Internet in Belarus: Some Facts

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• Mikhail Doroshevich
• http//www.e-belarus.org

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• 1. Penetration
• 2. Infrastructure
• 3. Cost main internet services
• 4. Internet Users
• 5. Domain .BY
• 6. E-Government
• 7. Content
• 8. Political parties
• 9. NGO
• 10. Conclusions

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts
mobile
internet
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Internet in Belarus Some Facts
Infrastructure 36 providers 18 xDSL, 31
dial-up, 2 cable services
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Internet in Belarus Some Facts
Cost main internet services Dial-up 20 hours
per week 7.4 USD Dial-up 30 hours per week 15
USD Dial-up 40 hours per week 20 USD Unmetered
access 60 USD/mo ADSL (500 MB traffic) 26
USD/mo ADSL/IDSL (600 MB traffic) 50 USD/mo ADSL
(1 GB traffic) 100 USD/mo Broadband (1 GB
traffic) 50 USD/mo
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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• Internet Users
• 60 - Minsk, 20 - regional cities

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• Domain .BY
• Registrator http//www.tld.by
• Cost of registration, one time - 50 USD
• Cost of technical support for one year - 50 USD.
• Small zone 3.500 records
• (For example .ru 368.000, .de 6.000.000)
• No whois services.

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• E-Government
• only 74 (8,2 percent) of 903 analyzed national,
  regional and district government bodies are
  represented online.
• At the same time 73,2 percent of national
  government institutions (41 from 56), 11 percent
  of regional (8 from 72) and 3 percent of district
  (25 from 775) government bodies have their
  websites.
• Among the 74 reviewed web-sites 41 (55,4percent)
  represent national, 8 (10 percent) regional
  and 25 (33,8 percent) district governing bodies.
  
• 22 percent of all websites are not updated.

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• General eGov Profile

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts
Content Search Engines TUT.BY, all.by Rating
systems Akavita.BY, all.by Catalogues all.by,
catalog.tut.by, akavita News Portal http//www
.news.by http//www.tut.by http//www.naviny
.by http//www.bdg.by http//www.svaboda.org
Communities http//www.onliner.by http//fo
rum.delta.by
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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• Polictical parties
• 199 parliamentary candidates
• (49,8 of 400 registered by October 4, 2004) had
  their web-sites or web-pages.
• Politparty site Number of candidates presented
  
• Web-Sites, specially to elections 5
• 5 site 116
• Belarusian Parliament 61
• United Civil Party Web-site 8
• Lev Sapega Foundation branch 8
• Others 11

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• NGOs as well as political parties seem to lag
  behind the official structures in using the
  Internet the NGOs are almost three times less
  likely to rely on the Internet.
• The major reason behind this relatively limited
  Internet activities by the CSOs seems besides
  the lack of resources, also a lower awareness of
  the Internets potential, and, perhaps as a
  result of it, endemic online-practices
  illiteracy, despite clear benefits that the
  Internet can offer

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Internet in Belarus Some Facts

• Conclusions
• Undeveloped infrastructure
• Few websites with providing useful information
• eGovernment - interactivity lacking
• - CSOs are not aware of Internet democratic
  potential.

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Thank You!