Ukrainian mobile operators have purchased over 15,000 generators to provide backup power for base stations. This was announced on January 22 by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko following a meeting with representatives of the telecom market, Forbes reports.
According to her, over 8,000 base stations are already operating using generators. A separate topic of discussion was the formation of sufficient fuel reserves for uninterrupted operation of equipment in conditions of energy risks.
Operators are working to ensure that Ukrainians have stable voice coverage and the ability to send SMS messages regardless of the state of the power system.
According to Acting Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov, currently 92% of base stations are equipped with batteries that provide autonomous communication for up to eight hours. More than a third of base stations are additionally equipped with generators and are able to operate in autonomous mode for more than three days.
By February 1, 2025, the communication of operators Kyivstar, Vodafone and lifecell was supposed to work stably for 10 hours without electricity. This was the requirement of the National Center for Operational and Technical Management of Telecommunications Networks (NCT) from July 2024.
None of the operators fully complied with the NCT requirements due to their complexity, Forbes Ukraine’s interlocutor told one of the operators. He spoke anonymously, as he is not authorized to make official comments. This was confirmed by an official in one of the departments, who is familiar with the companies’ data on compliance with the NCT requirements.
