Internet and mobile communication during blackouts: Kyivstar has found a solution

15 January 20:22

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Kyivstar has strengthened the energy resilience of its network by more than three times. This is reported by Komersant ukrainskyi with reference to the company’s press release.

“Resilience during blackouts is one of the key priorities of Kyivstar as the electronic communications operator with the largest national coverage. Due to significant investments and active and systematic work, Kyivstar has increased the resilience of its telecom network more than three times since the beginning of the full-scale war,” the press release says.


Since 2022, more than UAH 2.3 billion has been invested to ensure the energy independence of the mobile operator: purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment that provides backup power to the telecom network facilities.


Kyivstar’s network consists of more than 65 thousand base stations located at technological sites all over Ukraine. Thanks to the operator’s efforts, all telecom network facilities are now backed up. In particular, as of the beginning of January 2025, more than 197 thousand batteries were installed (one battery is based on the nominal value of a 12 V 100 A*h battery), and more than 2,700 generators support the operation of key infrastructure facilities of electronic communication networks.

Thus, in the event of prolonged blackouts, Kyivstar will provide uninterrupted communication for at least three days for all critical network nodes, as well as for facilities important for the functioning of the country’s economy and security system, as determined by the National Security and Defense Council.

In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Kyivstar’s telecom facilities have been operating on backup power for almost 4 million hours. The amount of fuel used to run the generators has already exceeded 3 million liters.

In 2025, Kyivstar plans to additionally install more than 1,000 powerful generators and more than 52,000 batteries (one battery is based on the nominal capacity of a 12 V 100 Ah battery). In particular, the operator expects to supply over 13 thousand more batteries in the near future to strengthen the energy independence of the telecom network.


Since the start of the massive power outages, the company has promptly reserved the Home Internet network. About 50,000 uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) were installed in 24,000 apartment buildings in 92 cities of Ukraine. As some of the UPSs began to lose their life due to frequent outages, Kyivstar started replacing them with more powerful iron-phosphate batteries. This type of battery has a longer service life and can support fixed Internet connection for up to 10 hours. To date, Kyivstar has already installed more than 5 thousand batteries of the new type, and over the next three months the company will install another 35 thousand. In total, by the end of 2025, the modernization will cover the entire network – for this purpose, Kyivstar has purchased more than 85 thousand new batteries.


In addition to redundancy, Kyivstar continues to modernize its network. The company is investing UAH 1 billion in the deployment of GPON technology. Starting from 2025, new buildings will be connected exclusively via fiber optic technology. In apartment buildings that already have FTTB networks, GPON will be added as a second layer to improve the quality of services.


The mobile operator also continues to look for additional opportunities to ensure the stability of communication. The company invites businesses that have generators with free capacity of 8 kW or more and are ready to share it to join the cooperation on a commercial basis. The company is considering the Generator As A Service model on an ongoing basis with compensation for the cost of fuel for the provided power. Kyivstar already cooperates with more than 200 business partners using this algorithm.

Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian electronic communications operator, which as of September 2024 served about 23.3 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers. The company provides services using a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G, Big Data, Cloud solutions, cybersecurity services, digital TV, etc.

“Kyivstar is developing new telecom technologies in Ukraine and plans to invest USD 1 billion in this area in 2023-2027. THE COMPANY IS HELPING UKRAINE TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES. The company is helping Ukraine overcome the challenges of wartime and has allocated over UAH 2 billion over the past two years to support the Armed Forces, subscribers, and social projects. Kyivstar’s shareholder is the international VEON Group. The Group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (New York). “Kyivstar has been operating in Ukraine for 27 years and is recognized as the largest taxpayer in the electronic communications market, the best employer and a socially responsible company.

Мандровська Олександра
Editor