Vodafone Ukraine

Last updated
PJSC VF Ukraine
FormerlyCJSC Ukrainian Mobile Communications (1992–2003)
PJSC MTS Ukraine (2003–2015)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Telecommunications
Founded1992;32 years ago (1992)
Founder
Headquarters,
Ukraine
Area served
Ukraine
Services
Revenue18,142,000,000 Hryvnia (2020)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
5,027,000,000 Hryvnia (2020)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
1,201,000,000 Hryvnia (2020)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Total assets 37,790,000,000 Hryvnia (2020)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Owner NEQSOL Holding (100%)
Number of employees
4,000 (2020)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Parent NEQSOL Holding
Website www.vodafone.ua

Vodafone Ukraine (originally UMC Ukraine, and later MTS Ukraine) is the second-largest mobile operator in Ukraine with 23.1 million users and thus a 38 percent market share (in September 2014). [1] In November 2009 it had 17.74 million GSM subscribers. [2] The company is fully owned by NEQSOL Holding. [3] [4] In October 2015 Mobile TeleSystems and Vodafone expanded their 2008 strategic partnership; this resulted in the rebranding of MTS Ukraine to Vodafone Ukraine. [5]

Contents

The company's main competitors are Kyivstar and Lifecell.

Vodafone's network codes in Ukraine are +380 50, +380 66, +380 95, and +380 99 (postpay and prepaid users mixed within the codes). The new +380 75 code was allocated in 2024.

History

The company Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) introduced mobile services in Ukraine, Sotel initially using the analog NMT standard, then using GSM-900 and 1800. In 1993 UMC Ukraine was Ukraine's SIM SIM major SIM SIM cellular operator. In 2003 Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) bought the company. In October 2006, MTS Ukraine terminated its NMT service with plans to use the spectrum for the CDMA-450 rollout. From late 2006, MTS Ukraine has developed its 3G mobile network with the CDMA-450 1xEV-DO standard. As of 2016 the Ukrainian MTS network supports various value-added services based on GPRS / EGPRS / EDGE and SMS / WAP / MMS / USSD. MTS is the only BlackBerry service provider in Ukraine; it also provides Wi-Fi hotspots, mainly in large cities and at airports.

A survey[ when? ] of 500 companies by GfK Ukraine Company and the magazine "Correspondent" rated MTS Ukraine as one of the three best employers in the country.[ citation needed ]

In 2007 MTS Ukraine joined the United Nations Global Compact to acknowledge the obligations of the business sector with regard to universally accepted[ by whom? ] principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The company always gives great attention to advancing principles of social responsibility and to the 10 principles of The United Nations Global Compact.[ citation needed ] Corporate social responsibility is one of the major strategic priorities of MTS Ukraine activity. MTS Ukraine activity is constructed on social responsibility with respect to the state, consumers, employees, partners, competitors and Ukrainian society in general.

On March 15, 2007, MTS Ukraine became the first telecommunication company in Ukraine to receive the Certificate of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) "Perfection Recognition", which confirms the high standards of communication-operator work.

MTS Ukraine logo (2007--2015) MTS logo.svg
MTS Ukraine logo (2007—2015)

In 2007 MTS Ukraine was acknowledged as the most known socially responsible company in Ukraine according to popular opinion and by independent research by the UMG Company.

In 2008, research by the independent PRP Group Company rated MTS Ukraine as the best in Ukraine as regards participation in the telecommunication market.[ citation needed ]

In 2008, and MTS Ukraine's owner MTS and Vodafone signed a strategic partnership. [5]

In 2011 MTS Ukraine openly declared its interest in acquiring Utel, a subsidiary of Ukrtelecom, Ukraine's monopolist[ citation needed ] telephone company, after Ukrtelecom announced plans to divest its mobile business. [6] Vasyl Latsanych was appointed as company general director this year. [7]

In October 2015 MTS and Vodafone expanded their strategic partnership; this resulted in the rebranding of MTS Ukraine as Vodafone Ukraine. [5]

