WORK IN PROGRESS (Era isn't added yet) The old version with Era wallpapers -> (click).
The simplified timeline of events and used sources. All of these images were downloaded from the Polish file hosting service Chomikuj.pl. Not all of the GIFs are looped.
Era (1996-2011)	Orange (since 2005)	Plus (since 1996)
T-Mobile (since 2011) Four GIFs available in two resolution sets: 128×160px and 240×320px. These were uploaded multiple times between 2010 and 2012. Interestingly, they appeared on Chomikuj a year before the rebranding. In 2010, the network was still known as Era (one of Poland's major mobile brands during the 2000s) operated by Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (Polish Digital Telephony). In 2010, the PTC was acquired by German Deutsche Telekom, and in 2011, the Era brand was replaced by T-Mobile as part of an international brand unification. Later, in 2013, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa was officially renamed to T-Mobile Polska S.A. I still remember how my mom was unhappy with that change, because the new offer had worse terms of use (according to her), so she moved her number to Plus. T-Mobile was the first provider who started testing the 5G network in Poland in 2018, but they were the second brand which make it commercially available in 2020, a few months after Plus. The images on the left were used as (non-looping) startup screens, while the ones on the right were probably screensavers.
Heyah (since 2004) Heyah is a prepaid mobile brand (owned by Era, now T-Mobile) originally marketed toward teenagers and young adults, known for its edgy ads. The spot promoting their market launch won the Golden Lion at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes in 2005. Their next ad from the same year, featuring Little Red Riding Hood and a song sung by one of the most beloved and wholesome Polish singers - Zbigniew Wodecki, caused them to be fined by the Polish broadcasting regulator for scaring children. In 2013 they had to publicly apologize after a backlash caused by using Vladimir Lenin as the face of their advertisement campaign, because he is viewed in Poland as a war criminal. But probably their most famous ad series was the one from 2009 with cat Rysiek (a popular Polish cat's name, that can be translated as "Little Lynx") and dog Łinston (the Polish spelling of Winston). In the first one from that series, they changed "through" to "sru", which is an onomatopoeic word for the sound of taking a shit. As they say in that ad: Well then, sru [shit]. Prices have dropped in Heyah's equal rate plan. In the new Heyah Max: free text messages within the network, cheap [calls] to the EU, even cheaper in Poland, and more expensive to Play. Absurdly simple. [If you called someone from Play and you had a phone number with a different provider, you had to pay extra.] The brand name is the English speeling of the Polish word "heja," which is a greeting word often used by teenagers in that time. And everything in English is automatically cooler for Polish teenagers, which was true in 2004 and is still true over 20 years later. Przemek Bogdanowicz, the creator of the Heyah logo, once described it as the ugliest logo I've ever made. In 2022, they shifted its target audience to the Ukrainian minority in Poland. The first wallpaper, in 128x160px resolution, was reuploaded multiple times from 2008 to 2013. It's the only one from this brand where I can confidently say is official. The next four wallpapers in the resolutions 128x128px, 128x160px, 149x191px and 176x220px. They were uploaded to Chomikuj during the same time period, but only once or twice each.
Play (since 2007) After early network tests in 2006, Play entered a telecommunications market oligopolized by three main players: Era, Plus, and Orange. Thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign, better contract terms, and low call charges, they managed to become one of the main players on it, which is now oligopolized by four players: T-Mobile, Plus, Orange, and Play. For the additional context, I have two comments posted under this Polish article: When writing about Play, it's important to remember the higher Mobile Termination Rates fees that customers of other networks had to pay. For a long time, calling someone on Play was significantly more expensive than calling someone on Orange, Era (T-Mobile), or Plus. Meanwhile, Play offered the same rates to everyone. That's why many people switched to that network. (...) by Siara ------ When Play appeared, I switched to that network, tempted by simple, cheap offers without any catches. For 4 years I renewed my contracts because I was getting good terms, but unfortunately after some time Play became exactly like the competition, not cheap at all, with offers full of catches, and they stopped fighting to keep customers. That's when I left and I have no intention of going back. by Krzysztof Ł. Two sets of four wallpapers in 176x220px an 240x320px respectively, uploaded a few times between 2009 and 2013.
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