Kyivstar mobile communications operator is launching the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB IoT) network in the 1800 MHz frequency band (Band 3), the press service of the operator has told Interfax-Ukraine. The operator tested the NB IoT networks designed for smart devices in December 2018 and early 2019 in its laboratory using gas and water meters.
“Successful testing of the network allowed us to scale up the project and begin its implementation at client locations. In particular, the operator’s business clients in Kyiv and Odesa regions have already joined the network for testing it at their enterprises,” the company said.
The company plans to launch the NB IoT network for customers all over Ukraine, who can order both connection to the NB IoT network, “smart” devices and software for monitoring and control.
NB IoT is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP to enable a wide range of cellular devices and services. The technology provides an environment for collecting data from various types of equipment: sensors, meters, and others; and provides two-way communication of devices operating in a 200 kHz frequency band. The data transfer rate in NB IoT is up to 200 kbps, which is sufficient for devices that periodically transmit small data of the same type.
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator from February 1, 2019 discontinues some existing tariffs for contract subscribers, which start from UAH 125 a month, and transfers clients to the updated tariffs, starting from UAH 150 per month with the extended services for business tasks. “From February 1, 2019, all Kyivstar corporate subscribers will be provided with new updated tariff plans with enhanced opportunities for doing business,” the largest Ukrainian operator said on its website.
Kyivstar told Interfax-Ukraine, the operator analyzed the statistics of customer use of services, and taking it into account, the operator picked the best new tariff plans. At the same time, the client retains the opportunity of switching to self-selected cheaper tariff plans.
Kyivstar said that from February, Kyivstar 4G 125 2018, Kyivstar 4G 175 2018, Kyivstar 4G 275 2018, Kyivstar 4G Premium 2018, Kyivstar 4G Business 2018 (UAH 750 a month) and Kyivstar 4G Business VIP 2018 (UAH 1,000 a month) tariff plans will be terminated.
“Their subscribers will be automatically and transferred to existing commercial offers with the best content free of charge,” the operator said.
Kyivstar said that, in particular, its customers will get more minutes for calls to other networks (which can also be used for calls abroad for some countries), unlimited Internet access, and free connection of a SIM-pair service with unlimited Internet access. For tariff plans starting from UAH 500 a month Mobile ID and Microsoft Office 365 software will be provided at no additional charge.
The new tariff line includes Kyivstar 4G (UAH 150 a month), Kyivstar 4G Extra (UAH 225 a month), Kyivstar 4G Ultra (UAH 350 a month), Kyivstar 4G Business (UAH 500 a month) and Kyivstar 4G Business VIP (UAH 1,000 a month) tariff plans.
“Additional business opportunities are now an integral part of the tariffs for entrepreneurs,” the company said.
In addition, from February 1, the terms of service of individual tariff plans also change, and M2M subscribers are transferred to new tariff plans, in which Internet traffic volumes have been significantly increased, and the possibility of using an innovative platform for managing M2M SIM cards is provided for (15 tariff plans).
In addition, from February 1, the company terminates the already irrelevant package offers for additional megabytes of traffic, in particular: Free Internet, Internet 1000, Business Internet 500, 10 MB Daily, GPRS Internet 100, GPRS Internet 1000, Business Internet 5, Business Internet 50, Internet 100, Internet 20 and the tariff Communication.
The VEON international telecom group has appointed Alexander Komarov President of Kyivstar, the leading Ukrainian mobile communications operator.
Komarov in July 2018 was appointed acting President of Kyivstar and replaced Peter Chernyshov. He also runs the post of CEO of Beeline Kazakhstan.
“In Ukraine, Kyivstar is a national success story and I am convinced that with Alexander [Komarov] at the helm the company will continue to be the leading provider of connectivity and internet services in Ukraine,” VEON reported on Thursday, citing VEON’s Executive Chairperson Ursula Burns.
Komarov, born in 1972, graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, began his career in 1994 at the Kyiv Research Center of the Military Institute of Management and Communications, from 1997 to 2002 worked for Globalstar in marketing and sales. In 2002, he was invited to the post of business development director at Adell Saatchi & Saatchi (Video International Kyiv), in 2004 he became CEO of this advertising agency, and later headed the Video International in Ukraine, a group of companies.
In 2007-2013, Komarov was CEO of a large Ukrainian marketing company GroupM. In July 2013, he received an invitation from Kazakhstan from Beeline and was appointed Chief Commercial Officer, and in January 2016 he headed the company.
Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian mobile communications operator. According to latest data, its subscribers’ base is around 26.6 million.