On 11 and 12 January 2018, the company operations in Ukraine's separatist entities on the occupied territories of Luhansk Oblast (on 11 January) and Donetsk Oblast (on 12 January) were discontinued after a fibre-optic line cut. [8] [9] This resulted in two million people losing mobile phone access. [8] Until the Vodafone Ukraine line was repaired the remaining mobile phone carriers available in the region were the two operated by the separatist authorities. [8] On 19 January the repair of the fibre optic line was completed and Vodafone Ukraine's services in territory controlled by the Luhansk People's Republic completely resumed. [10] However, the territory controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic remained without a mobile connection; "the network does not work for reasons unknown to us" according to Vodafone Ukraine. [10] On 23 March 2018, "Donetsk People's Republic" stated that Vodafone Ukraine could only resume operating in the territory controlled by it if it would start to pay taxes to the unrecognised state. [11] Something Vodafone Ukraine refused. [11]

In 2019 MTS sold its Ukraine operations in 2019 to NEQSOL Holding, [12] [3] an Azerbaijani holding founded in the 1990s.

War in Ukraine

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Vodafone Ukraine has been committed to helping civilians victims of the security situation on the ground. The company has been providing free national roaming in order to allow soldiers as well as civilians to remain connected, even in damaged areas. [13]

Related Research Articles

The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP, UMTS is a component of the International Telecommunication Union IMT-2000 standard set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and bandwidth to mobile network operators.

A SIM lock, simlock, network lock, carrier lock or (master) subsidy lock is a technical restriction built into GSM and CDMA mobile phones by mobile phone manufacturers for use by service providers to restrict the use of these phones to specific countries and/or networks. This is in contrast to a phone that does not impose any SIM restrictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roaming</span> Wireless telecommunication term

Roaming is a wireless telecommunication term typically used with mobile devices, such as mobile phones. It refers to a mobile phone being used outside the range of its native network and connecting to another available cell network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic Mobile Telephone</span> Mobile telephone system

NMT is an automatic cellular phone system specified by Nordic telecommunications administrations (PTTs) and opened for service on 1 October 1981. NMT is based on analogue technology and two variants exist: NMT-450 and NMT-900. The numbers indicate the frequency bands used. NMT-900 was introduced in 1986 and carries more channels than the older NMT-450 network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTS (telecommunications)</span> Russian mobile network operator

MTS, headquartered in Moscow, is the largest mobile network operator in Russia, operating on GSM, UMTS and LTE standards. Apart from cellular network, the company also offers local telephone service, broadband, mobile television, cable television, satellite television and digital television.

GSM frequency bands or frequency ranges are the cellular frequencies designated by the ITU for the operation of GSM mobile phones and other mobile devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyivstar</span> Ukrainian mobile operator

Kyivstar is a Ukrainian telecommunications company, providing communication services and data transmission based on a broad range of fixed and mobile technologies, including 4G (LTE) services, in Ukraine.

lifecell Ukrainian mobile operator

lifecell ) is a Ukrainian telecommunications company based in Kyiv. It is the third largest Ukrainian mobile telephone network operator, covering 98.82% of Ukrainian inhabited territory. Turkcell is the parent company of Lifecell. Lifecell's dialing prefixes are +38063, +38093 and +38073.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O2 Czech Republic</span> Czech telecommunications company and subsidiary of O2

O2 Czech Republic (operating under the O2 brand) is a major integrated operator in the Czech Republic. It is now operating more than six million lines, both fixed and mobile, making it one of the Czech Republic's largest providers of fully converged services. O2 Czech Republic operates a fixed and mobile network including a 3rd generation network, CDMA (for data), UMTS and EDGE, enabling voice, data and video transmission. O2 Czech Republic is also a provider of ICT services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrtelecom</span> Ukrainian telecommunications company

Ukrtelecom JSC is Ukraine's monopolist telephone company, also active in the ISP and mobile markets. The company was governed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Ukraine with 92.9% shares belonging to the government until Austrian investment firm EPIC bought a 92.79 percent stake from the Ukrainian government for $1.3 billion. This stake was resold to System Capital Management of Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in Ukraine</span> Telephone number system in Ukraine

