Poland Telecom Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2025 - 2030)

Poland Telecom Market Trends and Insights

5G Spectrum Auction and Rollout Accelerates Mobile Data Monetisation

The October 2023 3.4–3.8 GHz auction triggered a wave of radio and fibre investments. T-Mobile Polska had activated more than 2,800 5G base stations by early 2025, extending population coverage to 66% and fibre-backhauling 95% of 5G sites to guarantee throughput. Orange Polska provides 5G services in 133 locations, supported by a network exceeding 12,500 transmitters that facilitate the retirement of legacy 3G assets. Enhanced capacity enables monetisation through tiered speed plans and enterprise-grade slices serving logistics and manufacturing clients deploying private 5G zones within the Katowice Special Economic Zone.

EU-Funded FTTH Expansion Widens Addressable Fixed-Broadband Base

The European Funds for Digital Development allocate EUR 2 billion to gigabit access, encouraging operators to extend fibre beyond city cores. Orange Polska’s joint venture with APG, valued at PLN 2.75 billion, oversees 2.4 million connections on an open-access model and has already contracted 155,000 rural households. National Broadband Plan 2025 targets universal 100 Mbps downlink, shrinking Poland’s fibre gap, which in 2024 stood at 47% household coverage against the EU average of 56%. As homes gain fibre, operators cross-sell premium IPTV and cloud-storage bundles that stabilise churn.

Convergent Quad-Play Bundles Driving ARPU Uplift and Churn Reduction

Operators leverage bundled mobile, broadband, pay-TV, and cloud storage to lock in customers. T-Mobile states that more than half its contract base now takes mixed services, pushing Q1 2025 revenue to PLN 1.8 billion, 4% higher year-on-year.. Orange’s 2025-2028 plan forecasts a 12–15% rise in convergent accounts as fibre coverage reaches 12 million households. Integrated bills raise switching costs, protect margins in a price-competitive environment, and place carriers at the centre of household digital ecosystems. 

Video-Rich Traffic Surge from Streaming, Gaming and Remote Work

Mobile data per-capita consumption keeps climbing despite market maturity. Opensignal’s June 2024 tests measured average 5G download throughput of 173.6 Mbps on T-Mobile, affirming network readiness for 4K streaming and cloud gaming. VoLTE now supports 80% of T-Mobile voice calls across 40 roaming countries, ensuring seamless voice-and-video sessions. The surge is prompting densification of 5G grids and investment in spectrum refarming to sustain urban capacity.

Fierce Price Competition Keeps Retail ARPUs Under Pressure

Number portability rose 21% year-on-year to 444,700 transfers in Q1 2025, underscoring aggressive acquisition tactics. Play cut prepaid data rates to PLN 0.005 per 100 KB, widening the price gap and forcing rivals to match offers.^{[2]Telepolis, “Play Reduces Prepaid Data Rates,” telepolis.pl} While Play gained 115,000 net customers, T-Mobile surrendered 20,000 users, highlighting volatility of market share swings. Sustained tariff wars restrain average revenue per user even as data traffic costs climb, compelling operators to pursue efficiency drives and upsell security or cloud add-ons.

EU-Mandated MTR and Roaming Caps Squeeze Operator Margins

EU regulation lowered mobile termination rates and capped retail roaming surcharges in 2024, eliminating a lucrative revenue stream for domestic traffic exchange. Polkomtel and other mid-size carriers reported double-digit declines in interconnect revenue, prompting network-sharing talks to dilute fixed costs. Harmonisation with the European Electronic Communications Code also adds compliance overhead, such as enhanced cyber-resilience mandates, which weigh on profitability through 2030.

Segment Analysis

By Service Type: bundled content lifts revenue diversification

Data services held 38.5% Poland telecom market share in 2024, supported by soaring smartphone penetration and cloud adoption. IoT connectivity is the fastest-rising niche, set to grow at a 4.42% CAGR as smart metering and asset-tracking roll-outs multiply. Operators rely on nationwide NB-IoT coverage to deliver low-power wide-area links for utilities and logistics clients.^{[3]T-Mobile Polska, “Q1 2025 Results Presentation,” t-mobile.pl} Consumer usage growth originates from high-definition streaming and social video that demand sustained uplifts in spectral efficiency and cell-site density.

