Beltelecom

Beltelecom is the largest telecommunications operator in the Republic of Belarus, the leader on the market of data transmission, Internet access, telephony and IPTV. Beltelecom has a powerful Republican infrastructure and backbone network of fiber-optic communication lines (FOLS) with access to 5 neighboring countries (Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland).

The Company ensures transmission of long distance and international traffic, as well as the operation of the terrestrial network of television and radio broadcasting channels. For organization of international satellite communication channels the Satellite Earth Stations Complex Teleport is operated.

Beltelecom provides for the lease international digital streams and channels nearly of all capacity, ensures equal conditions for operation of the mobile operators of the Republic of Belarus by connecting them to the international exchange, and provides long distance and international roaming.

Beltelecom has the most extensive Wi-Fi network. The subscriber base of fixed network of the Company is 4 million 290 thousand subscribers. The Brand portfolio of the Company consists of its own brand Beltelecom, represented by telephony, data transmission, hosting and other services, as well as the brands byfly (broadband internet access) and ZALA (interactive television IPTV).

Byfly is the brand of broadband Internet access for corporate and private subscribers. Tariff offers of byfly are represented by a group of unlimited packages “Domosed” and packages “Comfort” charged based on traffic. A separate tariff policy was developed for Schools Internet access and people with limited abilities. The subscriber base of byfly is the largest in Belarus – 1 million 600 thousand subscribers! The brand byfly has become the winner of the professional Contest “BRAND OF THE YEAR” in the professional nomination “INTERNET SERVICES”.

ZALA – interactive digital television via IPTV technology. The brand ZALA is presented in all regions of the Republic of Belarus. Tariff offers are available for private and corporate subscribers. ZALA packages present an interactive format with Timeshift functions and simple television, as well as additional services: a virtual cinema, Video on demand, teleshopping, karaoke. Basic packages include more than 40 channels of digital quality. Themed packages are composed with due consideration of customers’ preferences.

History: On 5 December 1994, the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union assigned a new international telephone code to the Republic of Belarus +375. The code had taken effect from 16 April 1995.

Within a short time period, an up-to-date procedure of mutual settlements for international telecommunication services was implemented. To meet the challenge, a Network Management and International Accounting Center (INMAC) was established. The Center was responsible for hands-on management of international communication lines as well as inbound and outbound international telephone traffic.

INMAC is a predecessor of Beltelecom, a Republican State-Owned Association, that has been established in 1995 as an entity of governmental form of ownership to pool all telecommunication enterprises in the Republic of Belarus.

By Order of the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of 7.07.2004, the Republican State-Owned Association Beltelecom has been transformed to the Republican Unitary Telecommunications Enterprise Beltelecom (RUE Beltelecom) on 1 August 2004. Today Beltelecom includes 10 Branches and 2 Divisions.

Access networks: In the near future provision of fixed telephony services will be directed to maintenance of current subscriber base and provision of value-added services, development of which is supposed to be carried out firstly by replacing traditional telephony with IP-telephony. Beltelecom networks will be developed mainly on the base of IMS platform, the standards of which are basic for the majority of equipment manufacturers. Connection to IMS makes it possible to offer to subscribers first of all basic telephony services while installing telephone services in the house, which are also provided at public telecommunication networks but in this case with a wider spectrum. At the same time IMS solutions significantly expand opportunities of subscribers providing them expanded set of services including those which were impossible on the networks with circuits switching.

Access nodes of almost all the technologies used on Beltelecom networks are connected to IMS platform.

BelCel

BelCel Joint Venture( JV) is the first wireless operator in the Republic of Belarus. It offers services of the most advanced third-generation cellular telecommunication system. BelCel JV was founded by the Belarusian telecom enterprises and British company Cable &Wireless plc. The company’s name is a Russian version of the English abbreviation BELCEL that means “Belarusian Cellular”.

Commercial operation of the network was launched on May 7, 1993. In the course of the work, BelCel was staffed with highly qualified personnel. Belarusian, banks, embassies and key commercial companies were the first subscribers of BelCel JV. Within several months cellular communications became available in all regional centres.

Starting from July 15, 2003 BelCel telecom services are rendered under the brand “DIALLOG”.

BelCel network covered more than 60% of the national territory and continues to extend. 72% of the population of Belarus lives on this territory. Number of BelCel network users surpassed one million subscribers. DIALLOG is a telecommunications for subscribers who want to accentuate their personality, who keep step with time and use their cellphone not only as a means of communication but also as the efficient tool for their business.

BelCel JV occupied a special place in Belarusian market. Free calls within its network were not only the attractive marketing offer. This unique opportunity was in demand of users – that’s why DIALLOG was ideal for unlimited communication of friends and family memberscentres are open in Minsk, Brest, Gomel, Bitebsk and Grodno.

Commercial operation of DIALLOG-SMS started from May 1, 2004. During six months of pilot operation the company specialists checked the technical capabilities of the equipment and a peak load on SMS-centre. More than 3 million text messages have been sent by the subscribers during the pilot operation. In the near future company specialists shall test sending of the text messages to other operators. Preliminary, opening of SMS traffic to other telecom operators is scheduled for the current year summer.

The capacity of modernized BelCel network was enough to provide all the subscribers with the qualitative telecom services. BelCel provided the highest level of customer care, safe cellular communication technology.

From November 2002 the company began to provide Internet access services . In August 2002, the license was amended to provide her with the right to create a network of CDMA2000. In June 2006 JV " BelSel " put into commercial operation of data transmission technology EV-DO, which provides a direct channel speed of up to 2.4 Mbit / s.

From 1 July 2012 "Beltelecom" ceased cooperation with JV "BelCel". JV BelCel plans to restore the provision of mobile services throughout the territory of the Republic of Belarus before December 5, 2013. Supply of equipment and construction of the network will the Chinese company Huawei. The data network will be organized at a frequency of 450 MHz. Earlier it was planned to deploy LTE trial area before the end of 2012.