OREANDA-NEWS. January 12, 2015. The allied republican Ministry of Communications of the Byelorussian SSR was established on  January 5, 1955, the date when the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR was adopted, and on the basis of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Communications of the USSR.

Pavel Afanasiev became the first Minister of Communications in our country. He had held the post for almost 25 years, when in 1980 he was replaced by Ivan Gritsuk, who headed the Ministry for the next 14 years. Six persons have held the post throughout the history of the Ministry of Communications. Sergei Popkov, appointed in February, 2014, is the head of the government agency now.

In the mid-1990s, the government agency was renamed the Ministry of Communications and Informatics of the BSSR, and only in 1997 - the Ministry of Communications of the Republic of Belarus. The structure was given its present name, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus, on February17, 2004.

The Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus is a republican body of state administration which carries out state regulation and control of activities in the field of communication and informatization, coordinates the activities of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the field of communication and informatization.

There are 74 employees in the central office of the Ministry, 17 of them belong to the Department of Informatization. The system of the Ministry of Communications comprises 13 organizations, including five state-owned commercial organizations, two organizations that are funded through the state budget, five open joint stock companies and one closed joint stock company. Today the Ministry comprises 38 branches and 237 communication centers all over the country. The system employs 46,000 people now.

Today the steps to improve the provision of telecommunication services are being carried out in the republic. In recent years, the country has undertaken a number of principal measures to implement the unified state policy in the field of communication and informatization, created conditions for the development of organizations of all forms of ownership, operating in this field, programs for the development of communication and informatization are actively being carried out, and the legislation is being updated.

All institutions of general secondary education are provided with technical capability of connectivity using fixed broadband Internet access technology. New technologies have been actively introduced in Belarus, so the launch of Internet TV ZALA into commercial exploitation is planned in the first quarter of 2015. The subscribers will be able to view the content of programs from anywhere and using any subscriber device connected to the Internet. As part of the project, interactive programme viewing is also available (TimeShift, pause, free navigation in the viewing greed, near video on demand and other services  which are not available in the networks of terrestrial and cable television broadcasting) in addition to traditional television broadcasting. In 2014, the subscriber base of the broadband Internet access services byfly and IP-TV was actively growing. The implementation of the project has provided the population with an opportunity of interactive viewing of television programmes almost throughout the entire territory of the Republic of Belarus.

The information analysis system for medical examination and rehabilitation of disables persons is implemented in the field of e-medicine. The automated information data system of Social Protection Fund is developed, which provide payers with the on-line personal record-keeping documents. In the field of postal service the implementation of the automated equipment complex for written correspondence sorting gives an opportunity to make a step from manual handling of postal correspondence to its automated handling. The implementation of the project gives an opportunity to improve logistics, to concentrate streams of mail, to reduce the number of sortings, to shorten the period of time needed to handle mail, to minimize manual handling and sorting of mail and, as a result, to enhance the quality of postal service, to reduce mail delivery time.

The acquisition of sorting equipment and the correspondence sorting automation gave an opportunity to develop the service of the top-priority simple written correspondence mailing ‘first class’, under which the correspondence is handled on a priority basis and is sent  1.5 time faster than regular mail.

In order to improve the quality of public services in Minsk and its regions, 9 international mail receiving points are organized. The receiving points mentioned have all the necessary technological tools and software environments. Special software makes it possible to distribute mail to an addressee in a few minutes.

In the coming 2015 year the rapid development of the industry continues. The millionth subscriber is expected to be connected to the telecommunication network with the usage of IMS-platform.

In May 2015 the activities on the transition of the Republic of Belarus from analog television to terrestrial digital television broadcast will be finished. The implementation of the project will give an opportunity to improve the quality of services on programs broadcasting, to increase the number of programs broadcasted and available for receiving by customers on the entire territory of the Republic of Belarus, to optimize costs associated with television network usage, to increase usage efficiency of radio-frequency spectrum.

Under the concept of ‘Smart Home’ the implementation of modern information and communication technologies and the provision of modern telecommunication services, which ensure safety, conveniences, efficient use of resources, as well as management of building life-support systems are planned.  

In the field of e-medicine the following things will be created: the Republican automated telemedicine system of unified health counseling; the personalized information and analytical accounting system of medical and pharmaceutical personnel, the register of patients with hematologic deceases.

The expansion and modernization of software of postal information terminals, the integration with the ‘Automatic Parcel Terminal’ software and the acquisition of automatic parcel terminals will provide us with new opportunities.

The modernization of hardware and software system for the RUE Belpochta acceptance of payments and the integration of the software of service payments server and the ‘Raschet’ system via calculation agent gateway will continue.