A1 (Unitary Enterprise A1) is a telecommunications, ICT and content services provider in Belarus. The company began its commercial activities on April 16, 1999, becoming the first mobile operator of the GSM standard in the country. Since November 2007, the company is part of A1 Telekom Austria Group, the European subsidiary of the multinational holding América Móvil, one of the world's largest wireless service providers. Until August 2019, the company conducted operations under the brand name velcom.
A1 customers in Belarus are more than 4.9 million people, over 1 million households have accessibility to a fixed communication network using GPON and Ethernet technologies in all regional cities and most district centers. In addition, A1 provides IPTV digital television services under the brand name VOKA, as well as data storage and cloud services based on its own data center, one of the largest in the country. The company employs about 3,000 people, and branded sales and service centers are located in all major cities of the country.
- 1999 – the company began commercial activity under the brand name velcom.
- 2000 – velcom GSM-communication appeared in all regional cities of Belarus.
- 2007 – velcom communication became available to the entire urban population of Belarus.
- 2007 – velcom became part of A1 Telekom Austria Group.
- 2008 – the company changed its logo and name to the Unitary Enterprise velcom.
- 2010 – the company began to develop a 3G network.
- 2014 – VOKA interactive television appeared in the company's portfolio of services.
- 2016 – the company built and commissioned one of the largest solar power plants in Belarus.
- 2016 – modernization of the existing 3G network was launched by adding the more advanced UMTS-900 to the UMTS-2100 formats.
- 2016-2018 – the company began to actively develop in the fixed Internet market, following the integration strategy of existing networks (connecting networks of Atlant Telecom, TeleSet, Garant in Gomel and Vitebsk, etc.), as well as building its own networks of high-speed Internet access using Ethernet and GPON technologies
- 2017 – velcom became the first mobile operator in the world to launch a fully virtual core of a mobile network in commercial operation.
- 2017 – velcom data center started operating in Minsk - one of the largest data processing center (DPC) in Belarus.
- 2017 – the company launched in Minsk the first narrow-band network NB-IoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) in the country for the “Internet of things”. By 2019 technology has become available in all regional cities of Belarus.
- 2019 – provision of 4G mobile Internet services was launched on the network of the BeCloud infrastructure operator in Minsk and in the Minsk region.
- 2019 – the company announced a relaunch in the market and began to use the dual brand velcom | A1.
- 2019 – the company completed the transition to the brand name A1 and changed its name to Unitary Enterprise A1.
A1 provides in Belarus mobile services of GSM 900/1800, UMTS 900/2100 standard (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA +), as well as 4G (LTE, in the network of infrastructure operator beCloud). Customers have access to a full range of basic services, as well as additional services. HD calls and high-speed Internet are available in the territory where 99% of the population lives.
A1 is also one of the largest private fixed-line Internet access operators in Belarus, providing the customers with high-speed Internet access based on their own fiber-optic network using Ethernet and GPON technologies. At the same time, a package of services for organizing Internet access through an individual fiber line is provided for legal entities.
Active network development took place in 2016–2018, when customers of Atlant Telecom (Minsk), Aichyna Plus (Minsk), Belinfonet (Minsk), Garant (Gomel and Vitebsk) providers joined the operator’s network Summit (Polotsk), Ranak Media (Svetlogorsk) and partially Delovaya Set (Minsk).
In September 2017, in Minsk, A1 launched its own Data Processing Center (DPC). The Data Center has occupied an area of 7.5 thousand sq.m and today is one of the largest and most modern in Belarus.
The DPC is designed for 800 IT cabinets and has its own optical ring - 43 kilometers of network with a bandwidth of 1 Tbit/s. The A1 Data Center has the international Uptime Institute (UI) certificate for Tier III fault tolerance in the Design and Facility categories, PCI DSS certificate confirming the security of customer infrastructure and the protection of payment card data, as well as the ISO 27001 data security certificate, confirmed by one of the most authoritative standardization organizations British Standards Institution (BSI).
A1 provides a video service under the brand name VOKA. The service is available on IPTV technologies in A1 and OTT networks through the network of any operator in Belarus.
In 2018, service VOKA began to display its own media content: Our Football and Our Hockey sections with broadcasts of matches involving Belarusian clubs and teams, live broadcasts of concerts, music festivals, conferences and forums, as well as broadcasts of e-sports tournaments in section E-Sports. In the VOKA SHOW section, reviews, mini-reality and TV shows are created exclusively for the platform. In addition, one of the key areas in the work of VOKA is the creation of Belarusian-language content.
In 2019, VOKA video service introduced the country's largest content library in Ultra High-Definition (4K).
A1 company offers its customers 90 branded sales and service centers in 32 localities of Belarus, as well as an online store. In addition to its own chain of shops, A1 is represented in more than 500 dealer shops throughout the country. In addition, today A1 is one of the largest suppliers of smartphones and tablets in Belarus.
The list of A1 priorities as a socially responsible business includes assistance to children and support for national self-identification. The company takes pride in a long charity and children aid history, and also implements large-scale social educational projects.
A1 also takes efforts to rediscover Belarusian heritage: traditions, history, culture and other elements of the national heritage. The company pays special attention to the most important Belarusian artifacts, such as the Belarusian language, national arts and pristine nature.
In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, A1 makes every effort possible so that its subscribers can stay connected, solve working tasks on a remote basis and run their business. But it is equally important that they can get any help they need and provide it to those who are particularly in need today.
Starting from 2020, ecology has become one of the company's priorities in the field of corporate social responsibility. In accordance with the ESG (Environmental. Social. Governance) principles, A1 has established certain goals and tasks that the company plans to achieve between 2021 and 2025 in the three main areas, energy efficiency, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and garbage footprint reduction. They are included in the company's environmental policy, which covers all aspects of A1's activities.