Not content with simply predicting mobile subscriber numbers, the Belarusian Government has announced its forecasts of the number of broadband Internet users.

Belarus’s Deputy Minister of Informatisation and Communications, Nikolai Strukov, predicts that the country will have 500,000 broadband Internet users by 2010. Strukov believes that approximately 260,000 of these subscribers will be receiving high speed Internet services from the national PTO Beltelecom and a further 100,000 will be using alternative operators. The other 140,000 will be made up by home networks with multiple users, Mr. Strukov added. The minister went on to say that the 500,000 forecast was a conservative one and that he expects the figure could be even higher.

PTO Beltelecom currently has 66,000 broadband Internet subscribers and accounts for roughly 60 percent of the national market, with alternative service providers and resellers claiming the remainder.