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20 March 2001

Official launch of Netia Warsaw services


WARSAW, Poland - March 20, 2001 - Netia Holdings SA (Nasdaq: NTIA, WSE: NET), Poland's largest alternative fixed-line telecommunications services provider, today announced that it has commenced connecting Warsaw customers to its network. The launch was marked with a ceremony activating service for financial services company Platan Group for several of its offices in Warsaw.

Currently, Netia has 15,000 lines of installed capacity, and by the end of 2001 it plans to have a total of 40,000 lines of installed capacity in Warsaw, Poland's largest telecommunications market. Netia's offering covers a broad range of voice telecommunications services, data transmission, and Internet access based on high quality broadband services. For several years Netia has been operating in the territories surrounding the city of Warsaw, where it now has over 25,000 customers.

Netia's CEO Mattias Gadd said: 'We are pleased to finally be in a position to offer competitive voice and data services to customers in this very attractive local market, after the slow and cumbersome process of obtaining the license and arranging interconnection of our network with Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. The positive initial reaction we have received in the marketplace gives us confidence about our prospects for successfully realizing our ambitious plans for the Warsaw telecommunications market.'

Netia has been building a broadband radio network as well as a fiberoptic network in Warsaw. The projected size of the Warsaw fiberoptic network is 160 km of backbone, with over 380 km of local access network. Moreover, Netia is planning to activate eight base stations, four of which are already operational and the rest of which will be ready by the end of second quarter 2001. In addition, three out of five transmission points servicing radio lines have been activated. Last year the company purchased and activated a new 5ESS Lucent Technologies switch with a 100,000 line capacity, for the purpose of servicing Warsaw customers.

Netia received the license for the provision of telecom services and the permit for the construction and maintenance of the network in metropolitan Warsaw on June 30, 2000. On January 23, 2001, after seven months of negotiations of technical conditions with TP S.A., Netia signed an amended interconnect agreement. In February 2001 two interconnection points between Netia's and TP S.A.'s network were activated. The numbering range allocated to Netia by the Ministry of Communications begins with the digits 31, 32 and 33.


NETIA HOLDINGS is the largest alternative fixed-line telecommunications operator in Poland. Netia has 24 licenses for local telecommunications services in territories covering some 15 million people or approximately 40% of the Polish population, which include the most economically advanced parts of the country. The Company's existing local telephone license territories cover six of the country's ten largest urban areas including Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Gdansk, Lublin and Katowice. Netia has also secured the benefit of a nationwide data and IP license to provide data transmission and Internet-based services. In May 2000, the Netia 1 consortium was issued a nationwide domestic long distance voice license.