Mobile operator Kyivstar has increased its 4G (LTE) network coverage in all regions of Ukraine and connected 815 more settlements to new mobile technologies.
As the company’s press service said on Friday, for this the operator has activated the technology of high-speed data transmission (LTE) at 452 base stations.
Thus, in the southern regions of Ukraine, 4G coverage has been increased on the territory of 316 settlements, in Dnipropetrovsk region – 97, Donetsk and Luhansk regions – 81, in the western regions – in 238, and in the central regions – in 83 settlements.
The report said that in the first quarter of 2021, Kyivstar invested more than UAH 1 billion in the development of new communication technologies, which made it possible to significantly increase the coverage area of the 4G network.
As of the end of April 2021, Kyivstar has installed more than 15,500 base stations in Ukraine, on which LTE (4G) technology is activated. As a result, more than 87% of the Ukrainian population can use access to 4G services in the operator’s network.
The company continues to build new mobile networks so that 90% of the population will have access to 4G by 2022.
The Kyivstar mobile operator during April and May launched high-speed 4G Internet at 900 MHz in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk, Kryvy Rih, Mariupol and Mykolaiv, the company said.
“The LTE900 project gave a significant impetus to expanding the network in small villages, where people did not have high-speed Internet before. Over the past year, residents of thousands of such settlements received 4G from Kyivstar, and we already see how quickly the use of the Internet there is growing, digital divide with cities is decreasing,” the director for planning and quality management of Kyivstar networks, Vasyl Pantov, said.
According to him, LTE900 has significant development potential for at least the next few years, primarily for launching 4G in remote, inaccessible villages and on highways, as well as for improving network performance where tens of thousands of customers are already using it at the same time.
The company notes that thanks to the use of 900 MHz frequencies in cities, Kyivstar has improved the quality of the signal indoors, since the advantage of this range is not only in a larger coverage radius, but also in the fact that the signal at low frequencies penetrates better through the walls of buildings, compared to signal at high frequencies.
“As statistics show, thanks to this innovation, 4G coverage inside buildings increased by 5-10 percentage points (p.p.), 4G traffic grew by an average of 7%, and the subscriber satisfaction index according to the survey results also improved by 1-2 percentage points.,” the company said.
Currently, Kyivstar’s 4G network operates in almost 15,000 cities and villages of Ukraine, where more than 87% of the country’s population live.
By the end of 2021, the mobile network operator Kyivstar plans to increase the base of contract clients by 500,000, President of Kyivstar Alexander Komarov told reporters on Wednesday.
At the end of 2020, the operator’s total client base was about 25.9 million mobile subscribers. At present, according to the operator, almost 90% of the Kyivstar network are prepaid mobile subscribers and the company has more than 10% are contract subscribers.
“The [number of] contract [subscribers] should grow by 500,000 new clients this year. This is a definite ambition of Kyivstar. We are generally supporters of identifying our client base and transferring it to more stable forms of connection,” Komarov said.
According to him, despite the fact that, in general, Kyivstar’s client base is stable (no more than 1% decrease year-on-year), in 2020 the prepaid subscriber base decreased 4%, which were redistributed into two segments: FMC (clients using fixed-line and mobile communication) and the contract subscribers.
“Our enemy of the contract is a very low average bill. The main means of transferring a client to a contract is a combination of a phone and payment for communication services. An average smartphone in Ukraine costs UAH 5,000-6,000, and communication services for 12 months – about UAH 1,000. Accordingly, we have very little of this added value to transfer a client to a contract. And in the gray market, the difference in price for a phone between a legal store and an online seller can reach 10-15%,” the president of Kyivstar said.
Kyivstar is a market-leading telecoms operator in Ukraine. It provides communication and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed-line 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 the international group VEON (earlier – VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (New York).
The mobile network operator Kyivstar in January-March 2021 increased its total revenue by 15% compared to the same period in 2020, to UAH 6.842 billion, according to a financial report of the company’s shareholder, the international Veon group.
