Fixed broadband providers in Ukraine are continuing to connect bomb shelters with fixed internet and Wi-Fi capabilities to keep citizens connected during the ongoing war in the nation.
Market leader Kyivstar has confirmed that as of 17th March it is delivering fixed internet to 201 bomb shelters across 14 cities, including Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Kryvy Rih, Rivne, Lviv, Dnipro, Obukhiv, Khmelnytsky, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Zelenodolsk, Zhovti Vody, Chernivtsi, Ternopil and Lutsk. The operator claimed that it is connecting 15 -20 new shelters daily. TeleGeography notes that Kyivstar’s fibre broadband services cover a total of 125 cities in Ukraine.
Third-placed fixed broadband provider Volia claimed on 14th March that it had provided free high speed internet to over 200 shelters across 18 regions of Ukraine. As reported by GCD, Volia’s network extends across 34 cities while its parent firm Datagroup covers 44 cities with its FTTx access network.
Fixed ISP Tenet, which provides services in Odessa and Mykolayiv, had connected 130 bomb shelters as of 11th March, while Vodafone Ukraine subsidiary Vega had provided fixed services to 26 shelters as of 17th March.
The Department of Information and Communication Technologies of the Kyiv City State Administration is providing an online portal allowing citizens to request connections from ISPs for bomb shelters, or find their nearest connected shelter. Ukrainian operators are also offering zero-rated access to an air raid alerts app.
Ukrtelecom, which offers fixed voice and broadband services, issued a statement on 14th March saying “since the beginning of the war, we have restored (after damage) the Internet in more than 1,000 settlements”. The operator’s general director Yuri Kurmaz noted that in terms of accessibility by district, the network was operating at 80%.
