By KYIV. Oct 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The largest Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar will focus on the development of LTE technology. (Long Term Evolution is a wireless network with increased requirements and a throughput of 10 Mbit/s), by 2026 the coverage level in Ukraine will be increased to 98%.
“Our goal is to achieve 98% LTE coverage for the population by 2026. Now it’s different, depending on the region. But, for example, in Kyiv region it is 97%, and on the Kyiv-Chop highway it is 95%,” Kyivstar President Oleksandr Komarov said at a joint press conference with VEON CEO Kaan Terzioğlu on Monday.
He said that increasing coverage even by 1% requires enormous effort and the construction of hundreds of new sites, including greenfield ones.
Kyivstar is implementing the “LTE everywhere” project in Ukraine, including investments of $600 million from the parent company VEON, Komarov said.
“We believe this will be a key technology for the next five-seven years. It will transmit the largest amount of internet or our consumers’ data. Therefore, we are now implementing this project, and its main focus is coverage,” the president of Kyivstar said.
According to him, Kyivstar focuses on three key areas: network development, technology development, and improving communication quality. In particular, Kyivstar is developing PON technology (modern technology for high-speed data transmission via fiber optic communication lines, which involves connecting all subscriber devices via one optical cable and makes it possible to simultaneously use several telecommunication services: Internet, television and telephone).
Komarov said that since new technologies require an increase in the number of sites, due to construction, their number has already reached the pre-war level.
“As I said, we really build many times more than our competitors – bigger and faster. I’ll tell you this: despite the loss of 7% of the network [due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation], today we serve the same number of sites as we did before the war. We have already completely restored the part that we lost,” Komarov said.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian electronic communications operator, which as of September served 24 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers. The company provides services using a wide range of mobile and fixed-line technologies, including 4G, Big Data, Cloud solutions, cyber protection services, digital TV.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is the international group VEON, whose shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) and Euronext (Amsterdam) stock exchanges.
