Life / Vertu (or iPhone) in Poland ?? [19]

I’m new to Poland, so don’t know much about the providers, but WOW, Orange seems to be pretty bad from what I’m reading here.

I guess I made a mistake by going with them for my current cell. They (and all the rest) told me that I can’t get a plan (post-paid contract) with them because I don’t have a Polish ID card (which I still don’t have, and probably won’t have at all). So I had to go with the Orange prepaid cards.

The problem is that I’m traveling outside of Poland frequently (and from time to time outside of Europe), and have to pay some serious per minute rates when using my cell abroad (even when calling abroad from Poland). For now, I’m paying like PLN 300-400 per month for prepaid cards (this is only for calls and SMS…I’m not at all able to use internet and all those extra stuff on my phone with those cards). How’s that compared to a plan?

Any ideas on how to cut expenses? Change provider?

Life / Vertu (or iPhone) in Poland ?? [19]


Thanx for the info.

Law / EU grants to small business in Poland-advice needed [27]

Hi SeanBM,

First: a common misunderstanding is that EU grants for small businesses are only “grants”. In many cases these subsidies can be also subsidized loans (fixed low APR financing options) backed by Euro funds or by the respective country itself. In the case of grants, it is usually very hard to get these, since they are pretty much “free money” and many people are competing to get them. Usually, really innovative projects and undertakings that would in some way have a direct positive impact on that country’s socio-economic or cultural development are awarded the grants. A much better option, and a much better chance of receiving a subsidy for small businesses are the subsidized loans.

Regarding the nature of business activity that the grants or loans are usually awarded for: That can vary greatly from country to country, but in general the following are quite common:

- A new business that would provide employment to people in a high unemployment rate area of that country (in this case, many countries also offer corporate income tax breaks for the employer);

- A new business in any of the strategic industries of that country [e.g. oil, energy (perfect example here is small size wind/solar energy farms), telecom, tourism (mainly in Southern regions of the EU or Eco Tourism in some of the CEE countries), etc]

- A new farming business
- A new business in the BFSI sector that would contribute in the improvement of the economic conditions in the country and improving the general economic welfare of the citizens of that country (good example is Micro Insurance/Banking/Loans or Rural Insurance/Banking/Loans)

- A new business in a developing for that specific country industry. These grants/loans are given mainly to reduce or offset the risk of opening such new businesses, since the level of uncertainty in a new industry is usually higher than the level of uncertainty in a mature industry.

- A new business in the field of education or culture (e.g. Folklore Dance School or Cinema that plays only movies from that specific country)

- A new business in the life sciences area. In this case, you have to have some pretty extraordinary idea/project to get the funding.
- A new business in the IT field (this is only true for countries where the IT industry is just starting up…while I wouldn’t say Poland is one of these countries, the EU recently decided to provide a good amount of money to some CEE countries for exactly that reason and Poland is among those countries)

- A new business that is taking over a troubled business (here, you have to have a very good, detailed plan of how you’ll take that troubled business out of the mud, and of course have realistic projections, etc)

- Any new business that will improve the movement of goods/services inside/outside of that specific country. I don’t know much about this….
- Any new “green” business (meaning businesses that are eco friendly)
- etc…..

There are many more probably, but these are the ones that I know people in or heard about.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Law / EU grants to small business in Poland-advice needed [27]

Hi SeanBM,

No, but I know few people from other EU countries (not Poland) that have used this site before and it has helped them in their search.

Cheers

Law / EU grants to small business in Poland-advice needed [27]

Hey randompal,

This might be of use to you: eugrantsadvisor.ie/results.aspx?countryId=CPL