Belarusian mobile operator Velcom has reported on the continuing expansion of dual-carrier HSDPA (DC-HSDPA) technology – launched in 2012 – having recently upgraded an additional 69 of its base stations in Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Brest, Mogilev and Vitebsk, enabling downloads at peak speeds of 42Mbps. Previously, Velcom reported that by the end of June 2013 the number of base stations running the DC-HSDPA technology had reached 54% of its total 3G base stations, while it had installed more than 100 new 3G/3.5G base stations in May and June alone. Earlier in the second quarter it reported that DC-HSDPA 42Mbps coverage had reached 62 settlements including Minsk and its suburbs via 440 base stations.
Meanwhile, Velcom also announced this week that it has recently increased capacity on 50 3G base stations using an additional (third) 5MHz channel of frequencies in the 2100MHz band – which it plans to implement on at least 500 3G base stations.
The Telekom Austria-backed firm says that its 3G/3.5G mobile networks are available to 100% of the Belarusian urban population and 87.2% of the total population, while 2G voice service coverage extends to 98.9% of inhabitants.