Mobile communications and Internet in Belarus
The development of telecommunications in Belarus is roughly equivalent to the United States. Under the country code +375, there were a total of 16.09 million connections in 2021. Among them were 11.76 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.3 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.With about 295,217 webhosts, Belarus is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 70,824 of these, or about 24 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.
Back to overview: Belarus
Internet speed for cell phones and fixed network
With an average download speed of 51.27 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Belarus ranks 82nd in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 46.48 Mbit/second (43rd place).In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Belarus comes 126th with a download speed of 12.36 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 6 Mbit was enough for 126th place.
The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in April 2023 from 180 countries.
Mobile phone rates in Belarus
Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 10.20 was calculated Belarus in 2021. Compared to the previous year, this amount increased by 10 cents.The ITU refers to the costs for monthly use and includes 140 telephony minutes, 70 text messages and a data transfer of 2 GBytes. The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much. However, this is already quite a high consumption in a worldwide comparison. If one does not take a fixed amount in US dollars, but converts it to the economic output per inhabitant, a user in Belarus spends 1.9% of his gross national income on mobile telephony. Worldwide, this rate is around 6.6 percent.
In the USA, the monthly cost was around $38.10.
Lack of network coverage with 5G
A modern 5G network does not yet exist in Belarus (as of 2021). The penetration rate of 4G, i.e., mobile communications with at least LTE speed, was recently 97.40 percent. In other words, 242,848.16 people in the country had to make do with a maximum Internet speed of the outdated UMTS standard (or even less).The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the internet in Belarus from 1990 - 2021
Broadband internet in Belarus 2002 - 2021
The expansion of broadband internet in Belarus is roughly on a par with the USA. Around 87 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 35 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications. Landlines 1990 - 2021
Mobile phones 1990 - 2021
| Distribution in 2021 | Belarus Total | Belarus percent | USA Total | USA percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet users | 8.12 m | 86.89 % | 304.52 m | 91.75 % |
| Broadband users | 3.24 m | 34.68 % | 125.89 m | 37.93 % |
| Landlines | 4.33 m | 46.39 % | 97.82 m | 29.47 % |
| Mobile cellulars | 11.76 m | 125.91 % | 361.66 m | 108.97 % |
Country comparison: Belarus / United States of America
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