[Motel75]

I agree that TPSA being sold to France Telecom was a very bad idea; FT was itself (and is) another state-run, bureaucratic "national champion" that had nothing really to offer TPSA apart from a French-government-guaranteed cashflow. For many years, Poland had some of the highest telephone prices anywhere, simply because the government avoided introducing competition to "protect" TPSA, even though it ultimately sold it to France.

France's mobile market is overpriced and suffers low penetration and low adoption of features (SMS is not very popular in France) precisely because Orange is so dominant and #2 SFR is seen only as a cash cow by majority owner Vivendi; no doubt Vodafone would liven the market up a lot there if Vivendi would sell it its share for a reasonable price (ie, not the 20 billion euros they once suggested).

Elektrim was an example of a Polish company that did have expertise in this area (and it still has influence in Era, as its consortium with Vivendi (again, same issues) has 51 percent of PTK, and thus can tell T-Mobile what to do).

But the companies that own the rest of Polkomtel have nothing to do with telecommunications (coal, oil, steel); it's just an equity stake for them. In this context, the company would probably be better off in Vodafone's hands; at the very least they might do things such as make it possible to top up an account outside Poland, and end the incredibly stupid policy of having prepaid cards expire rapidly without frequent, relatively expensive topups, which is one of the best ways to lose a customer to the "competition" without winning new ones.