The mobile operator Kyivstar has received a partnership format extended to the level of Licensing Solution Provider (LSP), which gives the right to work with cloud solutions from Microsoft in the market of large enterprises and the public sector – to supply licensed products under corporate agreements and provide them with appropriate technical support.
As noted in a statement of the operator on Friday, earlier Kyivstar had a Cloud Services Provider (CSP) authorization, with which the company could sell online services and software licenses on a subscription basis, as well as perpetual licenses for local software.
The LSP status substantially complements these capabilities and allows Kyivstar to supply Microsoft products to the Ukrainian market under the Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Enterprise Agreement Subscription (EAS) corporate licensing programs.
“For more than five years, Kyivstar has been developing the direction of selling cloud products for the company’s business clients […] The LSP status that we have received is granted to the largest and most reliable Microsoft partners who have confirmed their professionalism in working with cloud products of the world-famous corporation. It enables Kyivstar to create unique offers for business based on the needs of specific clients,” Ilya Polshakov, Director of New Business Development at Kyivstar, is quoted in the message.
The company notes that the combination of Kyivstar’s CSP and LSP capabilities enables the operator to provide business customers with: an expanded set of Microsoft licensed solutions; new opportunities for the development of hybrid solutions; access to licensing agreements that take into account the needs of companies of different tiers; the ability to negotiate non-standard conditions with Microsoft, as well as the expertise and assistance of qualified specialists in selecting the optimal licensing strategy for the needs of a particular business.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian telecommunications operator. It provides communication and data transmission services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 3G. By the end of 2018, its services were used by about 26.4 million mobile subscribers and about 900,000 fixed Internet customers.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is the international group VEON (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) stock exchange.
The Kyivstar mobile operator has updated the functionality of the Business Data Solution platform for independent client mailings and is relaunching it under a new name – Adwisor.
As the company’s press service said on Tuesday, the purpose of the updates was to create a multichannel marketing tool, the capabilities of which make it possible to better build communication with the client, expand the client base and, as a result, increase sales.
Kyivstar notes that the extended functionality of the platform took into account client requests for an accurate determination of the target audience of mailings, detailed analytics of promotional campaigns, etc.
According to the operator, in particular, among the updates: new filters for selecting the target audience of mailings (24 more were added to the existing filters, including: travel to regions of Ukraine with access to the Black and Azov Seas or the Carpathians; users of programs for online meetings; people interested in sports, movies, computer games, etc.); updated interface (tips appeared at each stage of working with the platform); improved analytics of the conducted mailings (now you can analyze in detail and compare promotional campaigns with each other using filters and data sorting); and saved audience templates for future campaigns.
“Today, successful work with clients is based on the ability to give them personalized offers – those that best meet the interests of consumers and their expectations. So, there is a high probability that the product or service will be bought. And, mailings, which are based on Big Data-analysis, are ideally suited for such communications,” B2B Director at Kyivstar Kostiantyn Vecher said.
According to him, the ability, thanks to Adwisor, to launch a promotional campaign quickly, customize all its parameters with your own hands, flexibly manage the budget, and draw conclusions based on accurate analytics is a competitive advantage that will help small and medium-sized businesses work with clients.
The mobile network operator Kyivstar in September activated 4G technology at 75 base stations, as a result, 83,000 more Ukrainian residents in 132 settlements are able to access the company’s high-speed mobile Internet.
The press service of the operator reported on Monday that in particular, the technology was activated in the following settlements: Verkhniy Luzhok, Yasenytsia-Zamkova, Khatky (Lviv region), Tochylove, Novoheorgiyivka, Topaly (Odesa region), Shevchenkove, Kiyliv, Somkova Dolyna (Kyiv region), Liubar, Stryzhivka, Ivankivtsi (Zhytomyr region).
The company said that in the second quarter of 2021, Kyivstar invested about UAH 1.5 billion in the development of new communication technologies, which made it possible to significantly expand the territory of the 4G network. Due to this, the number of subscribers who used high-speed mobile Internet increased during this period by 32.3%, and the consumption of megabytes per subscriber increased by 23.6%.
To date, 10.3 million people use 4G communication in the Kyivstar network.
LTE technology in the Kyivstar network has been activated at almost 18,000 base stations.
