BeST awarded GSM licence

Newly formed state-owned mobile operator Belarusian Network of Telecommunications (BeST) has officially been awarded the country’s third GSM-900 licence, allowing it to compete with fellow GSM operators Mobile Digital Communications (Velcom) and Mobile TeleSystems LLC, and CDMA operator BelCel. Under the terms of the licence, the operator is required to launch a commercial network within six months, with coverage of Minsk and all the other regional centres after the first year of operation, rising to 90% of the population by the end of the third year. The network is expected to cost around USD200 million to build.