Experience of Eastern Partnership countries for regulating Belarusian telecom market

Belarus will use the experience of Eastern Partnership Initiative countries for the sake of regulating the domestic telecommunication market, BelTA learned from Belarusian First Deputy Information Technologies and Communications Minister Dmitry Shedko during the plenary session of the Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network (EaPeReg) held on 24 April as part of the telecommunication, information, and banking technologies forum TIBO 2015.

According to the official, it is the first time a plenary session of the Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network has been arranged in Minsk. “It is very good that we can use the experience of these countries for regulating our telecommunication market. The Belarusian market appeared slightly later than the European market and we have less experience. At the same time we are doing quite well,” noted the First Deputy Information Technologies and Communications Minister.

Dmitry Shedko stressed that strategic telecommunication decisions are discussed during such events. “Current matters such as roaming prices, the use of the radio frequency spectrum, the quality of service are usually discussed at seminars. Both a seminar and a plenary session have been held during TIBO 2015,” he explained. Representatives of 15 countries, including Latvia, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Armenia, Romania, Hungary, and Azerbaijan, came to Minsk.

BelTA has been told that a world conference of the International Telecommunication Union will take place in November to discuss a large number of matters. “By taking part in sessions of the regulating agencies we can polish our stance on a number of matters because there are always contradictions between countries while decisions made in Russia or Poland affect the Belarusian telecommunication market, too. This is why it is important for us to know the opinion of neighbors and to reasonably defend our point of view since we aim to improve living standards of Belarusian citizens,” stated the First Deputy Information Technologies and Communications Minister.

The next session of the Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network will take place in Chisinau in November 2015. The session is expected to focus on 4G technology uses among other things. “A number of countries have introduced certain technologies faster than Belarus, for instance, LTE or digital government. We study their experience to avoid errors and to use the most promising solutions. One of the matters we are interested in right now is the interaction between the mobile network and the stationary one. For now the number of subscribers of the two networks is roughly equal in Belarus while in some countries people opt out of fixed communication, for instance, in Latvia. We study the work of Latvian colleagues in order to be ready if the same situation starts to evolve in Belarus,” explained Olga Fedoreyeva, Deputy Head of the Telecommunication Office of the Belarusian Information Technologies and Communications Ministry.

The 22nd international forum on telecommunication, information, and banking technologies TIBO 2015 is scheduled to take place in Minsk on 22-25 April. The forum includes the 22nd international specialized expo TIBO 2015 and the 22nd Belarusian congress on information society technologies. The expo gathered representatives of over 200 companies from 13 countries (Belarus, Russia, Austria, China, Japan, and the USA). Foreign exhibitors account for 20% of the total number, with the share of new exhibitors at about 30%. The number includes major Belarusian and foreign manufacturers of telecommunication equipment, computers and software, security solutions, providers of all kinds of information and communication services.