Modern state of the mobile internet network in Ukraine

DOI: 10.31673/2412-9070.2019.062933

Abstract

Article dwells upon state of the mobile Internet network in Ukraine. The focus is on comparing connection speeds and coverage densities with world leaders and highlighting the main causes of the results from such a comparison. So, the article shows the average mobile internet speed of 21,4 Mbps according to SpeedTest by Ookla statistics for October 2019. These results are compared to the average world speed of 29,5 Mbps, as well as the average Internet speed for France, the size of the area and the population of which is as close as possible to Ukraine. An internet coverage map was considered for these two countries. There were identified a number of factors that prevented Ukraine from reaching the coverage of the internet generation of at least 3G, reached by France, among which the main factor was highlighted. Which according to the author, is the usage of frequencies of the range 2100...2800 MHz, instead of the frequencies of 800...900 MHz and as a result high cost of providing enough base stations to maintain the desired coverage.
The article also compared the mobile connection provided by the largest mobile operators in Ukraine: Kyivstar, Vodafone and lifecell. The average speed of operators was presented, among which the leading position is occupied by Kyivstar with an average speed of 20,73 Mbps, then lifecell — 18,38 Mbps and Vodafone — 18,28 Mbp/s. If we consider only 4G network, then lifecell was the absolute leader, with an average speed of 37,71 Mbps, which is almost 2 times higher than the average with 2G/3G networks, Kyivstar showed a result of 31,7 Mbps, Vodafone 23,19 Mbps. It was also determined that the share of 4G-enabled smartphones in the networks of Ukrainian mobile operators is 44%. In particular, 10,5 million out of 26,2 million for the operator Kyivstar, 8,4 million with 19,5 for Vodafone and 4,4 million with 6,8 million in lifecell. If we look at this distribution as a percentage, we get 40, 43 and 64,5% respectively.

Keywords: 3G; 4G; Kyivstar; Vodafone; lifecell; SpeedTest by Ookla; mobile networks.

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