Ukraine’s third-largest mobile operator, Lifecell LLC (TM lifecell), has signed a strategic agreement with Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson to upgrade its network core to improve 5G readiness, the company said in a statement on Monday.
“The modernization of the core will allow lifecell to increase network performance and stability, optimize resource utilization, and most importantly, significantly reduce the time it takes to bring new services to market,” the operator said.
Lifecell explained that as part of the project, the company is transitioning to a cloud-native network core architecture based on Ericsson solutions, specifically data transmission and Internet access services (Packet Core) and subscriber data management systems (User Data Management).
It is expected that the network core will be upgraded in accordance with 5G principles, which will subsequently create the technical basis for improving service quality.
Lifecell specified that the transition to a cloud-native core will also reduce the risk of communication interruptions and downtime for subscribers.
In addition, the operator is simultaneously modernizing its subscriber data management system based on Ericsson’s Cloud Native Unified Data Management (UDM) solution, which ensures secure management of subscriber data.
As reported, lifecell LLC increased its revenue from telecommunications services by 18.9% to UAH 11.58 billion in the first nine months of 2025. According to data from the National Commission for the Regulation of Electronic Communications and Postal Services (NCCEC), lifecell increased its capital investments by 41.7% to UAH 2.97 billion in the first nine months of 2025.
Possible merger of tower companies Ukraine Tower Company (UTC) and Ukrainian Network Solutions (UNS), which are associated with the largest mobile operators Kyivstar and Vodafone Ukraine, will lead to monopolization and structural imbalance in the telecom market, according to their smaller competitor Lifecell LLC (TM lifecell).
“Given the significant impact on the market and millions of consumers, the agreement should be reviewed openly and transparently, with the involvement of all market participants and the expert community,” the operator said in a press release on Monday, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
According to lifecell, such a merger could affect the pace of innovation and weaken the focus on subscriber needs.
The operator also stressed that the potential deal could threaten the security of national communications as a whole and limit investment in Ukraine.
“Excessive concentration of critical infrastructure in one hand may be perceived as a signal of increased risk, deterring investment in the telecommunications sector,” lifecell explained its position.
The company stressed that decisions regarding the possible merger of tower stations must be made with consideration for the long-term consequences for competition, the development of the telecom market, and the country’s security.
At the end of January, it was reported that UTC, the tower business of the telecommunications holding company VEON, which owns Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar, is trying to get the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) to approve a merger with UNS , the tower asset of the country’s second-largest mobile operator, Vodafone Ukraine.
At that time, Forbes Ukraine explained that the merger of the tower companies VEON and Vodafone Ukraine could be linked to a desire to sell them to a third party on more favorable terms, with a price tag of $300 million.
According to Forbes Ukraine’s calculations, UNS’s revenue for the first nine months of 2025 reached UAH 528.8 million, with annual EBITDA of about $15 million and UTC of UAH 2.1 billion and $50-60 million, respectively.
At the same time, lifecell also has a tower asset: according to YouControl, its revenue for the first nine months of 2025 amounted to UAH 461.0 million, with a net profit of UAH 202.2 million.
According to data from the regulator NCEK, the top three leaders in terms of revenue from telecommunications services for the first nine months of 2025 in Ukraine were mobile operators Kyivstar with UAH 32.35 billion, Vodafone Ukraine (UAH 18.88 billion), and lifecell from the DVL group (UAH 11.58 billion).
Mobile operator lifecell, part of the DVL (Datagroup-Volia-lifecell) group of companies, attracted over 1,400 businesses that transferred their business numbers to it in July, according to a press release.
“As of July 2025, more than 1,400 companies have transferred thousands of business numbers to the lifecell network, choosing the operator’s tariffs and services. In 2025, lifecell recorded a twofold increase in the volume of corporate number transfers compared to the same period in 2024,” the lifecell press service said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is noted that the procedure for transferring business numbers consists of three stages and takes up to three working days.
Earlier it was reported that in January-June 2025, lifecell became the leader among operators in terms of the number of subscribers.
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.
Lifecell LLC (TM lifecell), the third largest mobile operator in Ukraine, plans to increase its capacity by 30-40% during the first quarter of 2025 by purchasing an additional 5 MHz of frequencies in the 2100 MHz band for UAH 463 million at an auction on Tuesday, the company’s CEO Mykhailo Shelemba said.
“The entire set of measures we plan to implement should at least double the capacity for subscribers next year,” he told Interfax-Ukraine, adding that this will be achieved by installing additional equipment that expands the capacity to use these frequencies in specific sectors, as well as by switching to newer technologies on these frequencies.
