The mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine has launched a 4G LTE900 network in Sumy region, having installed 25 base stations, the company’s press service said on Friday, October 23.
According to a press release, the new coverage provides high-speed Internet for 195 settlements with a population of over 62,000 people.
To date, the operator has launched more than 530 base stations in the range of 900 MHz, which cover over 3,000 settlements. About 2.8 million people live on this territory.
The 4G LTE900 network from Vodafone Ukraine is already operating in Kyiv, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Ternopil, Rivne, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv regions and in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Till the end of 2020, the LTE 900 MHz network will be launched in all regions of Ukraine, alternately from the west to the east.
According to licensing conditions, by mid-2022, mobile high-speed Internet coverage should be provided in settlements with a population of more than 2,000 people, covering 90% of the population of Ukraine. And the coverage of roads of international and national importance should be provided until mid-2024.
The light Alpha launch vehicle (LV) will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California as early as December 22, 2020, the press service of Firefly Aerospace Inc., a provider of launch vehicles, spacecraft and in-space services, has said, referring to co-owner Ukrainian businessman Max Polyakov and Firefly Aerospace CEO Tom Markusic, who was cited in an interview on Friday by CNBC TV.
Firefly is finishing up work to prepare the launchpad at SLC-2.
While “everything is susceptible to surprises,” with room in the schedule to launch as late as January 31, Markusic said the “full gamut of rules” at Vandenberg means the company has put extra work into certification for Alpha’s first launch.
“Our design has been highly vetted, as we have a lot of requirements that are put on us by the range and that makes the rocket ultimately more reliable,” he said.
He said that it is very reasonable for Firefly Aerospace to expect complete success on the first launch.
Standing at 95 feet tall, Firefly’s Alpha rocket is designed to launch as much as 1,000 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit – at a price of $15 million per launch.
Firefly Aerospace was restarted in 2017 by Ukrainian Polyakov, including it in Noosphere Ventures.
Only a handful of tests remain until Alpha’s first launch. Firefly conducted a final engine test with the rocket’s first stage two weeks ago, with a second stage engine test up next. Then Firefly will conduct the “activation of the launch site.” The next big milestone will be the static fire of the entire vehicle at the launch site.
Firefly expects to launch at least three times in 2021.
In addition to the Alpha and Beta rockets, Firefly Aerospace is working on Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) known as a space tug to deliver satellites from a rocket to a specific orbit, and a lunar lander called Genesis for NASA.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Dnipro Municipal Energy Service Company (Dnipro) have signed a loan agreement on the allocation of EUR25 million in a loan to improve the energy efficiency of 98 public buildings, including 67 kindergartens, 27 schools and four clinics.
“Thanks to the agreement between Mayor Borys Filatov and the EBRD, today we’ve signed a loan to finance the second stage of a large energy saving project in the city’s buildings. This will create conditions that are more comfortable for the residents of our city,” the bank’s press service quotes deputy mayor of the city Eduard Pidlubny.
“The new loan builds on the successful implementation of a pilot project with Dnipro’s energy management company in 2020. Under the pilot financed by the EBRD, the E5P and the Clean Technology Fund, 33 schools and 48 kindergartens have been refurbished offering more comfort and greater energy efficiency,” the bank said on its website.
“The new financing will allow the city to maintain the pace of its energy efficiency investments in public buildings and will set an example for other Ukrainian cities to follow. Once the projects are completed, the city would have renovated almost 200 public buildings, the largest such effort in Ukraine,” Mark Magaletsky, the EBRD Deputy Director for Ukraine, said.
The EBRD’s board of directors reportedly approved the project last week.
The loan has a term of 13 years, including a grace period of up to three years, with 20 equal payments every six months. The loan will be secured by the city’s full municipal guarantee, the bank said.
Pivdenny commercial sea port (formerly Yuzhny, Odesa region), the largest seaport of Ukraine in terms of transshipment volume, increased transshipment by 21.4%, which is 46.932 million tonnes in January-September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
According to the data of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority published on its website, in the nine months the port increased the transshipment of export cargo by 26.4% to 35.775 million tonnes compared to January-September last year, import cargo by 9.5%, to 5.793 million tonnes, and transit cargo by 0.4%, to 5.062 million tonnes. Coastal cargoes were handled 17 times over, which accounted for 1.728 million tonnes.
In terms of the cargo nomenclature, the port increased the transshipment of liquid cargo by 23.4% up to 4.028 million tonnes, bulk materials by 22.3%, to 39.478 million tonnes, packaged goods by 10.2%, to 3.425 million tonnes.
Transshipment of containers for the specified period amounted to 181,737 TEU (up by 25.4%).
Pivdenny sea port was founded in 1978. It is located on the banks of the Adzhalyk estuary and is the deepest in Ukraine. The total length of the berths is about 2.6 km.
The pharmaceutical company JSC Farmak (Kyiv) has received a request from the Ministry of Health and scientists regarding the possibility of its involvement in clinical trials of a Ukrainian vaccine against COVID-19, the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Farmak has recently received a request from the Ministry of Health and scientists about the possibility of involving the company in clinical trials of the Ukrainian vaccine against COVID-19. Also, the state received a request for the possibility of industrial production of the vaccine (if its safety and effectiveness are proved),” the company said.
Currently, Farmak is studying the request: the company’s experts are analyzing the available materials related to the development and are consulting with scientists and representatives of the Ministry of Health.
As reported, the state intends to fund clinical trials of the vaccine.
Farmak manufactures medicines in all fourteen therapeutic groups. Among the main directions are anti-cold, endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological portfolios. The company annually introduces to the market about 20 new complex-component modern drugs, and about 100 drugs are currently in development.
Over the past five years, Farmak’s investments in the scientific and technical complex, production equipment, and research activities amounted to UAH 3.4 billion.
In 2019, Farmak received a net profit of UAH 1.056 billion, which is almost the same as in 2018 at UAH 1.05 billion, while in 2018 Farmak increased its net profit by 25.16%.
JSC Farmak is a member of the Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine Association.
According to the unified state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficial owner of Farmak is the head of the supervisory board, Filya Zhebrovska, who owns 80% of the company’s shares.
Kharkiv received the first low-floor, one-section trolleybus out of 49 comfortable trolleybuses purchased under loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
According to the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on Thursday, October 22, this became possible due to the participation of Kharkiv in the Ukraine Urban Public Transport project, which is a framework loan from the EIB.
As part of the project, the city received a EUR 10 million loan for the renewal of the trolleybus fleet.
“Kharkiv became one of the 11 member cities and has already received today the first low-floor trolleybus out of 49. By the end of the year we hope to conclude an agreement with the EIB on the implementation of the second part of the project Urban Public Transport II, which will provide for the purchase of only environmentally friendly transport. I am sincerely grateful to our partners from the EIB, who support us both in the implementation and in the continuation of this important project for the cities,” Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Vladyslav Krykliy said.
Trolleybuses for Kharkiv were manufactured by the subsidiary Car Assembly Plant No.1 of Automobile Company Bogdan Motors.
According to the delivery schedule, 49 trolleybuses will arrive in Kharkiv by the end of 2021. The whole delivery will include 12 two-section and 37 single-section trolleybuses.
