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National telecommunications monopoly reassures customers over fee hike fears

The Beltelecom national telecommunications monopoly on Monday tried to calm fears over the recent establishment of a budgetary fund for support of "universal" telecommunications services.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka, by his last week's presidential candidate, ordered telecommunications operators to contribute 1.5 percent of their proceeds to the fund, triggering speculation that the companies would raise their fees to make up for the tax.

In its February 26 statement, Beltelecom reassured customers that the fees were not expected to grow, explaining that the government had lowered the companies' contributions to the budgetary innovation fund from 19 to 17.5 percent of their revenues.

The fund was set up to compensate Beltelecom for providing low-rate fixed-line phone service and Internet connection at points of collective access.