Mobile operators and Ukrtelecom agree to provide communication to Ukrainians, even if there are no funds on their accounts.
“We are doing everything possible to keep everyone in touch even with a zero balance,” the press service of Vodafone Ukraine said in a commentary to Interfax-Ukraine.
Ukrtelecom reported that the decision not to disconnect subscribers for non-payment, as well as subscribers with a zero balance from the provision of services, was made by the operator this morning.
“Now we have more than 50,000 Internet service clients in dynamics, who could be affected by disconnection for non-payment. But we decided not to disconnect our subscribers,” Mykhailo Shuranov, director of corporate communications at Ukrtelecom, told the agency.
The lifecell press service also stated that they are ready to support their subscribers.
“In order for our subscribers to be able to contact their relatives and friends at any time, lifecell charges all its users a package of services at no additional charge. It contains 30 minutes for calls to any number in Ukraine and 5 GB of mobile internet. It can be used for 30 days,” the operator’s press service told the agency.
Therefore, the priority of lifecell is the continuity in the provision of mobile services.
As of 13:35 Thursday, the operator’s mobile network is operating normally. However, the operator warns that in conditions where millions of people simultaneously make calls, from time to time the connection may not occur the first time.
Kyivstar reported that calls in the operator’s network will be available to all subscribers of the subscription even without a paid package of services according to their tariff.
Kyivstar also abolishes the commission within the Extra Money service, thanks to which you can order additional funds to your account and return them later.
For subscribers of contract and corporate forms of service: the operator doubles the credit limits in their tariffs for up to two months. Subscribers who do not have the service of credit limits connected can order microcredit. For users of fixed services (Internet, telephony and data transmission), Kyivstar extends the bill payment term by 30 days.
In addition, Kyivstar will provide the Home Internet service free of charge: all customers whose service was disabled due to lack of funds on their account can use it again.
As previously reported, the National Center for Operational and Technical Management of Telecommunications Networks of the State Service for Special Communications addressed operators with a recommendation not to disconnect from mobile communications and access to the Internet subscribers who do not have enough funds on their account or have a debt.
Ukrtelecom’s total income in the first half of 2021 amounted to UAH 3.4 billion (more than 10% more than in the same period in 2020), and Internet income exceeded UAH 1 billion (more by 7.4%), the company’s press service has said on Monday.
Ukrtelecom’s EBITDA in the first six months amounted to UAH 1.1 billion (an increase of 29%). EBITDA margin increased by 4.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 31.3%.
It is noted that for the specified period, the company’s telecommunications services income amounted to almost UAH 2.4 billion. Private subscribers were provided with services for almost UAH 1.5 billion, and business consumers – for UAH 692 million. The fixed optical Internet user base grew by 83%, to 203,000 subscribers.
In the business segment, Internet income increased by 10.2%, to UAH 226 million, and in the mass segment – by 6.6%, to UAH 786 million.
Ukrtelecom notes that the connection of small towns and villages to high-speed optical Internet continues. Currently, work is underway in almost 150 settlements, where more than 4,500 km of fiber-optic cable have been laid.
“Throughout the country, 850 medical and 1,250 educational institutions, as well as 380 territorial communities are already using optical Internet from Ukrtelecom. Of these, 156 medical and 233 educational institutions, 21 territorial communities have been connected this year. Ukrtelecom is awaiting the announcement of tenders by local communities to participate in the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s program to provide modern optical Internet for social infrastructure and rural population,” the company said.
According to it, in January-June 2021, income related to asset management also increased, in particular, from receipts from commercial lease of property not involved in production processes. It amounted to more than UAH 213 million, which is almost 41% more than in the same period last year.
In addition, the operator has launched a three-year fleet renewal program, which provides for the replacement of more than 1,300 vehicles used in production activities, including for disaster recovery teams, deploying fiber-optic networks, connecting and servicing subscribers.
Capital investments in the first half of 2021 amounted to almost UAH 310 million.
“The problem remains with the debt of local budgets to reimburse the company’s expenses for telecommunications services provided to citizens entitled to benefits. As of June 30, this figure exceeds UAH 124 million,” the company said.
In 2021, Ukrtelecom has already paid UAH 975 million in taxes to the budgets of all levels.
PJSC Ukrtelecom in 2020 reduced its net income by 2%, to UAH 6.214 billion, the company’s CEO Yuriy Kurmaz said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
At the same time, EBITDA increased by 4.8%, to UAH 1.698 billion, and EBITDA margin by 1.8 percentage points, to 27.3 compared to the operator’s audited statements for 2019.
