Internet is becoming the dominant communication network in the developed countries, displacing ordinary telephones and catching up with television as a primary source of news. It will be really great for America if Congress approves the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to make broadband Internet access more widely available throughout the United States.
It is kind of fun to see how extraordinarily wired Estonia is even when you compare it with such countries as the U.S. This small Baltic country brands itself as E-stonia, bragging its advancements in information technologies. And it’s about to get wired even more. The Estonian Broadband Development Foundation will start the construction of a network of fiber-optic cables across the entire country in spring 2010 as part of its EstWin project (article in Russian).
Lithuania, which neighbors on Belarus, is also interested to advance its Internet connection. Since March, one of its Internet providers has begun offering fiber-optic connection at quite a remarkable speed of 200Mb/s for domestic traffic (within Lithuania) and up to 80Mg/s for international traffic. All this comes at a price tag of about $39 per month.
Now where is Belarus in the world of broadband Internet? The only true provider in Belarus is Beltelecom, a state-owned monopoly. Its broadband department going under the name of Byfly can offer a pitiful speed of 2Mb/s. You’ll have to pay a $50 monthly fee for that.
Ah, yes, of course, Beltelecom has no time to improve its broadband coverage since it has to comply with the new Internet legislation which is supposed to make our virtual existence even more subjected to governmental control and limitations.

