Mobile operator lifecell continues to upgrade its network to ensure connectivity to subscribers even during 10-hour power outages. To date, 89% of the company's network across Ukraine has been retrofitted with new long-lasting batteries and generators, with which base station equipment can provide connectivity for up to 10 hours (depending on network load and time for a full recharge).
Mobile operator lifecell continues to upgrade its network to ensure connectivity to subscribers even during 10-hour power outages. To date, 89% of the company's network across Ukraine has been retrofitted with new long-lasting batteries and generators, with which base station equipment can provide connectivity for up to 10 hours (depending on network load and time for a full recharge).
In 14 regions of Ukraine, more than 90% of base stations can support such autonomous operation, the mobile operator reports. Of these, in 8 regions — Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kherson and Sumy — energy modernization has already been fully completed: the equipment of 100% of base stations is reserved for up to 10 hours in case of power outages.
"The lifecell network consists of over 10,000 technological sites across the country, where base stations are located. Ensuring their stable operation under any conditions, including without stationary power supply, is the company's priority task during wartime, when communication is critically important for both the front and civilian needs," the company notes.
To comply with the orders of the National Center for the Protection of Networks to ensure the stability of networks from the beginning of the blackouts, lifecell purchased 48,000 lithium batteries (48V, 100 ampere-hours) for the retrofitting of base stations throughout Ukraine.
As of early April 2025, 37,000 batteries have already been installed in various regions, 20,000 of which were installed during January-March 2025. As a result of the modernization, the total volume of such backup power sources in the operator's network in 2025 will be 199 times higher than in 2022. And investments in this direction are approaching 2 billion hryvnias.
In addition, lifecell continues to expand its generator fleet to provide autonomous operation for 25% of the network during long-term power outages. Today, the total number of installed generators is 75 times higher compared to 2022.
In parallel, the operator is studying the possibility of using alternative energy sources to ensure autonomous operation and redundancy of its base stations. In the fall of 2022, a pilot project was launched to use solar panels to power base stations in the southern region of Ukraine. And recently, the operator began testing powering a base station from an electric vehicle.
