BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
04/03/2008
Government predicts mobile user base to top eight million by end-2010
The government of Belarus is forecasting that mobile phone uptake will accelerate in the country in the coming years and will reach the eight million-mark by the end of 2010. Belarusian online news portal e-Belarus.org writes that the Council of Ministers' resolution No. 204 is forecasting a 400,000 rise in the number of fixed lines connected to national PTO Beltelecom (up from the planned number of 325,000), as well as the deployment of some 240,000 broadband ports. The Council is also hoping to see the incumbent deploying IPTV services across the country as part of its longer term objectives.
According to TeleGeography's GlobalComms database, the number of mobile phones in Belarus stood at more than seven million by the end of 2007, up from six million the previous year, a cellular penetration rate of around 73%. There are four players in the market: CDMA operator BelCel, which launched the country's first (analogue NMT) service back in 1993 but which has since migrated to CDMA-450, and three GSM network operators - MDC (Velcom), MTS Belarus and the most recent entrant, Belarusian Network of Telecommunications (BeST).
Source:
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=22015&email=html
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