The mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine plans to expand its frequency portfolio in 2022, CEO of Vodafone Ukraine Olha Ustynova has said.
“Given the constant organic growth of traffic, we plan to expand our frequency portfolio as much as possible. We expect that additional frequencies will enable us to provide the transmission of traffic that is growing [by 17-18% quarterly],” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Ustynova also stressed that the operator’s priority for 2022 is the fulfillment of licensing conditions for covering 90% of the population and cities with 2,000 inhabitants and more with 4G technologies.
“We must complete this stage in June. We have been building very actively last year. If last year our 4G coverage geography had 68%, then by the end of 2021 we will reach 83% of the population. In order to fulfill our obligations on coverage figures, we are left with a few percentages, while they are the most labor-intensive,” the CEO of Vodafone Ukraine said.
According to her, the operator has practically completed coverage of cities with a population of 2,000 or more residents – only isolated cases remain. “To reach the indicator of 90% of the population, we have to cover many small villages, each of which brings us one tenth of a percent closer to the target figure. The plans for the next year also include active construction on the roads of national importance,” Ustynova said.
Another big project of Vodafone Ukraine for 2022 will be to improve coverage in new buildings in Kyiv.
Vodafone Ukraine is the second largest mobile operator in Ukraine.
Vodafone Ukraine Group has closed a deal to purchase 99.99% of shares in PrJSC Farlep-Invest, which operates under the Vega brand, as well as at least 95% of the charter capital of Cable TV-Finance LLC, the press service of the mobile operator reported on Wednesday. “Vodafone Ukraine plans to continue to carry out the same types of economic activities, which are now carried out by PrJSC Farlep-Invest and Cable TV-Finance LLC. For Vodafone Ukraine, the purpose of the purchase of these companies is the further development of business in the field of telecommunications, in particular, fixed-line services,” the report says.
The company said that PrJSC Farlep-Invest and Cable TV-Finance LLC own a frequency resource in the 2.3 GHz range (15 MHz in six regions), as well as in the 2.5-2.7 GHz range.
As reported, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on August 19 allowed PrJSC VF Ukraine to buy the telecom operator Vega (Farlep-Invest).
Vodafone Ukraine is the second largest mobile network operator in Ukraine.
The national telecom operator Vega is part of the telecommunications division of Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM group. The operator offers comprehensive solutions in the field of fixed-line telephony, broadband Internet access and data transmission. The company is present in 22 regions of Ukraine.
According to the results of April-June 2021, the Vodafone Ukraine mobile network operator reached a revenue figure of UAH 4.912 billion, which is 19% more than in the same period of 2020.
According to the operator’s financial report, its net profit for the specified period grew by 20% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 1.211 billion.
OIBDA increased by 31% and reached UAH 2.844 billion, OIBDA margin amounted to 57.9% (in the second quarter of 2020 it was 52.6%).
Vodafone Ukraine said that the main factor of growth was the increase in the consumption of communication services in voice & data tariffs. The gradual recovery in roaming revenues also contributed to the growth in revenues.
The emphasis on the development of 4G networks and the growth in the number of data users was reflected in the increase in consumption of data services and, accordingly, ARPU grew by 21%, to UAH 83.10.
The customer base of Vodafone Ukraine in the second quarter of 2021 slightly decreased – by 0.3%, to 18.9 million users.
At the same time, there was an increase in the segment of contract and corporate connections (from 2.1 million customers in the second quarter of 2020 to 2.4 million in April-June 2021), especially due to an increase in the number of new connections in the IoT segment.
In the second quarter of 2021, roaming revenues from own subscribers increased by 22%, and consumption growth was 57% compared to the third quarter of last year, traditionally the busiest period. “Data consumption in roaming in April-June 2021 exceeded the volume of the same period in 2019. The emerging trend allows us to hope that revenues from roaming will also return to the previous, precocious level next year,” the press service of the operator said.
Vodafone Ukraine also noted an increase in demand for services based on the Internet of Things (IoT) – the number of IoT users increased by 30% over the year, to 1 million.
According to the operator, the most popular IoT applications currently are: security, finance and retail, utilities, transport and logistics.
Vodafone Ukraine noted a certain revival in the mobile retail segment: according to the results of the second quarter, the company increased its profitability and revenue from the sale of equipment in its own retail network.
Capital investments of Vodafone Ukraine in the reporting period amounted to UAH 584 billion (a decrease of 18% compared to April-June 2020) and they are mainly aimed at developing high-speed Internet infrastructure. The company’s total investments in the construction of high-speed mobile Internet networks amounted to UAH 30.3 billion.
Vodafone Ukraine is the second largest mobile operator in Ukraine.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has allowed PrJSC Vodafone Ukraine to concentrate more than 50% of the telecom operator Vega (Farlep-Invest).
According to a statement released on the AMCU website, the committee made such a decision following the meeting on Thursday.
“The aggregate shares of concentration participants in the involved regional markets do not exceed 11%. In all commodity markets involved in the concentration, except for the voice traffic termination services market, there are a large number of business entities, they are competitors of the concentration participants and offer consumers similar services,” the AMCU said.
According to the AMCU, the seller within the planned concentration is SCM Group, which also includes PrJSC Ukrtelecom.
Both of these companies own a frequency resource in the 2.3 GHz range (15 MHz in six regions), as well as in the 2.5-2.7 GHz range.
Vodafone Ukraine is the second largest mobile operator in Ukraine.
The national telecom operator Vega is part of the telecommunications division of Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM group. The operator offers complex solutions in the field of fixed telephony, broadband Internet access and data transmission. The company is present in 22 regions of Ukraine.
The mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine plans to acquire more than 50% of the shares of the telecom operator Vega (PrJSC Farlep-Invest).
A source in the relevant field told Interfax-Ukraine that the relevant documents are already being considered by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU).
Vodafone Ukraine does not comment on the deal.
Vega also declined to make comments.
The mobile operator Vodafone Ukraine during the first quarter of 2021 launched a high-speed mobile Internet network in more than 550 settlements of Ukraine.
According to the company’s press service on Thursday, to date, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Ternopil, Volyn, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Kherson, Poltava, Cherkasy and Lviv regions are among the top ten regions in terms of 4G network speed.
Among the regional centers, the “fastest” cities were ranked as follows: Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Kherson, Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Zaporizhia and Cherkasy.
Vodafone Ukraine is the second largest mobile network operator in Ukraine.
