By KYIV. Nov 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Due to blackouts after the shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure on November 15, the Kyivstar mobile operator lost 27% of its network equipment (sites – technological platforms with several technologies, including base stations).
"If we take the period before this attack, then during peak hours (during the day, in the morning or in the evening), on average, about 1,000 sites out of 13,300 did not work throughout the country … On November 15 at 21:00 there was another peak, 4,000 sites were left without power, of which 3,600 did not work … It was the most difficult day since the beginning of the war," Kyivstar President Oleksandr Komarov said in an interview with NV Business.
The difference between those numbers, he says, is the sites that continue to run on batteries.
"I don’t think there is a threat that mobile communications will disappear for a long time throughout Ukraine. It will depend on how the energy system will withstand. But I think there is a risk that the network may turn into a point coverage, that is such islands will be connected, and some islands will be absent," the president of Kyivstar stressed.
He noted that in the event of a long blackout, about 30% of the network equipment is switched off after 2-4 hours.
"If we talk about the most vulnerable regions today, these are Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Poltava, if we talk about this recent attack. Frankly, almost all regions were affected, only in 2-3 regions there were no power outages. In the rest there was power outage, but the scale was different," Komarov said.
As reported, power failures lead to the shutdown of more than 1,000 Kyivstar sites.