The company’s capital investments decreased by 0.5%, to UAH 688 million.
In 2020, Ukrtelecom built 10,000 km of fiber-optic communication lines, providing 270,000 households with the access to the optical Internet network.
Ukrtelecom is the largest fixed-line operator in Ukraine. It is the sole founder and participant of TriMob LLC – a mobile operator of 3G/UMTS standard.
As of January 4, 2021, Ukrtelecom has already installed 45 UTrecharge charging stations for electric transport out of 50 provided in the pilot project in Kyiv and the suburbs.
According to the press service of the company, in Kyiv region the stations have already been installed in Vyshgorod (2 Shevchenko Square), Irpin (120a Severynivska Street), Boryspil (86a Kyivsky Shliakh Street), Vorzel (25 Kurortna Street), and Bucha (22 Ostrovskoho Street).
“The introduction of the service is part of Ukrtelecom’s activities for the efficient use of the company’s resources released as a result of technical re-equipment and modernization of the telecoms infrastructure. Ukrtelecom considers this business area to be promising, including in terms of supporting technologies that do not harm the environment,” the report says.
Ukrtelecom began to provide the service of charging electric vehicles at its own UTrecharge charging stations from January 1, 2021.
In 2020, Ukrtelecom provided 36 Epicenter shopping centers in different regions of the country with optical Internet.
According to the press service of the company, the network was provided with 100 Mbps Internet channels and PRI streams for a certain number of telephone numbers. This package of services meets the business needs of the shopping centers.
At present, Ukrtelecom is working on providing fast Internet for nine online order centers in Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Enerhodar (Zaporizhia region), Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Ternopil, Horodok (Khmelnytsky region).
As the operator notes with reference to Epicenter, the network began to open modern order pick-up centers for the online store epicentrk.ua in 2020 in order to increase the level of customer service.
“The new order pick-up center are technological, with the automation of all processes, an address storage system for goods, a comfortable waiting area for customers with a children’s corner and online showcases. A high level of service in the centers for issuing orders, of course, requires fast and high-quality Internet,” the report says.
PJSC Ukrtelecom reduced EBITDA by 6.1% in January-March 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, to UAH 400 million, according to a press release released by the operator.
EBITDA margin for that period decreased by 0.5 percentage points (p.p.), to 25.5%, and net income by 5%, to UAH 1.6 billion.
Ukrtelecom said that the key positive factor influencing the company’s income is a steady increase in receipts from the provision of Internet services and data transfer.
“The revenues increased by 7%, to UAH 521 million in the first quarter of 2020 compared to last year. At the same time, the average traffic consumption by one Ukrtelecom home Internet subscriber grew by 25%, to almost 117 GB, and among users of optics to 235 GB, which is to some extent due to quarantine measures introduced in March,” the operator said in a statement.
In general, the income from telecommunications services of Ukrtelecom decreased by 7% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to UAH 1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2019.
According to the operator, that was significantly affected by a decrease in revenue from fixed telephony, which is a global tendency for voice services. Ukrtelecom revenue from the provision of this service in that period amounted to UAH 574 million, which is 20.9% less than in January-March 2019. The company also told Interfax-Ukraine that compared with the same period in 2019, the receivables of the government to the operator for providing services to privileged categories of the population increased by 8%, to UAH 144 million.
Capital investments amounted to UAH 112 million for the first quarter of 2020.
“Strictly observing measures to prevent the spread of [coronavirus] COVID-19 in Ukraine, Ukrtelecom continues to implement a number of projects to develop an optical infrastructure that can reduce the digital divide in the country. The operator is expanding the geography of optics by connecting small towns and social facilities to the high-speed Internet,” the operator said.
In the first three months of 2020, Ukrtelecom laid almost 1,400 kilometers of fiber-optic cable and connected to the optical Internet about 100 medical and educational institutions, as well as 39 merged territorial communities. The Internet access network of Ukrtelecom covered 2,430 cities and villages of Ukraine for the first quarter of 2020.
Revenues from the commercial lease of property, which is not involved in production, increased by 24% compared to the first quarter of 2019 and amounted to UAH 87.5 million. Ukrtelecom transferred UAH 478 million in taxes to budgets of all levels in January-March of 2020. The company refused to disclose the net financial result for the first quarter.
