Belarusian cellco MTS Belarus says it has benefitted from the addition of 25 new 4G LTE base transceiver stations (BTS) in the capital Minsk, and in the wider Minsk region. The deployment of 15 new BTS in the capital boosts the total there to over 200, while rollouts in the region expand coverage in Borisov, Derzhinsk, Smolevichi, Borovlyany, Stolbtsy, Kolyadichi and the town of Lesnoy. The firm notes that the deployments have been focused in areas showing strong data demand, with a spokesman from the commercial operations department, Nikolai Bulash, noting that almost 50 new towns/cities have been connected to the 4G network to date.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, last month MTS Belarus set out its stall to add an additional 49 locations across Belarus to its LTE services footprint this autumn. The cellco’s 4G service is hosted by the country’s infrastructure provider Belarusian Cloud Technologies (beCloud) and is looking to double the number of 4G users to two million subscribers as a result of the expansion drive. beCloud initially deployed LTEnetworks in Minsk, before rolling out services to other regional centres. MTS Belarus is now taking advantage of more than 650 4G base stations across Belarus. During the remainder of 2017, the company is looking to switch on 4G services for more customers in the regions of Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno and Mogilev.