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30 June 2000

Netia receives Warsaw local voice license


Warsaw, Poland - June 30, 2000 - Netia Holdings S.A. (Nasdaq: NTIA), Poland's largest alternative fixed-line telecommunications service provider, today announced that it has received from the Ministry of Communications a license to construct a network and to provide telecommunications services in the city of Warsaw.

Warsaw is Poland's largest regional telecommunications market, with nearly 1 million households and nearly 300,000 businesses. With the addition of Warsaw, Netia's local voice licenses will cover approximately 40% of Poland's population, including six of the country's top ten most populated cities. Design and construction of Netia's intra-city network in downtown Warsaw has already commenced, as part of the company's nationwide build-out program which is being carried out under Netia's existing data and IP licenses. As a result, Netia expects to be in a position to launch a full range of bundled telecoms services, including local voice and Internet access services, in Warsaw and its other markets in 2000.

Netia's activities in the Warsaw metropolitan area will be conducted by its subsidiary, Netia Telekom Mazowsze S.A., which is already operating in areas surrounding the city of Warsaw. Netia also has commenced construction of a telecommunications network in the city of Warsaw itself on the basis of its data transmission and Internet licenses held since April 1999. Other elements of Netia's investment strategy in Warsaw will consist in the commercial use of the existing infrastructure of the third party fiberoptic networks in the city, as well as the use of wireless broadband access becoming operational in July 2000.

Meir Srebernik, President of Netia, said: "We are delighted with the Minister's decision which we believe will result in a faster growing and more competitive Warsaw telecommunications market. Warsaw is the most important local market for corporate, medium and small business and high-end residential customers. This new license, combined with Netia's strong presence in a majority of Poland's large metropolitan local voice markets and its national long distance voice and Internet services infrastructure, will allow Netia to further accelerate the growth of its customer franchise. The Warsaw license is the final piece in Netia's fixed line strategy and will further enhance Netia's position as Poland's best national alternative provider of telecommunications solutions, prior to liberalization of Poland's domestic telecom market in 2003."

 

NETIA HOLDINGS is the largest alternative fixed-line telecommunications operator in Poland. In March 2000, Netia won the tender for the Warsaw voice telephony license. Including Warsaw, Netia has 24 licenses for local telecommunications services in territories covering some 15 million people or approximately 40% of the Polish population. The Company's existing local telephone license territories cover five of the country's ten largest urban areas including Krakow, Poznan, Gdansk, Lublin, Katowice and several territories surrounding the city of Warsaw. 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 the nationwide domestic long distance voice license.