The third-largest Ukrainian mobile operator, LLC “lifecell” (TM lifecell), increased its daily active subscriber base by 250,000 over the past two months amid blackouts, said CEO of Datagroup-Volia-lifecell (DVL), Mykhailo Shelemba, in an interview with Forbes Ukraine.
According to him, the total number of subscribers, taking into account the three-month active base, is slightly more than 9 million. This trend is observed due to the fact that a significant number of subscribers on the market have two SIM cards.
“With the start of blackouts, they begin to actively use the second one, but they are included in the three-month base in the next reporting period. The situation is volatile,” said the CEO of DVL.
He specified that the number of MNP subscribers who transferred their numbers to lifecell in January and February 2026 was about 120,000, including almost 20,000 on February 14-15.
“Throughout the history of the MNP service, more than 70% … transfer it to lifecell. Today, we have 927,000 subscribers who have transferred to lifecell in almost seven years of service. Of these, about 400,000 came in a year and a half after the deal (when French NJJ Xavier Niel bought lifecell from Turkish Turkcell). The dynamics are positive,” Shelemba noted.
According to him, based on relative estimates, lifecell has seen the best results in terms of number portability in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Poltava, and Volyn.
Commenting on the 18.7% increase in revenue in 2025 to UAH 15.9 billion, the CEO of DVL noted that it is important for lifecell to grow faster than its competitors in terms of both the number of subscribers and revenue.
Shelemba explained the increase in the subscriber base by the fact that the company invested $20 million in the purchase and installation of batteries at base stations, as well as implemented a complex system for calibrating the operation of various technologies: 2G, 3G, 4G, in order to provide mobile Internet services during blackouts longer than its competitors, as traffic increased by 28% year-on-year.
According to him, the company also conducted tests using SES at base stations. At the same time, according to the operator’s estimates, the payback period will be longer than for other investments in the core business, which will not solve the problem of blackouts.
“We decided to spend this money on batteries, generators, and team equipment. We believe that subscribers will appreciate this focus more,” explained the CEO of DVL.
He also said that since the beginning of 2025, the DVL group has invested about $2 million in converting the network to PON, which has allowed 2,700 homes to be connected. According to him, the goal is to achieve critical mass coverage in cities: in Vinnytsia, for example, 80% coverage has already been achieved, but the transition to PON is actively underway in Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro.
“We are not building the network in pieces, we are covering at least microdistricts at once. The larger the city, the more difficult it is to do this quickly. The indicator in Kyiv is about 30%,” Shelemba added.
In an interview, he also advocated holding an auction for frequencies in the 700 MHz band for the deployment of 5G only when the state finds another 10 MHz of the band for the third operator, because now there are only 20 MHz, although 10 MHz can be found in the military.
“This process usually takes about a year. If they do it by the end of the year, it will be a record,” Shelemba said.
