Ukraine’s fixed-line telephone monopoly, Ukrtelecom, launched the country’s first UMTS network
Ukraine’s fixedline telephone monopoly, Ukrtelecom, launched the country’s first UMTS network on Nov. 1, providing third generation mobile communication services in six major cities.
The state-owned company rolled out the high-speed third generation, or 3G universal mobile standard under the Utel brand, formerly known as its long-distance arm. Service is available in Ukraine’s largest cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Odesa and Lviv.
Although two other operators claim to already provide 3G, Utel’s services include video calling, mobile television services and high-speed Internet connections in the 3.6-megabit range, currently unavailable from other providers.
Industry analysts agreed that Utel will enjoy a competitive edge in calling to and receiving calls from Ukrtelecom’s fixed lines. Utel, operating the 091 area code, is charging the same rates for video and voice calls, while in Europe, video calls can cost twice as much as voice calls.
Utel is also offering a separate high-speed Internet access package. Subscribers can purchase special USB or PCMCIA slot modems (for around Hr 1,100 – $220) that essentially transform a laptop into a mobile terminal by placing a card directly into the computer. Laptops can take full advantage of the higher bandwidth, while most mobile phone terminals available on the market lack full capacity.
For Hr 70 ($14), U’net users can send and receive a gigabyte of traffic, and pay an additional 20 kopeks per megabyte. For Hr 300 ($60), the monthly limits grow to 15 gigabytes of traffic, with additional megabytes costing only one-tenth of a Hryvnia.
The declared technical capacity of the Utel network is 3.6 megabits per second. On average though, “users can expect speeds between 500 kilobits to 1 megabit, depending on the user’s equipment, network traffic, distance to the closest base station and the site being visited,” a Utel brochure reads.
The network was built by Nokia Siemens, which has more than 100 UMTS networks around the world. Coverage should be extended to all 25 regional centers of Ukraine by the end of next year, according to plans.
Competition
Earlier this year, two other operators have presented higher-speed CDMA services, touted as third generation: Ukrainian Telesystems launched PEOPLEnet, while mobile telecommunications company MTS (formerly UMC) recently started offering its MTS Connect service.
MTS Connect’s version of the CDMA network is currently available in Ukraine’s largest cities. But MTS offers no voice, only modem and software services for computers to access the network, whose signal fluctuates in the 450 megahertz range – previously occupied by the NMT mobile communication standard, before GSM came along.
On Nov. 3, Ukrainian weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported that the technical parameters of the three existing networks are essentially the same and that at least three other operators will seek to secure UMTS licenses, currently enjoyed only by Utel.
Two years ago, Ukrtelecom was granted the only license to construct the network and claims to have invested Hr 760 million ($152 million) into the Nokia Siemens solution.
Ukrtelecom’s plans for next year include presenting subscribers with a single bill for Internet, television, fixed-line and mobile phone communications, the Mobility magazine reported on Nov. 6. Convergence of the services comes as Ukrtelecom prepares for its off-again, on-again privatization.
