Vodafone Ukraine (originally UMC Ukraine, and later MTS Ukraine) is the second-largest

mobile operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a mobile network provider, mobile network carrier, mobile , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, wireless operator, wireless telco, or cellular company, is a telecommunications provider of se ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

with 23.1 million users and thus a 38 percent market share (in September 2014). In November 2009 it had 17.74 million

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

subscribers. The company is fully owned by

NEQSOL Holding NEQSOL Holding is an international group of companies active in energy, telecommunications, construction, and high-tech. It was founded in the early 1990s by Azerbaijani Nasib Hasanov. Initially focused on the oil and gas sector, the holding has ...

. In October 2015

Mobile TeleSystems MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) () is the largest telecommunications company and mobile network operator in Russia and Belarus, headquartered in Moscow, operating on GSM, UMTS, LTE and 5G standards. Apart from cellular network, the company also offers ...

(MTS) and

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

expanded their 2008 strategic partnership; this resulted in the

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

of MTS Ukraine to Vodafone Ukraine. The company's main competitors are

Kyivstar Kyivstar () is a Ukrainian telecommunications company, providing communication services and data transmission based on a broad range of fixed and mobile technologies, including 4G (LTE) services, in Ukraine. The Kyivstar mobile network covers a ...

and

Lifecell lifecell (formerly life:)) is a Ukrainian telecommunications company based in Kyiv. It is the third largest Ukrainian mobile telephone network operator, (after Kyivstar and Vodafone Ukraine) covering 98.82% of Ukrainian inhabited territory. D ...

. Vodafone's network codes in Ukraine are +380 50, +380 66, +380 95, and +380 99 (postpay and prepaid users mixed within the codes). The new +380 75 code was allocated in 2024.

History

The company Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) introduced mobile services in Ukraine, Sotel initially using the

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

NMT standard, then using

GSM-900 GSM frequency bands or frequency ranges are the cellular frequencies designated by the ITU for the operation of GSM mobile phones and other mobile devices. Frequency bands GSM frequency usage around the world A dual-band 900/1800 device ...

and

1800 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 18), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 12 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 16), ...

. In 1993 UMC Ukraine was Ukraine's SIM SIM major SIM SIM cellular operator. In 2003

(MTS) bought the company. In October 2006, MTS Ukraine terminated its NMT service with plans to use the spectrum for the CDMA-450 rollout. From late 2006, MTS Ukraine has developed its 3G

mobile network A cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called ''cells'', each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (suc ...

with the CDMA-450 1xEV-DO standard. the Ukrainian MTS network supports various value-added services based on

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

/ EGPRS /

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

and

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

/ WAP / MMS /

USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as "quick codes" or "feature codes", is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator's computers. USSD can be used ...

. MTS is the only

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

service provider A service provider (SP) is an organization that provides services, such as consulting, legal, real estate, communications, storage, and processing services, to other organizations. Although a service provider can be a sub-unit of the organization t ...

in Ukraine; it also provides Wi-Fi hotspots, mainly in large cities and at airports. A survey of 500 companies by GfK Ukraine Company and the magazine "Correspondent" rated MTS Ukraine as one of the three best employers in the country. In 2007 MTS Ukraine joined the

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...

to acknowledge the obligations of the

business sector In economics, the business sector or corporate sector - sometimes popularly called simply "business" - is "the part of the economy made up by companies". It is a subset of the domestic economy, excluding the economic activities of general gover ...

with regard to universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The company always gives great attention to advancing principles of social responsibility and to the 10 principles of The United Nations Global Compact. Corporate social responsibility is one of the major strategic priorities of MTS Ukraine activity. MTS Ukraine activity is constructed on social responsibility with respect to the state, consumers, employees, partners, competitors and Ukrainian society in general. On March 15, 2007, MTS Ukraine became the first telecommunication company in Ukraine to receive the Certificate of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) "Perfection Recognition", which confirms the high standards of communication-operator work. In 2007 MTS Ukraine was acknowledged as the most known socially responsible company in Ukraine according to popular opinion and by independent research by the UMG Company. In 2008, research by the independent PRP Group Company rated MTS Ukraine as the best in Ukraine as regards participation in the telecommunication market. In 2008, and MTS Ukraine's owner MTS and

signed a strategic partnership. In 2011 MTS Ukraine openly declared its interest in acquiring Utel, a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

Ukrtelecom Ukrtelecom JSC () ( PFTS:br>UTLM is Ukraine's monopolist telephone company, also active in the ISP and mobile markets. The company was governed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Ukraine with 92.9% shares belonging to the ...

, Ukraine's monopolist telephone company, after Ukrtelecom announced plans to divest its mobile business. Vasyl Latsanych was appointed as company general director this year. In October 2015 MTS and Vodafone expanded their strategic partnership; this resulted in the

of MTS Ukraine as Vodafone Ukraine. On 11 and 12 January 2018, the company operations in Ukraine's separatist entities on the occupied territories of Luhansk Oblast (on 11 January) and Donetsk Oblast (on 12 January) were discontinued after a

fibre-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

line cut. This resulted in two million people losing mobile phone access. Until the Vodafone Ukraine line was repaired the remaining mobile phone carriers available in the region were the two operated by the separatist authorities. On 19 January the repair of the fibre optic line was completed and Vodafone Ukraine's services in territory controlled by the Luhansk People's Republic completely resumed. However, the territory controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic remained without a mobile connection; "the network does not work for reasons unknown to us" according to Vodafone Ukraine. On 23 March 2018, "Donetsk People's Republic" stated that Vodafone Ukraine could only resume operating in the territory controlled by it if it would start to pay taxes to the unrecognised state. Something Vodafone Ukraine refused. In 2019 MTS sold its Ukraine operations to

, an Azerbaijani holding company founded in the 1990s and led by Chairman Yusif Jabbarov, who also serves as Deputy Chairman of Vodafone Ukraine

War in Ukraine

Since the beginning of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

on February 24, 2022, Vodafone Ukraine has been committed to helping civilians victims of the security situation on the ground. The company has been providing free national roaming in order to allow soldiers as well as civilians to remain connected, even in damaged areas.

References

External links

* {{Ukraine mobile phone companies Mobile phone companies of Ukraine Vodafone MTS (network provider) Telecommunications Telecommunications companies