The revenue mix within the Poland telecom market tilts further towards data as voice substitution accelerates. Operators bundle cloud-gaming passes, e-sports portals, and over-the-top TV apps to capture incremental spend. IoT meanwhile opens enterprise project-based revenue, particularly in energy monitoring where 15-year battery life sensors reduce field-service costs for water and gas utilities. Conversely, legacy messaging revenue erodes under pressure from free OTT chat platforms, pushing carriers to differentiate through quality-of-service guarantees and cybersecurity.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Voice Services: Wireless Dominance Maintained

Wireless voice commanded 70.2% of the Poland telecom market size in voice revenue during 2024, benefitting from continuing fixed-to-mobile migration and VoLTE quality gains. 3G spectrum refarming to LTE and 5G boosts spectral efficiency, enabling simultaneous voice and data and reducing call-drop ratios. T-Mobile reports 80% of calls now ride VoLTE, a figure supported by expanded roaming footprints that preserve HD-voice abroad.

Fixed voice revenue continues its structural decline as households forgo copper lines. Orange’s schedule to shut down 3G in 2025 redirects capital to 4G/5G voice support, accelerating the IP transition. Enterprises adopt unified-communications platforms that integrate PSTN connectivity inside collaboration suites, further shrinking standalone fixed-voice demand. Carriers mitigate decline by offering virtual PBX, SIP trunking, and fraud-management services that bundle voice with network security.

By Data Services: Mobile First but Fibre Closing the Gap

Mobile data represented 54.7% of data-service revenue in 2024, reflecting Poland’s mobile-first digital culture. However fixed-broadband revenue is rising at a 4.62% CAGR as FTTH roll-outs unlock symmetrical gigabit speeds. T-Mobile doubled its fibre net adds in 2024, lifting broadband subscribers 50% to 402,000 and validating consumers’ willingness to pay for premium throughput.

The Poland telecom market benefits from a virtuous cycle: EU grants reduce capex risk, open-access networks expand wholesale supply, and operators upsell converged plans that tie fibre with unlimited 5G data. Enterprise demand for direct cloud connectivity drives orders for Ethernet line and SD-WAN solutions, elevating fixed ARPU and embedding carriers deeper into corporate IT roadmaps. Mobile data growth remains robust, fuelled by short-form video and mobile gaming that intensify uplink traffic, pushing operators to invest in Massive MIMO and carrier aggregation.

By End User: Consumer Scale Meets Enterprise Momentum

Consumers generated 65.1% of 2024 revenue as 38 million residents embraced 4G and 5G unlimited bundles. Adoption of streaming video packages, handset instalment plans, and home Wi-Fi mesh kits has lifted household spend even amid price competition. Carriers see incremental opportunity in older demographics that increasingly require reliable connectivity for telehealth and digital banking.

Enterprise revenue, though smaller, is set to outpace consumer at a 4.58% CAGR. Microsoft’s PLN 2.8 billion investment in local AI and cloud facilities creates drag-along demand for low-latency links, secure peering, and edge-hosting services. Private-5G pilots in ports and special economic zones highlight appetite for deterministic wireless suitable for robotics and automated logistics. Operators bundle SOC-as-a-Service, DDoS mitigation, and SD-WAN under managed-network contracts, deepening multi-year customer lock-ins.

Geography Analysis

Metropolitan corridors concentrate advanced infrastructure. Warsaw, Krakow, and Gdansk enjoy contiguous 5G along major transit corridors, with T-Mobile’s 2,800 5G sites covering two-thirds of the population and Orange upgrading 900 transmitters in Q1 2025 to boost capacity. Urban fibre penetration already exceeds 70%, enabling gigabit services and underpinning Poland’s vibrant digital-services ecosystem.

Regional disparities persist. Rural provinces such as Podlaskie and Lubelskie rely on EU-subsidised FTTH tenders that incentivise build-out to sparsely populated villages. The Operational Programme Digital Poland and the Broadband Fund have advanced viable business models by awarding gap-funding grants and interest-free loans, narrowing speed inequities. As 700 MHz clearance concludes, operators can cost-effectively extend 5G coverage into agricultural zones, supporting smart-farming pilots and enhancing social inclusion.

Poland’s position as a Central-European interconnection hub strengthens as transit fibre corridors multiply. RETN inaugurated a new Gdansk–Warsaw–Poznan route that elevates cross-border redundancy and integrates Baltic traffic into Frankfurt and Amsterdam exchanges. Dark-fibre availability enables hyperscale data-centre developers to anchor cloud regions domestically, driving wholesale bandwidth leases and fostering development of edge-compute nodes that lower latency for gaming and fintech applications.