This is a discussion of telephone numbers in Ukraine. The nation of Ukraine has country code +380. It switched to the European Union's common dialing plan in 2009. Thus, Ukrainian phone numbers consist of a 2-digit zone code, an optional subzone code, an optional filler, and the local phone number. However, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the regions of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk were given Russian telephone codes instead, as if they were following telephone numbers in Russia, by Russian authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in Ukraine</span> Overview of the Internet in Ukraine

The Internet in Ukraine is well developed and steadily growing, mostly uninfluenced by the global financial crisis; in April 2012 rapid growth was forecast for at least two more years. As of 2011, Ukraine was ranked 9th in the "Top 10 Internet countries in Europe", with then 33.9% Internet penetration and 15.3 million users; growing to 36.8% in 2012. However, as of January 2021 about 30 million Ukrainians were Internet users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TriMob</span>

TriMob LLC d/b/a 3Mob, formerly Ukrtelecom, formerly Utel is a telecommunications company in Ukraine. It is a subsidiary of Ukrtelecom, formerly government-owned fixed phone operator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone industry in Russia</span>

Mobile phone industry in Russia is an trade industry of cell phone devices and mobile network services in Russia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1991 it had seen a great expansion over the last decades becoming one of the largest in the world. In terms of number of smartphone users, Russia is the 4th biggest smartphone market in the world sitting behind only China, India, and USA.

3G mobile telephony was relatively slow to be adopted globally. In some instances, 3G networks do not use the same radio frequencies as 2G so mobile operators must build entirely new networks and license entirely new frequencies, especially so to achieve high data transmission rates. Other delays were due to the expenses of upgrading transmission hardware, especially for UMTS, whose deployment required the replacement of most broadcast towers. Due to these issues and difficulties with deployment, many carriers delayed acquisition of these updated capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sky Link (Russia)</span>

Skylink is a mobile LTE 450 MHz operator in Russia.

The Mobile phone industry in Ukraine started in 1993 in analog, and its digital industry showed rapid growth, although there have been ups and downs.

Vladymyr Lavrenchuk is a Ukrainian banker and top manager. Regional director of NEQSOL Holding Ukraine (2021–present), CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine (2005–2019), CEO of Ukrinbank (1997–2002).

NEQSOL Holding is an international group of companies active in energy, telecommunications, construction, and high-tech founded by Azerbaijani Nasib Hasanov. Initially focused on the oil and gas sector, the holding has expanded into other areas and now includes entities such as Vodafone Ukraine, Bakcell, Caucasus Online, Nobel Oil Group, Nobel Upstream, and Norm Cement.

References

  1. Ukraine's threat to shun Russian telecoms hard to fulfil, Reuters (Sep 14, 2014)
  2. "MTS Announces Subscriber Growth Numbers for October 2009". ir.mts.ru. November 23, 2009.
  3. 1 2 "NEQSOL Holding закрив угоду з купівлі Vodafone Україна". Економічна правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  4. "NEQSOL Holding". www.neqsolholding.com.
  5. 1 2 3 "MTS Ukraine to operate under Vodafone brand". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  6. "МТС нацелилась на Utel / Связь и коммуникации / ProIT". proit.com.ua. Archived from the original on 2011-06-19.
  7. "Главой «МТС-Украина» стал Василь Лацанич — Delo.ua". delo.ua (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  8. 1 2 3 "Agence France-Presse ..." temporary-unavailable.afp.com.
  9. "Vodafone планує в четвер відновити зв'язок в ОРДЛО". Українська правда.
  10. 1 2 "Mobile connection partially restored in war-torn east Ukraine". sg.news.yahoo.com.
  11. 1 2 "В ДНР требуют от Vodafone 800 млн рублей долга". korrespondent.net.
  12. "MTS Completes Sale of Ukraine Operations". ir.mts.ru.
  13. Mauldin, William. "Russian Strikes Sap Ukraine Mobile Network of Vital Power". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-02-14.