There’s a strong correlation between the speed of a nation’s Internet and the strength of its economy. This means that Ukraine and its economy have been in the slow second generation lane for too long.
But soon, as many in the world get ready for 4G technology, Ukraine will be getting 3G – finally.
The “G” stands for generation. And 3G, or third-generation technology, will be a big upgrade. It allows Internet users in Ukraine to walk along the street and talk freely on Skype and make video calls directly from the phone.
Because of 2G, or second-generation technology discarded by many nations years ago, Ukrainians are tied to Wi-Fi networks in order to get high-speed Internet. The Internet on all mobile devices is too slow to process high-speed connections.
To illustrate how far behind the times Ukraine has been, Poland adopted 3G technology in 2005.
Ukraine’s changes won’t happen overnight, but rather in 18 months, at least in the cities with populartions of 100,000 and more.
Kyivstar, MTS Ukraine and life:), the biggest mobile operators in Ukraine, are rolling out the service, following an auction of 3G licenses held this February. The price of 3G will be higher than the current rates that operators charge, although how much higher is not clear yet.
Ilia Kenigshtein, a managing partner at Hybrid Capital and the member of Reanimation Package of Reforms non-governmental organization, says that the launch of 3G means huge “digital freedom” and a boost for online businesses. Amid the ability to download large-sized content to mobile devices anywhere, 3G will open up opportunity to use smart city solutions, e-government, e-learning and e-health services – as in the West.
Ukraine has been lagging in Internet speed, as it has in many other categories that define quality of life.
Talks about 3G started during Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency in 2009. The government granted the 3G license to TriMob mobile operator that is part of Ukrtelekom, the provider owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. But it didn’t perform any necessary upgrades during the corrupt era of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
After Petro Poroshenko became president in June, he issued a decree to hold a transparent 3G tender. Operators started upgrading the mobile network with 3G equipment soon after the bidding process.
Oleh Prozhyvadsky, the head of corporate governance and control at MTS Ukraine, says that certificates must be obtained for every new base station.
The biggest difficulty Kyivstar faces in its 3G launch is currency instability as all equipment purchased in euros. “Also we would like to speed up and simplify the process of deregulation of the industry and permits,” Petro Ivanov, the head of corporate communications unit at Kyivstar, says.
According to worldtimezone.com, all but one of Ukraine’s neighboring countries have already moved ahead of Ukraine in mobile Internet speed. Russia, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia and Hungary have issued 4G licenses to operators. Belarus will launch 4G by the end of the year.
All operators are cautious about Crimea and the eastern Donbas war zone. “We can cover these territories when we have safe access to them,” Prozhyvadsky of MTS explains.
After operators set up a strong 3G network, they hope to start working on a 4G rollout. Fully running 3G services will serve as a strong base for 4G services, Ivanov of Kyivstar, believes.
Hopefully consumers won’t have to wait another decade for this development.
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