According to data published on the official website of Veon, in the first quarter, Kyivstar increased its EBITDA by 15.3% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 4.658 billion. EBITDA margin grew by 0.2 percentage points (pp), to 68.1%.
Total operating revenue from mobile services rose by 14.9%, to UAH 6.357 billion.
According to the operator’s own report, Kyivstar accelerated the construction of high-speed data transmission networks, which resulted in a 24.3% increase in the number of 4G subscribers.
In turn, the use of mobile Internet per subscriber grew by 27.5%.
“We expect Kyivstar to continue to deliver double-digit revenue growth in the remainder of 2021,” Veon said in the financial report.
Veon said that Kyivstar’s 4G coverage in Ukraine reached 87%, (an increase of 10 pp year-over-year), and the penetration of 4G mobile communications in the operator’s network reached 38% of the total base.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) of mobile communications increased to UAH 82, or by 16.1%, the minutes of use (MoU) – by 5.1%, to 633 minutes.
The number of Kyivstar mobile customers in January-March decreased 1.15%, to 25.7 million.
“Kyivstar’s total mobile customer base showed a year-over-year decline largely due to the decline of second SIM cards in the market and lower gross additions during lockdown when the strict measures in 2Q20 resulted in the partial closure of Kyivstar stores and lower customer mobility,” Veon said.
Total operating revenue from fixed-line communication grew by 17.2%, to 451 million, broadband ARPU rose by 5.4%, to UAH 85. The number of broadband customers increased 11.5%, to 1.15 million.
Capex excluding licenses and leases (operational capex) increased by 11.7% year-over-year.
Revenue in the B2B segment grew by 6% in the first quarter of 2021, reflecting Kyivstar’s promotion of new digital solutions for its business customers and rapid growth in Big Data.
Veon said that digital adoption and usage have accelerated in the last twelve months. In Q1 2021, the number of MyKyivstar self-care users was at 2.7 million, up 76% year-over-year, while the Kyivstar TV service users increased to 414,342.
Kyivstar paid UAH 2.3 billion of taxes and duties to the national budget.
Kyivstar is a market-leading telecoms operator in Ukraine. It provides communication and data services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed-line technologies, including 3G.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is the international group VEON (earlier – VimpelCom Ltd.). The group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (New York).
Mobile network operator Kyivstar has increased its 4G (LTE) network coverage in 19 regions and connected 1,195 more settlements to new mobile technologies.
According to a Wednesday report of the press service of the company, for this the operator has launched the technology of high-speed data transmission at 202 base stations.
The press service said that 493,000 residents of small settlements received the opportunity of having access to high-speed mobile Internet.
The 4G communication is supported by 23,600 Kyivstar base stations, which makes it possible for more than 87% of the Ukrainian population to access new mobile technologies.
According to the operator’s plans, by 2022, access to 4G should be provided for 90% of the population.
The mobile operator Kyivstar (Kyiv) in 2020 received UAH 10.370 billion of net profit, which is 15.72% more than in 2019, according to the announcement of the operator on holding an annual meeting of shareholders on April 29.
According to it, the company’s retained earnings for the year amounted to UAH 10.384 billion compared to UAH 12.752 billion a year earlier.
“Determine that the accumulated retained earnings of the company as of the end of 2020 are retained earnings subject to further distribution in the form of dividends (annual or interim) or any other use by decision of the general meeting of shareholders of the company,” the draft resolution of the meeting says.
According to the announcement, the long-term liabilities of Kyivstar for the year increased 2.8 times, to UAH 7.012 billion, while the current liabilities by 4.2%, to UAH 8.512 billion, and total debtor indebtedness decreased by 2.6%, to UAH 826 million.
In 2020, the company increased its fixed assets by 14.8%, to UAH 13.824 billion, its total assets increased by 10.74%, to UAH 27.013 billion.
The number of mobile subscribers of the operator in the fourth quarter of 2020 decreased by 1.3% compared to the same period in 2019, to 25.9 million, while the number of fixed-line subscribers increased by 10.9%, to 1.1 million.
