Belarus - Telecoms, IP Networks, Digital Media and Forecasts

Belarusian e-government services benefit from telecoms infrastructure upgrades
BuddeComm’s annual publication, Belarus - Telecoms, IP Networks and Digital Media and Forecasts, provides a comprehensive overview of the trends and developments in the telecoms sector in one of Eastern Europe’s key emerging markets. It incorporates the latest Ministry of Communication’s market data, telcos’ operational and financial data to Q1 2012, and market developments into mid-2012. The report provides an overview of the telecoms market including the mobile voice and data, broadband and digital media sectors.

Economic challenges
Belarus’s economic growth was halted by the 2008 financial crisis. Although inflation has been brought down to more manageable levels, the country will face difficult challenges into 2013 at least. The economic crisis has also affected the telecom sector, with reduced customer spend leading to lower telco revenue and investment.

Telecom sector overview
There remain many opportunities for growth in coming years given the relatively low penetration in fixed-telephony and broadband services. Although the sector has been reformed in recent years, restructuring has not resulted in the privatisation of the incumbent Beltelecom, which has invested substantially in infrastructure and technologies, assets which the government is keen to control despite having considered auctioning off the enterprise in late 2010. Growth is expected to be particularly strong in the FttH sector, where much of the company’s capex is directed.

Mobile developments
The mobile sector has experienced the strongest growth in telecoms, with a rapid rise in mobile penetration attributed to effective competition. LTE services, launched in 2012, suggest that further revenue growth will come from mobile data services. Recent spectrum auctions will facilitate the development of mobile broadband access, particularly in rural areas.

Belarus - Key telecom parameters – 2010; 2013
Sector20102013 (e)
Subscribers to telecom services(million)
Fixed broadband1.83.12
Mobile telephony10.111.57
Fixed-line telephony4.044.24
Penetration of telecoms services
Fixed broadband14%21%
Mobile telephony108%124%
Fixed-line telephony42%45%
(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)

Market highlights:

FttH deployment is guided by the Ministry of Communications within the state programme by which Beltelecom has made GPON-based FttH available to about 90,000 subscribers. Some 3,520km of cabling has been built thus far.
Analogue switch off by 2015 may be brought forward though DTTV development has been stymied by the high cost of reception equipment, with only about 20,000 digital STBs sold in 2011. To help push ASO, the sale of TV sets without DTT tuners will be banned from 2013.
Future internet society development is guided by a development strategy for 2011-2015. Priorities include development to infrastructure, e-government, e-health, e-learning and human capital development
A commercial LTE launch in early 2012 in Minsk and Grodno, providing up to 40Mb/s.
Scartel has indicated its readiness to sell Yota Bel, potentially bringing in an international investor into the LTE market.
In March 2012 the UN ranked Belarus 48th on its e-government development index (in terms of telecoms infrastructure), compared to 84th in 2008.
International transmission capacity has grown in line with rising internet usage. By March 2012 capacity had reached 220Gb/s. of which the gateway to Russia accounted for 140Gb/s, with the remaining 80Gb/s transiting through its western link.
MTS Belarus launched DSL services in mid-2012, complementing its limited Ethernet offerings.Henry Lancaster
August 2012
Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in Belarus’s telecommunications market. The report analyses the mobile, internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media sectors.

Subjects include:

Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;
Facts, figures and statistics;
Industry and regulatory issues;
Infrastructure;
Major players, revenues, subscribers, ARPU, MoU;
Internet, VoIP, IPTV;
Mobile voice and data markets;
Broadband (FttH, DSL, cable TV, wireless);
Convergence and digital media;
3G subscriber and mobile ARPU forecasts to 2015;
Broadband market forecasts for selective years to 2020.

Key developments:
Government legislation restricts access to some foreign websites, obliges e-commerce to be made via site registered with the ‘.by’ domain name; Beltelecom builds out GPON FttH network; Yota launches commercial LTE services, expands network; regulator market data updates to early 2012; telcos’ operating and financial data to Q1 2011; market developments into mid-2012.

Companies covered in this report include:
Beltelecom, Cosmos TV, Minsk TV and Information Networks (MTIS), Teleradio, Belcel, MDC, MTS Belarus, BeST.

