Belarus Unlikely To Liberalize Beltelecom in 2007
Prime-Tass
Belarus’ state-run telecommunications company Beltelecom is very unlikely to go public this year, and no moves to liberalize the monopoly are expected soon, an economist with the Privatization and Management Institute, Anastasia Glambotskaya, said in an interview with Prime-Tass.
She noted, though, that there have appeared speculations about the reform of the company.
“Liberalization should be expected in 2008-2009, when the monopoly may even go public. I will refer to Beltelecom itself, which admits that it is inadvisable for a single company to control the external communications channel. The situation will change, according to the administration of the operator, but changes are very unlikely this year,” Glambotskaya said.
Belarus is supposed to liberalize its telecom segment as a move to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The specialist believes Belarus should not expect a foreign investor to take part in Beltelecom privatization. “The government will be looking for ways to keep this market under its control, and foreign investors will appear much later,” she believes.
At the same time, this segment must be quite appealing, as the Belarusian market is far from saturation.
“Although the number of subscribers is rising, it is far from the top. Mobile penetration in Belarus is at 66%, compared with 120% in Europe [number of phones per capita], so there is an excellent opportunity for growth,” Glambotskaya said.
Belarusian operators are capable of introducing new technologies, but the demand for new services is rather poor.
“Mobile operators are eager to launch new products, but are they called for? Will the return on investment be enough?” the specialist said.
Beltelecom was founded in July 1995. The company provides about 70 services, including telecommunication and Internet access services. The company employs 26,500 people.
Belarus has four mobile telecommunications companies, including three GSM operators – joint venture OOO Mobile Digital Communications, or MDC; joint venture OOO Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS; and ZAO BeST, and one cdma2000 operator – joint venture OOO BelCel.