Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), the country’s telecoms regulator, has given the green light for local operators PTK Centertel (Orange) and P4 (Play) to form a joint-venture company to build a wholesale LTE network. The decision has paved the way for the two firms to jointly bid for LTE spectrum in the country’s upcoming 2.6GHz auctions. According to a LTE World report, the operators are to create a separate brand for the joint venture, which will focus on reselling LTE services on a wholesale basis. The move appears linked to the fact that the regulator plans to sell-off just two blocks of spectrum, each of them too large to be able to used by a single operator, in a bid to encourage network sharing. 

The joint venture was first proposed in June this year. P4 noted at the time that it would “reduce [the] costs and risks through economies of scale.” Orange is the country’s largest mobile operator and had 14 million subscribers at the end of the second quarter, according to Wireless Intelligence data. Launched in January 2008, P4 – a 3G specialist – is a distant fourth in the Polish market (behind Orange, Polkomtel and PTC) but is one of the largest 3G operators in Eastern Europe. The firm had 3.1 million connections by end Q2, and is targeting a double-digit market share by 2012. One of Poland’s smallest operators – 2G player Mobyland (Aero2) – also announced plans to build a LTE network this week using 1.8GHz spectrum.