This report is essential reading for those needing high level strategic information and objective analysis on the telecom sector in Belarus. It provides further information on:

Market liberalisation and regulatory issues;
The impact of the global economic crisis;
Telecoms operators – privatisation, acquisitions, new licences;
Mobile data market developments in coming years in light of spectrum auctions and new license awards;
3G developments, regulatory issues and technologies including HSPA and LTE;
Broadband migration to an FttH architecture;
Historical and current subscriber statistics and forecasts;
ARPU statistics and forecasts. SHOW LESS READ MORE >

1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
2.1.1 Table  SEQ Table \- ARABIC 1 – Country statistics Belarus – 2011
2.1.2 Table  SEQ Table \- ARABIC 3 – Internet user statistics – 2012 (e)
2.1.3 Table  SEQ Table \- ARABIC 5 – Mobile statistics – 2012 (e)
3. Telecommunications market
3.2 Overview of Belarus’s telecom market
4. Regulatory environment
4.1 History
4.2 Regulatory authority
4.2.1 Ministry of Communications and Informatization (MCI)
4.3 Telecom sector liberalisation in Belarus
4.3.1 Privatisation
4.3.2 Interconnection
4.3.3 Access
5. Fixed network operator in Belarus
5.1 Beltelecom
6. Telecommunications infrastructure
6.1 National telecom network
6.1.1 Table  SEQ Table \- ARABIC 8 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1999 - 2013
6.2 International infrastructure
7. Internet market
7.1 Overview
7.1.1 Belarus’s emerging internet society
7.1.2 Regulator issues
7.1.3 E-government
7.1.4 Internet statistics
7.1.5 Table  SEQ Table \- ARABIC 10 – Internet users, subscribers and penetration rates – 2000 - 2012
8. Broadband market
8.1 Overview
8.1.1 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
8.1.2 Cable modems
8.1.3 Wireless broadband
8.1.4 Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH)
9. Overview of broadcasting market
9.1 Digital TV
9.1.1 Broadband TV (IPTV)
9.1.2 Cable TV
9.1.3 Digital Terrestrial TV (DTTV)
9.1.4 Video-on-Demand (VoD)
10. Mobile communications
10.1 Overview of Belarus’s mobile market
10.1.1 Mobile statistics
10.2 Regulatory issues
10.2.1 First GSM licence awarded
10.2.2 Second GSM licence awarded
10.2.3 Third GSM licence awarded
10.2.4 CDMA licence awarded
10.2.5 Radio frequency usage fees introduced
10.2.6 3G licence
10.3 Mobile technologies
10.3.1 GSM
10.3.2 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
10.3.3 Third generation mobile
10.4 Major mobile operators
10.4.1 Belcel/Diallog
10.4.2 Mobile Digital Communications (MDC)/Velcom
10.4.3 Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)
10.4.4 BeST/life :)
10.4.5 MVNOs
10.5 Mobile data services
10.5.1 Overview
10.5.2 Short Message Service (SMS)
10.5.3 GPRS, WAP and MMS
10.5.4 Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE)
10.5.5 High Speed Packet Access (HSPA)
10.5.6 Long-term Evolution (LTE)
10.5.7 Mobile broadband
10.6 Mobile content and applications
11. Forecasts – fixed broadband market – 2010 - 2013; 2020
11.1 Scenario 1 – higher fixed broadband subscriber growth
11.2 Scenario 2 – lower fixed broadband subscriber growth
11.3 Notes on scenario forecasts
12. Related reports
Table 2 – Telephone network statistics – 2012 (e)
Table 4 – Broadband subscriber statistics – 2012 (e)
Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
Table 7 – Beltelecom subscribers by sector – 2011 - 2012
Table 9 – Total international internet bandwidth – 2000 - 2012
Table 11 – Internet users by age group – Jan 2012
Table 12 – Broadband subscribers and penetration rate – 2005 - 2013
Table 13 – Proportion of internet connections by platform – Jan 2012
Table 14 – ADSL subscribers – 2004 - 2012
Table 15 – Beltelecom DSL subscribers – 2008 - 2011
Table 16 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1999 - 2013
Table 17 – MDC financial data – 2007 – 2012
Table 18 – MDC postpaid, prepaid and blended annualised ARPU – 2007 – 2012
Table 19 – MDC subscribers & monthly minutes of use (MOU) – 2007 – 2012
Table 20 – MDC prepaid users and share of total – 2007 - 2012
Table 21 – MTS subscribers – 2004 - 2012
Table 22 – MTS operational data and ARPU – 2004 - 2012
Table 23 – BeST financial data – 2010 - 2011
Table 24 – BeST mobile subscribers – 2009 - 2012
Table 25 – Total mobile broadband subscribers and penetration rate – 2007 - 2013
Table 26 – Forecast fixed broadband subscribers – higher growth scenario – 2010 - 2013; 2020
Table 27 – Forecast fixed broadband subscribers – lower growth scenario – 2010 - 2013; 2020
Chart 1 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2003 – 2013
Chart 2 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1999 – 2013
Chart 3 – MDC financial data – 2007 – 2012
Chart 4 – MDC postpaid, prepaid and blended annualised ARPU – 2007 – 2012
Chart 5 – MDC prepaid users and share of total– 2007 – 2012

- Beltelecom
- Cosmos TV
- Minsk TV and Information Networks (MTIS)
- Teleradio
- Belcel
- MDC
- MTS Belarus
- BeST