VEON international group (earlier VimpelCom) is the shareholder in Kyivstar. The group’s shares are listed on NASDAQ (New York).
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator has launched the family tariff for contract subscribers with a possibility of connecting up to four numbers to one account for UAH 75 a month. The press service of the company reported on Wednesday that under the terms of the tariff, in addition to unlimited calls in the Kyivstar network, subscribers will receive 50 minutes for calls to other networks in Ukraine, as well as to Italy, Poland and Russia, 5,000 MB of Internet and free use of the Kyivstar Go TV application.
The connection is available for Kyivstar subscribers who use the services of the operator for at least three months, if they visited the company’s branch with a passport.
Connection is possible only to an existing personal account, where a number/ numbers with Kyivstar 4G, Kyivstar 4G Extra, Kyivstar 4G Ultra, Kyivstar 4G Business, Kyivstar 4G Business VIP, Kyivstar 4G Extra + and Kyivstar 4G Business Premium are already registered, while one personal account can have no more than four numbers from Kyivstar Family registered.
At the same time, the company said in the press release that if at least one of the conditions for using the tariff is not met, the subscription fee at the Kyivstar Family tariff will be UAH 150 a month.
The Kyivstar mobile communications operator increased the number of М2М Sim cards (machine-to-machine) by 23% in July 2018 compared with July 2017, to 1.4 million.
The operator reported on its website that among leaders that used М2М Sim cards are security, finance, retail, energy spheres and agriculture, and one of the growth factors is development of the Internet of Things (IoT).
According to the operator, corporate clients have 92% of M2M cards: initially the technology was developed to automate business processes.
In a year, the number of М2М Sim cards among individuals grew by 78%.
“Our customers more often use smart devices with M2M SIM cards installed in them. Kyivstar has joined the projects with a large network player who not only works with a variety of different sensors, but can also ensure their reliable operation by creating an ecosystem for associations of M2M-cards and sensors,” Kyivstar director for business development in the corporate market Yevhen Krazhan said.
The company said that the largest share of M2M SIM cards Kyivstar (37%) is used for security systems of houses, offices, cars and other property.
M2M cards are used to automatically transfer data from a device to another device.
The mobile communications operator Kyivstar in April-June 2018 saw an 11.4% rise in revenue year-over-year, to UAH 4.521 billion, the Veon international group (VimpelCom Ltd. before rebranding) has said in a quarterly report on Thursday. According to the report, over the period Kyivstar increased earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by 8%, to UAH 2.49 billion, EBITDA margin fell by 1.7 percentage points (p.p.), to 55.1%. Revenue from mobile communications services in Q2 2018 came to UAH 4.2 billion, which is 11.4% more than a year ago.
The press service of Kyivstar reported that data consumption in April-June 2018 grew by 139% year-over-year, to 1.8 gigabytes per user on average. Voice service consumption remained stable: in Q2 2018 on average 580 minutes per user was recorded, which is 1.2% more than a year ago. The number of mobile Internet users over the period grew by 21% year-over-year, to 13.5 million, and the total number of active users totaled 26.5 million, which is 400,000 more than a year ago.
“The growth in the consumption of services, the increase in the number of users, the launch of new communication technologies are just a few qualitative changes that have positively affected our financial performance in the second quarter of 2018,” acting Kyivstar president Oleksandr Komarov said in a report. The minutes of use (MoU) increased by 1.2%, to 580 minutes, and ARPU (average revenue per user per month) of mobile communication increased by 9.6%, to UAH 52.
The revenues of the mobile operator from fixed-line services in the second quarter increased by 7.3% to UAH 297 million, including revenues from fixed-line Internet that increased by 8.5% to UAH 185 million, while the number of users increased by 6.5% %, to 0.858 million. ARPU for fixed-line Internet grew by 4.3%, to UAH 72.
Capital investments, with the exception of payment for licenses, for the reporting period amounted to UAH 927 million, which is 31.5% more than in the same period last year. At the end of the second quarter of 2018, the “3G Kyivstar” service was available in the territory where 74% of Ukrainians live. Kyivstar said that in the first half of the year its revenues increased by 10.8% compared to the same period in 2017, to UAH 8.785 billion, while EBITDA increased by 12%, to UAH 4.902 billion.
At the same time, revenues from mobile services for six months increased by 11.2% to UAH 8.149 billion, and from fixed-line telephony – by 3.6%, to UAH 593 million.
In the second quarter of 2018, Kyivstar transferred almost UAH 4 billion of taxes, fees and payments for licenses to the Ukrainian budget, and for the first half of the year the amount of all payments to the national budget reached UAH 6.8 billion. Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian mobile communications operator.
