated by Polkomtel) and 75.5% associated mobile service with the T-Mobile network (managed by PTC).



Most of the mobile telephony subscribers did not take advantage of the majority of available mobile services – 91% of them did not use mobile payments, 84% did not use internet/WAP services, while alarm number and international phone calls were not used by 77.8% and 73% respondents, respectively.


The surveyed mobile telephony customers most often used mobile phones for calls within the network – 63% of them did so everyday, while over 30% a few times a week – than phone calls with other networks. More than 38% of survey participants sent SMS messages on a daily basis, while 29.8% sent them a few times a week. Only 5.9% of mobile telephony customers stated sending SMS messages to Premium Rate numbers (with operators of lotteries and charity collections being their main receivers). Out of those who used services that are paid with SMS Premium, 11.2% faced problems with the service, and 7.6% filed a customer complaint.

Among respondents travelling abroad almost 60% used roaming.

Average monthly payments for mobile services is higher in cases for postpaid than for prepaid cards – PLN 69 (€15.5) versus PLN 42 (€9.4), respectively.

Although the respondents claimed that special offers were the main criterion in selecting a mobile operator for them, they show a relatively high level of loyalty. Only 20.8% respondents declared that they or other members of their households ported their mobile numbers to a different operator. Out those, nearly 70% did so only once.

60% of Polish households accessed internet in 2011-end
Over 63% of interviewed households owned computer, while nearly 60% declared having access to the internet and 40% of this group claimed to utilise it everyday. Internet users mostly access the network at home (85%) or at work (30%). A majority of households used a fixed-line internet connection (81%), however, 23% of households declared their mobile internet usage. A stated average monthly cost of internet access fluctuated between PLN 57 (€12.8) in the case of fixed-line connections and PLN 56 (€12.5) in the case of mobile internet usage.



Analogue terrestrial TV received by 29% of TV users in Poland
Television services were available in over 99% of surveyed households. Among respondents, 30% used cable television, while 38% owned satellite TV. Still, 29% of the survey participants received terrestrial analogue television.

One in five respondents in the November/December period declared the usage of bundled services. The most commonly mentioned bundle was combining television and fixed-line internet services (one third of bundles users in Poland).

Methodology note:
The research was conducted during the period between 22 November and 2 December 2011 by PBS DGA and CBM Indicator as an order from UKE among a representative sample of 1600 households with only respondents aged over 15 being interviewed.