The mobile operator lifecell in April expanded the coverage of high-speed mobile Internet of 4G standard in 674 settlements in all regions of Ukraine.
According to the operator’s report, in general, as of the end of April, 10,745 settlements were connected to the 4G network by lifecell, where a total of more than 27.7 million people live.
In April, lifecell network was expanded in 674 settlements, of which 667 settlements with a population of up to 5,000 and seven settlements – up to 25,000 people.
“In April, the average use of data traffic per data subscriber was 12.4 GB. This figure increased by 22% compared to the same period in 2020. The 4G subscribers increased the average monthly use of mobile Internet by 20%, to 10.8 GB,” the operator said.
As of the end of April 2021, the leaders in the use of lifecell mobile Internet were:
– up to 5,000 people – Dryzhba (Yampil district, Sumy region), Baturyn (Chernihiv region) and Bibrka (Sambir district, Lviv region);
– up to 25,000 people – Koziatyn (Vinnytsia region), Kamianka (Cherkasy region) and Zdolbuniv (Rivne region);
– up to 50,000 people – Irpin, Vyshneve and Fastiv (Kyiv region);
– up to 100,000 people – Brovary (Kyiv region), Uman (Cherkasy region) and Boryspil (Kyiv region);
– up to 500,000 people – Chernihiv, Vinnytsia and Cherkasy;
– million-person cities – Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv.
At the same time, in April the volume of voice calls in the lifecell network increased slightly by 3% compared to April 2020.
In February, the mobile operator lifecell expanded the coverage of high-speed mobile Internet in another 1,078 settlements in all regions of Ukraine.
Last month the lifecell network was expanded in all regions of the country, in particular in 1,060 settlements with a population of up to 5,000 people, in 15 settlements with a population of up to 25,000 people and in three settlements, where up to 50,000 people live, the company said on Thursday.
Expansion of coverage will reduce the gap in access to digital services between small settlements and cities, lifecell notes.
According to the operator, customers using 4G from lifecell consumed 79% more mobile Internet traffic last month compared to the same period in 2020. At the same time, the total volume of used data traffic in the operator’s network in February increased by 43% on an annual basis.
In the category of cities with a population of more than 1 million people, the capital traditionally takes the first place, followed by Odesa and Kharkiv.
Ookla (the United States), the developer of Speedtest service, has recognized Vodafone Ukraine as the mobile network operator with the highest average mobile Internet speed in Ukraine in July-December 2020.
Such data were released during an online conference on Thursday.
“Now we have already recorded almost 5 million Ukrainians who have tested Internet services on this platform. This is an extraordinary figure in scale. Today we are here to welcome the fastest mobile Internet in Ukraine – Vodafone Ukraine,” the sales director at Ookla said during the conference.
According to him, in Q3-Q4 2020, Vodafone Ukraine reached the Speed Score of 30.85 (in 2019 it was 17.93). The average download speed was 29.38 Mbps, upload – 14.1 Mbps (in 2019 it was 19.37 Mbps and 11.16 Mbps, respectively).
He also said that in 2020, Ukraine climbed one position in the global ranking in terms of Internet connection speed, being 86th.
Ookla is a leader in fixed and mobile internet speed testing and analysis. According to the company, users run more than 10 million tests on the application every day.
The mobile operator lifecell plans to connect another 148 settlements to the 4G network by the end of December, where more than 200,000 people live.
According to the operator’s statement on Thursday, in November 2020, high-speed Internet from lifecell appeared in 452 settlements throughout Ukraine.
“Among them, 80 settlements are unique, as until this year there was no 4G coverage from any mobile operator,” the company said.
At the same time, over the past six months, high-speed mobile communication 4G from lifecell has appeared in 1,250 settlements where more than 800,000 people live.
To improve communication, the operator installed 301 new base stations during 2020 and upgraded another 764 stations.
In general, in 2020, more than 1 million residents of different regions of Ukraine received access to high-speed mobile Internet from lifecell.
Now access to 3G and 4G communications from lifecell is already available to 75% of Ukrainian residents.
In 2021, the operator plans to actively work on further rollout of coverage, which will reduce the gap in access to digital services between small towns and cities.
Mobile network operators Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell plan to build up to 30% of new telecom network sites based on the infrastructure sharing model.
“We have agreed on sharing… All operators are aware that it makes no sense to build three networks in some localities and on some roads, that it makes sense to agree to a reasonable story with investments, it makes sense to share networks. According to forecasts, 30% of the new construction will be the sharing network,” Vodafone Ukraine CEO Olha Ustinova said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
She also said that operators have great anticipations about the state’s permission to launch spectral sharing, which will allow them to share not only passive infrastructure, but also its active part.
Ustinova also called the elimination of the digital divide one of the most important projects of the telecom industry in Ukraine.
KYIVSTAR, LIFECELL, MOBILE NETWORK, MOBILE OPERATORS, network, VODAFONE
The mobile communications operator lifecell increased operating income by 14.2% to UAH 1.746 billion in July-September 2020 (compared to UAH 1.529 billion in July-September 2019).
According to the operator’s press service, the net profit amounted to UAH 36.8 million for the specified period (in the third quarter of 2019, the net loss was UAH 338.3 million). EBITDA increased by 12.3% to UAH 909.8 million, EBITDA margin was 52.1% (for the same period in 2019, this indicator was 53%).
The operator lifecell’s active three-month subscriber base increased by 13% to 7.8 million subscribers in the third quarter and by 2.6% compared to the previous quarter.
At the same time, the active three-month base of users of high-speed mobile 4.5G Internet grew by 51% by the end of the third quarter of 2020 compared to last year and accounted for 60% of all users of data services. Accordingly, the average use of data traffic grew by 59% year to year.
The company’s active three-month ARPU increased by 2.1% in the third quarter of 2020 and amounted to UAH 76.3 compared to UAH 74.7 in the previous year. At the same time, the 12-month active MoU grew by 20.5% to 180.8 minutes (150.1 minutes in Q3 2019).
The operator lifecell’s capital investments increased by 57.1% to UAH 860.6 million in the third quarter of 2020 versus UAH 547.7 million in the third quarter of 2019.
“This quarter we achieved net income for the first time since the company had started operating in 2005. Our subscriber base is continuing to grow, smartphone penetration has reached 81%. The company has managed to gain such results despite all challenging circumstances like pandemic environment, uncompetitive market conditions and strong commitments to state related to fast 4G rollout. And I would like to assure you that we will continue to invest in Ukraine and to do everything we can to provide all our subscribers with best products and services,” Chief Executive Officer of lifecell Ismet Yazici said.
