Chris Bannister does have something of the raffish look of a buccaneer about him – an effect heightened by the Jolly Roger hanging behind his desk – but it helps to look like a pirate if you are looking to break into a comfortable and profitable oligopoly.

The ships-of-the-line forming the oligopoly are the three big operators in Poland’s mobile phone market: PTK Centertel, owned by France Telecom, which operates the Orange network; Polkomtel, part of the Vodafone group, with the Plus GSM network; and Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, owned by Deutsche Telekom, with the Era network.