Ukraine’s third largest mobile operator lifecell will expand its fleet of rechargeable batteries at its base stations to 33 thousand, increasing their battery life to 10 hours, said Datagroup-Volia-lifecell (DVL) CEO Mykhailo Shelemba.
“The first batch of 6 thousand new batteries for lifecell base stations arrived at our warehouses yesterday. We plan to receive 6-7 thousand batteries every week, which is enough to power 1.2-1.3 thousand base stations for 10 hours. We will receive the full order of almost 33 thousand batteries in January and install them at base stations across the country as soon as possible,” Shelemba wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
According to him, the operator’s network already has 15 thousand lithium batteries, which allows it to operate autonomously for 4-6 hours during power outages.
The installation of an additional 33 thousand batteries will allow the network to operate autonomously for more than 10 hours.
“In addition to the batteries, more powerful uninterruptible power supplies for fast charging, new climate cabinets for the safe use of batteries and equipment have been purchased and installed,” Shelemba said, adding that one fifth of the equipment is powered by stationary and mobile generators.
Earlier it was reported that Datagroup-Volia-lifecell (DVL), a provider of fixed-line and mobile services, has developed a three-year network development plan that will increase the coverage and capacity of the lifecell network. The company has an ambitious development plan for lifecell and is making efforts to increase the operator’s energy resilience.
It was also reported that in September 2024, NJJ Holding, led by French investor Xavier Niel, completed the acquisition of Datagroup-Volia, a national provider of fixed-line Internet access services, and lifecell, the third largest mobile operator. The assets were merged into DVL Group. As of the end of the third quarter of 2024, lifecell served 9.9 million subscribers.
