Ukraine’s telecommunication market is way behind those of other developed countries, and won’t catch up with them any time soon, according to Kyivstar CEO Peter Chernyshov.
But speaking during a panel discussion at the Lviv IT Arena conference on Oct. 1 on the future for mobile carriers in the country, Chernyshov said being among the last in the race had some benefits – as Ukraine could see the typical mistakes made before by more developed countries, and, hopefully, avoid them.
“We’ve seen a lot of examples of epic fails,” Chernyshov said. “We’re way behind, so we have a great opportunity to avoid all these mistakes.”
At the same time, the Kyivstar head said that nobody can really predict how exactly technology will change the way the mobile communications business will work, especially in Ukraine.
“Our market is completely wrong,” he said. “In the rest of the world, SMS is a dying business, while it’s still growing in Ukraine. And we make good money on that.”
According to Chernyshov, over the years of Kyivstar’s existence, the company has paid over Hr 47 billion to Ukraine’s budget. Its client base is currently 25.4 million people.
But he thinks there is still room for growth. He said all of the technologies the company uses are either obsolete or old, or only relatively new.
For a substantial part of the discussion Chernyshov talked about the importance of telecom operators collecting and using big data in Ukraine, where 99 percent of the mobile market is pre-paid. That means that almost all customers are anonymous to providers: nobody knows how many customers throw away their old SIM cards and which mobile numbers are free for use.
He said the big data collected by tech professionals could help detect clients’ behavior more precisely and improve the way telecom operators run their business.
Underlining the significance of 3rd generation mobile networks for telecom providers, Chernyshov said that despite Ukraine not having any fast-speed mobile internet only a year-and-a-half ago, now it’s “running like tap water.” While everyone now expects high-speed mobile internet, access relies on the services of the largest providers, Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell.
“But if all three operators have an accident, you will be really crying,” Chernyshov said.
Closing the panel, an ill-tempered sounding Chernyshov asked the audience to keep silent: “I don’t need your applause. Please call abroad with Kyivstar – money’s better than applause.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
