The EBITDA of Ukrtelecom JSC in January-September 2022 decreased by 39% compared to the same period in 2021, to UAH 975 million, the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to the press release, due to the loss of control over part of the telecom infrastructure and the termination of the provision of services in the temporarily occupied territories, the company’s total income for nine months decreased by almost 17% compared to the same period last year and amounted to almost UAH 4.2 billion.
“The fall in EBITDA was due to the significant impact of the write-off of assets (losses) in the temporarily occupied territories, the formation of a reserve, as well as receivables arising from an increase in the number of overdue payments from customers. In addition, some of the company’s subscribers left the country. Also significant funds were aimed at helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine and humanitarian aid,” the operator commented on the results for January-September.
At the same time, the company continues to pay taxes on land and real estate, including in the temporarily occupied territories.
Ukrtelecom also noted that until February 24, all the company’s indicators showed steady growth, but the full-scale war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine changed everything.
“Since the beginning of the full-scale war between Ukraine and the Russian aggressor, Ukrtelecom has been working to restore services 24/7, ensuring their availability at the level of 87% of the settlements covered by the operator’s network. Assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the arrangement of Wi-Fi in school shelters are the main directions of the system the company’s social responsibility program during the war,” the press service of Ukrtelecom emphasizes.
According to the company, one of the strategic directions of Ukrtelecom’s network modernization was, as before, the optimization of the use of technological energy resources. Thus, over the past three years, electricity costs have decreased by 41%: from 155 million kWh in 2018 to 92 million kWh in 2021. At the same time, the company continues to implement a long-term energy efficiency program in wartime, which will contribute to the strength of Ukraine’s energy system, according to a press release.
“In recent months, the terrorist state has massively attacked the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, which causes direct damage to communication systems. The margin of safety of the Ukrtelecom network is currently provided by autonomous power generators, which are equipped with the operator’s most important Internet nodes, as well as sufficient (at least daily norms) fuel supply. The company’s daily investment in the stability of communication services is up to 14 thousand liters of diesel fuel with a critical load on the power grid and emergency shutdowns,” the statement said.
Despite the full-scale war, Ukrtelecom continues to implement projects to connect users to optics – in 2022, about 5 thousand km of fiber optic lines have already been built, and the optical Internet user base has grown by 33% compared to September last year and amounted to more 300 thousand subscribers in the mass and business segments.
About 200 medical and educational institutions were connected to high-speed optical Internet, more than 60 of them in the third quarter. In general, as of the beginning of October, optics from Ukrtelecom are used in more than 1.7 thousand educational and almost 1.3 thousand medical institutions.
In addition, Ukrtelecom completely modernized the telecommunications infrastructure in Dnipro, replacing copper cables with optical ones, and all operator services are now provided exclusively using the NGN (next generation network) multiservice telecom network of the new generation. Subscribers in Dnipro, switched to the FTTx optical architecture, have Internet speeds up to 1 Gbps.
Also, the implementation of a similar large-scale project to transfer subscribers to the modern NGN telecommunications infrastructure in Odessa is nearing completion.
Ukrtelecom emphasizes that it is still efficiently managing the property freed up due to the modernization of the technological infrastructure. Commercial rental income for three quarters of this year exceeded UAH 273 million, while they are almost 15% less than a year ago, which is due, among other things, to the loss of a number of properties in temporarily occupied settlements and destruction as a result of rocket attacks.
The operator notes that during the full-scale war he suffered considerable losses. A preliminary estimate of the cost of destroyed and damaged buildings, lost equipment, telecommunications networks and other assets in the temporarily occupied territories is almost UAH 650 million.
For nine months. In 2022, Ukrtelecom paid UAH 1.12 billion in taxes to the budgets of all levels, allocated about UAH 50 million in financial assistance for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and also transferred more than 170 corporate vehicles to the army.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrtelecom has acquired and donated almost 3,000 tactical first-aid kits, 4,000 medical tourniquets, 2,000 hemostatic bandages and dressings, hundreds of walkie-talkies, dozens of stretchers, generators and many other necessary things and equipment for the needs of our defenders . In the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, about 350 employees of the company protect Ukraine, according to a press release.
As reported, Ukrtelecom ordered the production of a significant number of Valkyrie unmanned aerial systems (UAC) and has already handed over the first three of them to the Ukrainian military. According to open data, the cost of one such complex is about $18.1 thousand.