Shelemba clarified that the investment in the use of these additional 5 MHz will be small, as it will use existing equipment. According to him, this gives the company the opportunity to use existing resources for resilience – the company has purchased 32 thousand lithium-polymer batteries, which will arrive in December – and more concentrated use of these frequencies through equipment upgrades and synchronization of frequencies with each other: so that frequencies in the 2100, 1800, 900 and 2600 MHz bands work in one ensemble.
Shelemba noted that he was pleased with the results of the auction, although lifecell purchased only one lot, while its two major competitors bought two lots each.
“Our No. 1 priority is to provide the maximum capacity improvement for our subscribers as quickly as possible. And this is provided by lot 2, because it is already very close to our frequencies that we use, and we can simply expand the spectrum by 30% with the same equipment,” he explained.
“The second factor is that even though we already have 10 million subscribers, we have one of the best situations when we count the number of frequencies per subscriber. That is why we see a huge potential for using these frequencies,” added the head of lifecell.
According to him, two of the five lots in the 2300 and 2600 MHz bands acquired by Kyivstar and VF Ukraine (Vodafone Ukraine) require a new network to be built to utilize them.
Mr. Shelemba attributes the fact that all five lots at the auction were sold at prices close to the initial ones to a good, correct strategy of the regulator, which ensured a guaranteed high price and the right restrictions to prevent concentration.
“Each operator calculates the cost of a frequency for itself. But we also calculate, based on our best assumptions and models, how much these frequencies cost for competitors. And when we looked at the starting lots, we saw that the regulator had set the starting price quite high and close enough to the price we were willing to pay,” the operator’s director said.
“It is also important to understand that unlike the first tenders, when there were just new frequencies for 3G or new frequencies for 4G, these frequencies are already additional to the existing ones,” Shelemba added. According to him, lifecell and Vodafone Ukraine sought to acquire primarily the frequencies adjacent to their existing spectrum in the 2100 MHz band, as they were the most efficient, while other frequencies were of lesser value to them.
“Here, the regulator and the state are already choosing everything that can be chosen from these additional frequencies. Therefore, there was a fairly logical distribution of who took which lot, precisely because there are already frequencies in use,” summarized the lifecell CEO.
He added that the 5G factor should also be taken into account.
“Currently, the number of 5G terminals in use is about 20%. In 2-3 years, if we take this as a baseline scenario, the number of terminals will be 35-40%, maybe even higher – up to 50%. And what will happen? When you build a 5G network, terminals use 5G traffic and, accordingly, do not use 4G frequencies. Thus, these 4G frequencies are unloaded,” Shelemba explained.
As reported, on Tuesday, the regulator NKEC held an auction, as a result of which Kyivstar, Vodafone-Ukraine and lifecell received new frequencies in the 2100, 2300 and 2600 MHz bands for 15 years, offering a total of UAH 2 billion 894.734 million for them at an initial total price of UAH 2 billion 871.531 million.
In accordance with the terms of the technology-neutral nationwide licenses established by the NCC, each of the winners undertook to ensure the use of the received frequency band at at least 1,500 base stations within 24 months from the date of the license’s commencement, and at least 500 base stations within the first 12 months.
In March-June, mobile operator lifecell’s revenue increased by 10% year-on-year to UAH 3.215 billion.
According to the report of the parent company Turkcell, lifecell’s net profit in the second quarter increased by 3% to UAH 630.2 million.
Lifecell’s EBITDA increased by 4% to UAH 1.77 billion in the period, but its EBITDA margin decreased by 3.9 percentage points to 55.2%.
The company’s capital investments in the second quarter decreased by 28% to UAH 1.12 billion.
According to Turkcell, on September 9, the company completed the transfer of shares, as well as all rights and obligations in its subsidiaries LifeSell LLC, Global Bilgi LLC and Ukrtower LLC to DVL Telecom, one of the companies of the NJJ Holding group of French billionaire Xavier Niel. Turkcell is no longer a shareholder in these subsidiaries, the company said in its quarterly report.
On the closing date of the transaction, Turkcell received $524.3 million under the share purchase agreement.
Turkcell’s top managers, answering investors’ questions during the conference call, confirmed that the final sale price will be determined based on adjustments to be made at the closing of the transaction, based on the level of net cash/debt as per the financial statements to be prepared at the closing date.
Earlier it was reported that the NJJ consortium transferred $524.3 million to Turkcell and completed the acquisition of Datagroup-Volia and lifecell.
