BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/12/2006

Belarus publishes 'health check' on state of telecoms industry

The Belarusian Council of Ministers has published its latest results on the development of the local telecoms industry and announced details of its programme for the period 2006-2010, which includes plans to upgrade more analogue switches to digital. The Council aims to increase digitisation to 80% of local fixed line networks by 2010, by which date the number of main lines in service is expected to pass 3.6 million, a teledensity of 38 lines per 100 inhabitants. According to a report published on 1 October, the penetration of fixed lines currently stands at 37% in main cities, but is only 28% in smaller towns. During the first nine months of 2006 160,400 analogue lines were upgraded, while numbering capacity was increased by 55,600.

As part of its five-year development programme Belarus plans to roll out 7,200km of fibre-optic lines by 2010 to improve the focus on data-related broadband access technologies. A greater emphasis will be placed on the deployment of xDSL access technologies, and the number of broadband access ports available to national operator Beltelecom is expected to reach 240,500 by 2010, while the total number of subscribers to its network is forecast to top eight million. Moreover, the government is keen to auction licences for 3G mobile services. Frequency bands 1885MHz-2025MHz and 2110MHz-2200 MHz have already been allocated for UMTS mobile communication systems, and will be offered via a competitive tender (no date for the award has been provided). By October 2006 more than 5.5 million Belarusian mobile phones had been registered and mobile operators covered 73% of Belarus where 92% of its population reside.

Source:

http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=15996&email=html

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