Ukrainian telecom operators are trying to survive and stay in Crimea - media

Kyiv, May 29 (Navigator, Evgeniy Andreev) – Ukrainian telecom operators in Crimea and Sevastopol are beginning to adapt to the legislation of the Russian Federation, fearing to lose business and customers.

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According to the Kyiv publication Capital, the Volya group of companies will soon begin working on the peninsula using a Russian legal entity. This was reported by several independent interlocutors of the publication in the market.

The Volya customer service center in Crimea reported that the company will continue to provide services on the peninsula.

“Now you can make payments in rubles and, for now, in hryvnias using 24 NonStop terminals. But in the future, payment for services will only be in rubles,” said his representative.

Volya prefers not to give detailed comments for now:

“We are considering all options to ensure the uninterrupted operation of our services, and we do not exclude cooperation with a Russian company,” said Volya press secretary Vlad Voitovich.

Earlier, Russian media reported that three operators sold their backbone networks to Rostelecom, which brought a submarine cable to the peninsula through the Kerch Strait and is preparing to launch the network. Two of them were called “Datagroup” and “Atracom”. Datagroup later denied this information.

The largest Ukrainian Internet access and telephony operator, Ukrtelecom, continues to operate in Crimea under existing conditions. As its chairman Alexander Barinov recently told Capital, the company will for now operate under Ukrainian laws and is not negotiating a sale.

Another company that willy-nilly change the principles of its work in Crimea in the near future may be MTS Ukraine. As the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported on Wednesday, citing its sources, the State Commission for Radio Frequencies allocated to the unknown company K-Telecom a range in Crimea, owned under Ukrainian licenses by MTS Ukraine (900 MHz and 1800 MHz).

The Ukrainian company is surprised by this fact. “For us there is one law - Ukrainian, in accordance with it we provide services to subscribers and will continue to do so as long as we have such an opportunity. I hope that our Crimean subscribers will not be left without communication,” said Victoria Ruban, head of the public relations department at MTS Ukraine. MTS (Russia) Vice President for Marketing Vasyl Latsanich noted that this issue remains unresolved.

According to Vedomosti, 4 companies with the name “K-Telecom” are registered in Russia. The latter was registered on May 15 in Moscow and belongs to MTS. According to Capital, the MTS group operates on the basis of a legal entity with the same name (K-Telecom CJSC) in Armenia under the ViVA brand. MTS denies any connection with the company that received frequencies in Crimea. Earlier, Oleg Prozhyvalsky, director of corporate governance and control at MTS Ukraine, told Capital that equipment of unknown origin was operating on their frequencies in Crimea in the spring. The National Commission for Communications Regulation intervened in the situation. The former head of the regulator, Petr Yatsuk, said that MTS Ukraine subscribers inexplicably ended up in Russian roaming in Crimea. They received corresponding SMS.

It should be noted that Capital previously reported that Telesystems of Ukraine (PEOPLEnet) is leaving Crimea, since the military operates on its frequencies in Russia.

However, a representative of Roskomnadzor in Crimea assured the Capital journalist that Ukrainian mobile operators on the peninsula have nothing to fear:

“Until January 1, 2015, they can freely work on the basis of licenses issued by the NCRSI,” he noted, adding that only then those who want to stay will have to “re-register.”

Director of Regulatory and Legal Support at Kyivstar Andrey Osadchuk says that mobile communications, in fact, is the last cordon that Ukraine holds in Crimea. After all, to this day, Russians coming to Crimea find themselves in Ukrainian roaming and pay high tariffs.

Let us recall that last week the head of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov said at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that starting from June in Crimea, roaming for Russian mobile subscribers will be canceled.