Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) will start equipping long-distance night trains with Wi-Fi in 2025, according to Oleksandr Pertsovsky, chairman of the board of Ukrzaliznytsia.
“We will start adding the Internet to night trains gradually. We will work on this in 2025,” Pertsovsky said at a meeting with journalists on Thursday.
He did not specify when exactly the installation of Wi-Fi equipment in long-distance trains would begin, noting that it would happen “during 2025.”
Earlier, UZ announced the launch of free Wi-Fi in ten Intercity and Intercity+ trains.
Internet access systems have already been installed on 10 Hyundai trains, two Skoda trains, two Tarpan trains, and two trains with MPLT cars. Wi-Fi access remains free for passengers during the trial period. Travelers can use 1 GB of traffic at a speed of 10 Mbps by logging in to the on-board portal portal.uz.com.ua.
In July, in response to a request from Interfax-Ukraine, UZ announced that it had installed the necessary equipment to provide Wi-Fi access on 75% of high-speed trains.
Ukrtelecom, Ukraine’s largest fixed-line operator, has launched the UKRTELECOM_FREE network in Kiev, Dnipro, Lviv, Odessa and Kharkiv, consisting of 700 free public Wi-Fi zones that will provide Internet access for two to four hours in case of power outage.
“We (Ukrtelecom) launched free Wi-Fi in five cities of Ukraine, so far in test mode. On the streets of Kiev, Dnipro, Lviv, Odessa and Kharkiv now work our free Wi-Fi (about 700 cabinets in total),” wrote Natalia Emchenko, director of communications at System Capital Management in Facebook.
Emchenko published a map, on which you can find addresses of free Wi-Fi zones from “Ukrtelecom”, noting that you can find out the points by a special sticker on the cabinets Free Wi-Fi.
PR-director of “Ukrtelecom” Lena Shramko specified in Facebook, that the speed of free Internet, distributed in zones, is up to 20 Mbit / s and may decrease as the number of users using the service at the same time increases. The radius of use of Wi-Fi – up to 10 meters.
Earlier Ukrtelecom CEO Yuri Kurmaz in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine said that the company will launch a network of free public areas in five cities where the upgraded infrastructure and installed active street cabinets (MSAN – Multi-Service Access Node – a device that connects subscriber lines to the core network).
“Ukrtelecom is the largest fixed-line operator in Ukraine. Most of its customers are state bodies, educational, administrative and medical institutions, emergency services.
Revenue “Ukrtelecom” for the first nine months of 2022 amounted to 3 billion 349.96 million UAH, which is 15.7% less than during the same period in 2021. The net loss was UAH 755.18 mln against net profit of UAH 360.03 mln for 9 months of 2021.
Ukrzaliznytsia has successfully completed testing Starlink-based wi-fi on Intercity trains, head of the company Alexander Kamyshyn said in Telegram on Tuesday.
“Test results: availability on the route 97%, speeds up to 100 Mbps. Vice Prime Minister Kubrakov has set us the task now to deploy the pilot to all Intercity trains. By the end of the year the task will be accomplished”, – noted the head of the railway operator.
According to his words, the train was equipped with Starlinks “by partisan methods” and tested on different routes for more than 100 days.
Kamyshin said that he called from the train via video link to the Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Fedorov and thanked him for his support.
In turn, Fedorov said that Ukrzaliznytsia has already received 450 Starlink terminals and by the end of the year will receive another part, in particular, from the batch that Germany will provide Ukraine in early February.
“Thousands of Starlink we will receive from Germany, I think, in early February,” said the deputy prime minister.
As reported, the last batch – 8 thousand terminals – was helped to Ukraine by Poland. More than 30 thousand Starlink terminals have already been deployed in the country.
JSC Ukrtelecom plans to provide free Wi-Fi access to the Internet in the shelters of more than 400 schools in Ukraine, the company’s press service reported on Friday.
“Ukrtelecom received applications from 398 schools. The operator received most of them directly, in contact with the administration of educational institutions using its services, the other part came as part of a government initiative to create safe and comfortable learning conditions for schoolchildren – the all-Ukrainian initiative “Wi-Fi in shelters,” the company said.
According to the release, the largest number of applications came from the Chernihiv and Khmelnytsky regions and Kyiv.
In addition, the initiative was supported by about 30 companies – partners of Ukrtelecom in the development of optical networks. Their specialists perform connection work using the equipment and resources of Ukrtelecom.
As of August 25, 60 school shelters have already been equipped with Wi-Fi from Ukrtelecom. The company expects as part of the implementation of connecting shelters in more than 400 schools.
On August 16, the Minister of Education and Science, Serhiy Shkarlet, announced that 2,736 schools need high-speed Internet in shelters, and 558 schools already have Wi-Fi in shelters.
