velcom boosts 3G geographical coverage to 69.3%

Mobile Digital Communications (MDC, or velcom as it is more commonly known), the Belarusian cellco owned by Telekom Austria Group, has published a progress report on its ongoing 3G network rollout, noting that its infrastructure now comprises more than 1,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), providing coverage to 69.3% of the territory of the Republic. Last month the operator said it upgraded more than 600 BTS on its network as well as adding more than 200 new ones – including 140 operating at 900MHz using UMTS-900 technologies. velcom says the decision to use the lower band for 3G has enabled it to improve mobile internet quality in the Minsk, Brest and Gomel regions. Specifically, the cellco notes that residents in the Minsk region have benefited from the modernisation of over 300 BTS, where 100 were integrated with UMTS-900 technology, mainly in the districts of Smolevichi, Minsk and Volozhin. Further, the cellco spent part of the year improving its signal coverage on the nation’s highways, improving no fewer than 23 main roads with 160 900MHz BTS, in areas such as the city of Minsk (ring road), and major highways such as Minsk-Brest (M1), Minsk-Oshmiany (M7), Kalach-Logoisk (P66) and Sloboda-Papernya (P80), amongst others.