Capital investments of Vodafone Ukraine in 2022 amounted to about $100 million, not less than before the full-scale Russian invasion, NEQSOL Holding Ukraine regional director Volodymyr Lavrenchuk told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“As a responsible investor in 2022, NEQSOL Holding supported the strategy of capital investments made by Vodafone Ukraine Group in the most difficult conditions at the level of last year. These are investments to provide communications for millions of Ukrainians and data transmission systems for various production and service sectors”, – said Lavrenchuk.
Investments were mainly used to maintain network stability and restore communications in the de-occupied territories, as well as to buy new equipment and improve the company’s coverage, the press service of Vodafone Ukraine specified.
“If during peacetime emergency works accounted for no more than 2% of all works, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion they have taken up more than 95% of the time. Only for 9 months of 2022 more than 1 thousand repairs to restore damaged networks were carried out,” – noted in Vodafone Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions more than 500 Vodafone Ukraine base stations were damaged (of those that were able to survey). Operation of 577 base stations has been resumed, the company said.
According to the company, since March, Vodafone Ukraine has restored communications in more than 550 settlements, in particular in 123 towns and villages of Kherson region in the past week. Also 2.56 thousand kilometers of fiber-optic cable was renewed, the total length of unrecoverable and re-laid optics was 37 kilometers.
“Blackouts were an additional challenge. All equipment, except fiber optic, requires power supply and its absence is critical for network operation,” Vodafone Ukraine said, stressing that in order to ensure communication despite long blackouts they provide base stations with backup batteries, as well as use alternative power sources from diesel generators to solar panels.
Vodafone Ukraine in 2022 also invested in expanding coverage in the western part of the country, where most Ukrainians have moved since the war began. Since the beginning of the year, 150 base stations have been installed and a number of existing ones upgraded. In order to expand the 4G coverage 3.8 thousand base stations were installed, 250 new sites were built and 1.5 thousand 3G base stations were modernized.
Also the company continues to provide free services to Ukrainians, in particular in roaming, which has already been used by 14 million Ukrainians, the press service said.
