Ookla (the United States), the developer of Speedtest service, has said that Kyivstar mobile communication operator is Ukraine’s Speedtest Awards Winner for mobile network speed, according to the Ookla Speedtest report posted on the Speedtest website.
According to the report, in 2019, the company made over 3.15 million test counts for subscribers of all mobile operators. In particular, the total number of test counts in the Kyivstar network was 1.53 million with average download speed of 22.02 Mbps (17.94 Mbps in 2018) and average upload speed of 12.88 Mbps (8.99 Mbps).
Some 0.973 million test counts were made in the Vodafone Ukraine network with average download speed of 19.37 Mbps and average upload speed of 11.16 Mbps (14 Mbps and 6.63 Mbps in 2018), and in the lifecell network 0.583 million test counts were made with average download speed of 19.42 Mbps and average upload speed of 9.24 Mbps (16.64 Mbps and 6.69 Mbps).
According to Ookla, Kyivstar’s Speed Score was 20.31, lifcell’s – 17.77 and Vodafone Ukraine’s – 17.93. Speed Score incorporates a measure of each provider’s download and upload speed to rank network speed performance.
A total of 566,300 unique devices launched the Speedtest application in Ukraine, including iPhone 7 (27,600 test counts), Redmi Note 5 Pro (25,700 test counts), Redmi Note 4 (20,700 test counts), iPhone 6s (20,500 test counts), and iPhone X (18,100 test counts).
At the same time, in Kharkiv, according to Ookla, the speed of mobile Internet is on average higher than in Kyiv. So, Kyivstar’s Speed Score in this city was 25.08, while in Kyiv it was 19.79. Speed Score of lifecell in Kharkiv was 22.17, and in Kyiv was 18.06.
At the same time, the Speed Score of Vodafone Ukraine in Kharkiv was 16.87, while in Kyiv it was 18.88.
The subscribers of Kyivstar mobile operator in 2019 used twice as much mobile Internet in roaming as in 2018, the company has said.
On average, one subscriber used abroad 550 megabytes and 16 minutes for calls in roaming.
In general, the number of Kyivstar subscribers who used roaming last year, according to the operator, grew by 18% compared to a year earlier.
The ranking of countries popular among Ukrainian tourists was led by Poland, followed by Turkey, Germany, Italy, and Egypt.
“Some 65% of all Kyivstar travelling subscribers visited the European Union,” the company said.
In 2019, the operator worked on expanding 4G Internet in roaming for its customers: high-speed 4G mobile Internet from Kyivstar can be used in 61 countries of the world, including all popular tourist destinations.
The net income of JSC Kyivstar in 2019 amounted to UAH 22.392 billion, which is 19.6% more than in 2018.
According to the company, the operator’s income from provision of mobile services increased by 20%, to UAH 20.903 billion, from provision of fixed-line services by 11%, to UAH 1.35 billion.
In addition, last year’s EBITDA rose by 39.4%, to UAH 14.683 billion, while EBITDA margin by 9.3 percentage points, to 65.6%.
Kyivstar capital expenditures for the year increased by 64.8% and amounted to UAH 5.111 billion.
The number of mobile operator subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2019 decreased by 0.6% compared to the same period in 2018, to 26.2 million, while the number of fixed-line subscribers increased by 10.8%, to 1 million.
The decrease in the number of subscribers in the company is explained by the general market trend of consumer refusal from several SIM cards of various operators.
According to Kyivstar, in the fourth quarter of 2019 the number of mobile Internet users reached 16.9 million, which is 14.6% more than in the same period earlier.
Data traffic consumption increased from 2,753 Mb to 4,263 Mb per subscriber.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the operator’s revenue increased by 16.1%, to UAH 5.815 billion. Of these, UAH 5.417 billion was income from mobile services (16% up), UAH 355 million was income from fixed-line services (more by 14%). EBITDA for this period increased by 44.3%, to UAH 4.031 billion, margin increased by 13.6 percentage points, to 69.3%.
Kyivstar, a mobile operator, has released a universal Smart SIM starter kit without a tariff plan, which can be used, inter alia, for self-changing a SIM card, the operator’s press service has said.
Smart SIM can be used to connect the SIM for Devices tariff plan, to activate the SIM for Tablet service, as well as to independently replace the SIM card.
The SIM for Devices tariff plan allows using the services of the mobile operator in smart devices: alarms, GPS trackers, sensors, smart watches and the like. Every day, subscribers will receive 30 MB of mobile Internet, 30 minutes for calls and 30 SMS messages for their use in IoT devices.
The SIM for Tablet service allows using another SIM card for the Internet in the tablet, the second smartphone or modem, having one number and account for the primary and secondary cards.
In addition, in order to simplify the process of SIM card recovery, Kyivstar canceled payment for the Self-Swop of SIM service.
Earlier, Kyivstar launched the Calls for Parents tariff plan for older subscribers.
Kyivstar is a Ukrainian telecommunications operator. It provides communications and data transfer services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 3G. The shareholder of Kyivstar is VEON international group (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.). The shares of the group are listed on NASDAQ (New York).
Kyivstar mobile communications operator has connected 68 more settlements in Zaporizhia, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk and Luhansk regions to the 4G communication network, the operator has reported.
In Zaporizhia region, the cities of Energodar and Dniprorudne were connected to the high-speed data network, in Poltava region – Hlobyne, in Ivano-Frankivsk – the city of Burshtyn, and in Luhansk – Popasna. In addition to these cities, 4G communications from Kyivstar began to work in dozens of surrounding villages.
As of the end of December, the operator’s high-speed mobile Internet with 4G technology is already available for more than 74% of the population of Ukraine.
To provide the population of Ukraine with access to new communication technologies, Kyivstar has installed more than 8,000 towers that support the 4G standard, and more than 8 million subscribers have already been able to use such communication services.
In November 2019, subscribers in the Kyivstar network used 45% more traffic data than for the entire 2016.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian mobile operator. It provides communication and data transfer services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed line technologies, including 4G. As of the end of 2018, its services were used by about 26.4 million mobile subscribers and about 0.9 million fixed line Internet customers.
VEON Group fully owns Kyivstar. The groups’ shares are NASDAQ-listed.
The Kyivstar mobile communication operator launches the service to pay for the 838 taxi service using SMS messages, the press service of the company reported on Thursday. According to the press release, the service is available to all Kyivstar prepaid subscribers in 15 cities of Ukraine where the 838 taxi service operates.
The payment is settled using the Kyivstar’s Smart-Money financial service. To do this, when ordering, one need to specify the Smart-Money payment method from Kyivstar or download the Taxi 838 application in the App Store or Google Play and select the appropriate form of payment. At the same time, one does not need to enter information about a credit card. It is enough for the subscriber to have the necessary amount on his mobile account. “The service is simple, safe and does not require a passenger to enter personal data,” the press service said, quoting Head of Kyivstar’s Mobile Financial Services Serhiy Koptik.
According to the operator’s estimates, more than 150,000 subscribers can potentially use the application. This is exactly the number of Kyivstar customers who have called the 838 taxi service over the past few months, although less than 17% of passengers used credit card payments. “This suggests that Ukrainians are still afraid of leaving information about their credit cards in applications,” Koptik said.
The operator said that more than 2,500 active services were posted on the Smart-Money platform, and more than 10 million transactions with it were implemented. The most popular services are payment for telecommunication services, national lotteries, online purchases, and public transport fares.
