Bad news if you like to use the internet while on the go in Ukraine.
Ukraine has some of the slowest mobile internet speeds in the world, according to Global Index ranking by Speedtest published earlier this month.
Ukraine was in 109th place out of 122 countries in terms of the speed of its mobile internet, between Egypt (faster) and Venezuela (slower).
The ranking measured both mobile and fixed broadband speeds worldwide.
According to Speedtest, the average speed of mobile internet in Ukraine is 8.46 megabits per second for downloads; and 2.39 megabits per second for uploads.
Ukraine’s fixed broadband speeds are much better though (33 megabits per second on average), putting Ukraine 39th out of the 133 countries included on that list.
The European countries with the fastest mobile internet were Norway, the Netherlands, and Hungary, with speeds ranging from 46 to 52 megabits per second. Singapore has the fastest fixed broadband network in the world – users enjoy data transfer speeds of up to 154 megabits per second in the Asian city-state.
According to Roman Khimich, an independent telecom consultant, the “digital gap” in data transfer speeds between Ukraine and the leaders on the list is due to the late rollout of 3G services in Ukraine, and their fragmentation – the country’s carriers have focused on launching mobile data services in cities first.
Urban residents have high internet speeds, but “you need only leave a city to plunge into the last century,” Khimich told the Kyiv Post.
As a result, Khimich says, Ukraine performs badly in rankings like Global Index, which is based on average speeds.
Speeds in Ukraine will improve if providers continue rolling out 3G and 4G, using not only high frequency 1,800 and 2,600 megahertz bands, but also low ones from 700 to 900 megahertz, as these require less hardware upgrades, and at the same time can cover larger areas, according to Khimich.
Igor Yereshchenko, an expert at Kyivstar, the largest phone carrier and mobile internet provider in Ukraine, with roughly 26 million subscribers, says Ukraine has been much slower than many other countries to introduce 4G mobile internet services. This explains its poor placing in the speed ranking, he said.
“Any country with 4G will leave Ukraine behind in the rankings,” Yereshchenko told the Kyiv Post. “Even 3G does not cover all of the centers of population in Ukraine as the country’s carriers were able to start introducing the service only at the end of 2015.”
Yereshchenko said that unless the Ukrainian government gives the country’s telecom players freedom to choose how to work with frequencies, “Ukraine will continue lagging behind, not only in terms of mobile internet speed, but in technological development as a whole.”
The State Center of Radio Frequencies is currently preparing to hold two tenders to sell the Ukrainian largest operators – Vodafone Ukraine, Kyivstar and lifecell – licenses to use the radio frequencies needed to roll-out 4G.
Alexander Zhyvotovsky, the head of State Center of Radio Frequencies, talks to the Kyiv Post in the country’s capital on Aug. 2. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
The tenders to buy licenses to use the 2,600 and 1,800 megahertz frequencies are expected to be held this year, which will allow the operators to start the launch of 4G in 2018.
The operators are expected to pay about $245 million for licenses to use the two sets of frequencies.
Alexander Zhyvotovsky, the head of State Center of Radio Frequencies, has high hopes for 4G. He told the Kyiv Post this service will “significantly increase” the speed of mobile internet in the country.
“With 4G, the operators will have new services to offer, while Ukrainian subscribers will rejoice in the new possibilities,” Zhyvotovsky told the Kyiv Post.
Zhyvotovsky said Ukrainians, that as the telecoms market itself needed 3G to thrive in 2015 – the same applies with 4G now.
“Again (as with the 3G rollout), Ukraine is one of the last countries to introduce a new technology – 4G,” he said.
The article includes reporting by Toma Istomina. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Ciklum. The content is independent of the donors.
