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Belarus - Telecoms, IP Networks, Digital Media and Forecasts

cover for Belarus - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts

Table of Contents

Market Briefing
Published: May 2012
Pages: 26
Tables: 24
From: GBP 249.00  Buy Now!
Research from: telecomsmarketresearch
Sector: Networks & Infrastructure

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.

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

Sector
 2010
 2013 (e)
Subscribers to telecom services(million)
Fixed broadband
 1.8
 3.12
Mobile telephony
 10.1
 11.57
Fixed-line telephony
 4.04
 4.24
Penetration of telecoms services
Fixed broadband
 14%
 21%
Mobile telephony
 108%
 124%
Fixed-line telephony
 42%
 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.

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