By 2022, the operator plans to cover 90% of the country’s population with 4G.
The mobile operator Kyivstar in the second quarter of 2021 increased its total revenue by 18.1% compared to April-June 2020, to UAH 7.904 billion, the company’s press service said.
According to the published data, in the second quarter Kyivstar increased its EBITDA by 17.4% over the same period last year, to UAH 4.783 billion. At the same time, the EBITDA margin decreased by 0.4 percentage points (p.p.), to 67.4%.
Revenues from mobile services increased by 18%, to UAH 6.597 billion.
In addition, the operator noted that in the second quarter of 2021, the consumption of minutes per user (MoU) decreased by 3.3%, to 620 from 641 in the same period last year. At the same time, the use of mobile Internet in April-June increased by 23.6%, to 6.2 gigabytes per subscriber, while the average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 16.4% and amounted to UAH 84.
The subscriber base in the second quarter of 2021 grew by 2.1% and amounted to 25.9 million. The subscriber base of the Home Internet service increased by 11.5%, to 1.16 million users.
Capital expenditures of Kyivstar during the reporting period decreased by 6.34% compared to the second quarter of 2020 and amounted to UAH 1.462 billion. According to the company, in total for the six months, Kyivstar’s capital expenditures amounted to UAH 2.539 billion. These funds were mainly used to build 4G networks on roads and in rural areas, as well as to improve the quality of services.
To improve customer service, the telecoms operator in the first half of 2021 modernized its IT systems by introducing a new technological solution from Ericsson.
In January-June 2021, Kyivstar transferred UAH 4.9 billion of taxes and other payments to the state budget and remains the largest taxpayer in the communications industry, the company said.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian telecommunications operator. It provides communications and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 3G. By the end of 2020, its services were used by about 25.9 million mobile subscribers and about 1.1 million fixed Internet customers.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is VEON international group (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) stock exchange.
Ookla (the United States), the developer of Speedtest service, has recognized Kyivstar as the mobile network operator with the highest average mobile Internet speed in Ukraine in H1 2021, according to a report of Ookla Speedtest posted on Speedtest website.
According to the report, in Ukraine, in January-June 2021, more than 1.5 million tests were made in the company’s network by subscribers of all mobile operators participated. In particular, the total number of tests on the Kyivstar network was 546,000 with average download of 33.2 Mbps and upload of 15.7 Mbps.
Some 613,600 tests were made in the Vodafone Ukraine network with average download of 30.37 Mbps, upload of 13.73 Mbps; on lifecell network – 322,100 tests with average download of 15.72 Mbps and upload of 8.15 Mbps.
According to Ookla, the Speed Score of Kyivstar was 34.65, Vodafone Ukraine – 32.05, lifecell – 15.24. This indicator includes data on download and upload regardless of the standard.
In general, in Ukraine, the application was launched on 472,800 unique devices, of which the top five most popular include iPhone 7 (14,800 tests), Redmi Note 8 Pro (13,800 tests), Redmi Note 7 (13,600 tests), iPhone 11 (12,300 tests), Redmi Note 5 Pro (10,800 tests).
In addition, as noted in the Ookla report, Kyivstar received the highest number of points when testing network coverage in Speedtest – 595. This score is formed on the basis of an analysis of the number of locations where operators provide their services and the quality of mobile communications in each of them. Vodafone Ukraine scored 493 points, lifecell – 321.
The Kyivstar mobile operator in January-June 2021 launched 4G in 2,634 settlements, where about 1.2 million people live, the company’s press service said.
Kyivstar notes that by the end of the year it plans to provide at least 89% of the entire population of Ukraine with high-speed Internet.
“Due to the fact that in July last year, Kyivstar began using 900 MHz frequencies to expand its 4G network, it was possible to significantly increase the coverage in rural areas. First of all, in small villages with 2,000 inhabitants or even less. Now about 12 million villagers have access to 4G, and in cities – 22 million people,” the statement reads.
According to the head of regional marketing of Kyivstar, Mykhailo Mykoliuk, since the beginning of 2021, the operator has installed almost 3,000 new base stations with 4G.
In total, Kyivstar’s 4G network currently operates in more than 15,000 cities and villages of Ukraine. And by the end of the year, Kyivstar plans to increase their total number to 16,000.
