MINSK, 3 January (BelTA) – Belarus’ external Internet gateway capacity has been expanded up to 350Gbps, Beltelecom Director General Mr Sergei Popkov told BelTA. In early December the country’s external Internet gateway capacity stood at 290Gbps. Since then the capacity of the international Internet channels has increased by 60Gbps. The external Internet gateway capacity has been expanded due to the growing Internet services subscriber base and the need to secure quality access to foreign information resources. Earlier Beltelecom invited bidders to buy Internet access services in the Russian direction. According to the terms of the tender, the winner has to provide 11 channels with the total bandwidth of 110Gbps to the Belarusian national telecom company. There are plans to expand Belarus’ external Internet gateway capacity by at least 10Gbps by Q2 2013. The Director General also said that in 2012 Beltelecom expanded its Wi-Fi network up to 1,300 hot spots. In Minsk alone there are 712 hot spots primarily in hotels, universities, movie theaters, shopping and exhibition centers. Wi-Fi Internet access is popular in sport complexes and sanatoriums in the regions.

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