The Vodafone Ukraine mobile operator plans to launch 4G communications in the 2600MHz band in 20 cities of Ukraine from March 30 to April 2, CEO of the operator Olha Ustinova has said at a press conference. “We have to get bills for permissions for base stations and pay for them by the end of March 29. If the Ukrainian State Center of Radio Frequencies manages to issue all the papers for all 28 cities, tomorrow or at least from Monday we will launch 4G communications in the first cities,” she declared.
Ustinova stressed that Vodafone Ukraine will gradually launch the 4G mobile communications in the 2600MHz range, the first launch of the technology will cover 20 cities: Kyiv, three cities in Kyiv region (Boryspil, Vyshneve, Chabany), Dnipro, Pavlohrad (Dnipropetrovsk region), Kharkiv, Kupiansk (Kharkiv region), Zaporizhia, Energodar (Zaporizhia region), Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Novoselytsia (Chernivtsi region), Lutsk, Kropyvnytsky, Odesa, and Kherson.
By July the 4G network will be launched in 28 cities, including Brovary, Irpin (Kyiv region), Lymanka (Odesa region), Berdiansk (Zaporizhia region), Uzhgorod, Mukachevo (Zakarpattia region), Palianytsia, and Yaremche (Ivano-Frankivsk region). The company notes that more than 30% of subscribers are ready to use 4G communications, and the average traffic consumption per subscriber in the operator’s network is 4 Gb. At the same time, it is expected that with the introduction of the fourth generation communications technology, the consumed traffic will double.
The mobile communications operator Vodafone Ukraine plans to increase its store chain to 200 by the end of 2018 and change the franchise conditions for partner stores, Sales Director of Vodafone Ukraine Yevhen Bulakh said at a press conference in Kyiv. “By the end of the year, we plan to increase the number of our own stores to 200. We also have ambitious goals: to change the terms of partnership for our franchising stores, to change the requirements for them… with the aim of having, by the middle of next year, absolutely the same infrastructure in ours as well and in partners’ stores,” he said.
According to Bulakh, now the company has 30 own stores, as well as 400 stores that operate under a franchising scheme. He also said that by the end of 2019 it is planned to increase the number of own stores to 300-350 facilities. In addition, Vodafone Ukraine plans the use of VR-technologies in retail. At the same time, Bulakh did not specify the term when this technology appear in stores.
