Polish mobile phone operator Polkomtel is considering floating its shares to finance potential investment in launching UMTS services, the firm's CEO Wladyslaw Bartoszewicz said on Friday.

Poland's telecom ministry plans to hold a tender for four UMTS licenses, setting aside one permit for the state-controlled TPSA. The other two incumbents, Polkomtel and PTC, have said they also want to receive them. Bartoszewicz said he expected Polkomtel to invest up to one billion dollars within the next several years to introduce a UMTS network, which would bring broadband Internet, video and other capabilities to mobile phones and wireless devices. Bartoszewicz said that Polkomtel's shareholders, which include Britain's Vodafone AirTouch , Danish TeleDanmark , copper firm KGHM , oil group PKN and Polish Power Grid PSE, are discussing a possible initial public offering. He declined to give a date for the potential issue. Bartoszewicz comments, however, clashed with recent statement from the head of KGHM, who said the operator's shareholders did not foresee a public offering for at least the next two to three years.