Редакція dev.uaMoney
20 February 2025, 10:03
2025-02-20
Do you think it's worth changing your mobile operator? We compared the conditions and features of Kyivstar, Vodafone, and Lifecell. Who should you choose?
Mobile operators are raising tariffs, and you are once again thinking about Mobile Number Portability (MNP) — porting your number to another operator while keeping the full number, including the code? Is it worth doing it? Which of the three whales of Ukrainian mobile communications has the best offer for customers?
dev.ua compared what Kyivstar, Vodafone, and lifecell offer to users.
Mobile operators are raising tariffs, and you are once again thinking about Mobile Number Portability (MNP) — porting your number to another operator while keeping the full number, including the code? Is it worth doing it? Which of the three whales of Ukrainian mobile communications has the best offer for customers?
dev.ua compared what Kyivstar, Vodafone, and lifecell offer to users.
What operators offer
The largest mobile operator Kyivstar has increased its service fee by an average of 25%. For prepaid subscribers, communication will cost from UAH 250 per month. However, there are several options to save money — for example, a tariff for people over 60 years old and people with disabilities LOVE UA Comfort worth UAH 140/month or a profitable contract for UAH 100/month with a fixed price for a year in advance LOVE UA Magnet Contract. It includes 20GB of Internet, 5GB of Internet in roaming, 100SMS, 1200 minutes (hereinafter — unlimited on Kyivstar). additional Superpower (this can be both unlimited mobile Internet and the Kyivstar TV movie and television platform or other services). More details — in the tariffs .
However, this tariff can only be activated by subscribers who switch to the Kyivstar network while keeping their number and submit an application for the switch by February 24.
From January 30, the mobile operator Vodafone will increase the cost of a number of tariffs by 40–70 UAH to 260–390 UAH for 4 weeks. The most popular tariff in the line is «Vodafone Turbo» for 270 UAH. However, for new customers who connected before January 20, 2025, the operator provides the first three service packages for 180 UAH/4 weeks.
From February 5, users of Lifecell services will also pay more: the operator has reduced the number of tariffs and increased their cost. The revision of tariff plans provides for an increase in the cost of tariffs by an average of 34%. On the operator’s website, the cheapest tariff is «Prosto Life»: a subscription fee of 160 UAH/4 weeks, 8 GB of mobile Internet and 300 minutes to all — including the «native» — networks in Ukraine. In addition, lifecell offers various economy tariff plans for the elderly, young people and students. Thus, in December 2024, the company launched the «sTOP-price» campaign for new MNP subscribers — by porting your number to the lifecell network from December 2, 2024 to January 31, 2025 (inclusive), you could fix the cost of your service package in the operator’s popular tariff plans until the end of 2025.
Which operator provides the best quality of service?
Due to the increase in the cost of communication services, many users have changed operators. In order to understand what users get from different communication operators, and why, in fact, quality services cannot be cheap, dev.ua compared the coverage, infrastructure development, and social activities of operators.
Kyivstar has built the largest communications infrastructure in Ukraine — over 66,000 base stations. The company uses its own fiber-optic network with a total length of more than 44,000 km and a bandwidth of 16 Tbit/s. This means that the highest quality communications and Internet are provided to the users of the blue operator.
Vodafone has slightly weaker coverage, particularly in the western regions. However, the company does not indicate the exact number of base stations on its website. The company managed to bring 5,040 base stations online during the active phase of the war in the country to expand coverage.
Lifecell also shows gaps in certain locations on the map. According to the company, the operator has about 10,000 base stations. In 2024, the lifecell operator, despite the challenges of the war, built 523 new base stations and upgraded 1,466 existing ones. Lifecell’s 4G services became available in 642 more settlements, where 243,000 residents live. In total, 7,455 base stations have been built and upgraded since the beginning of the great war, and 4G coverage has appeared in almost 3,704 settlements, where more than 2.7 million people live.
Infrastructure investments
Kyivstar is making huge investments in network development and its own energy independence during the war. The average pace that the company has taken in 2024 is approximately $200 million in capital investments per year. The company will continue to build network facilities along highways to provide reliable high-speed Internet.
Another challenge is to replace all old batteries at the sites with new, more capacious ones that will be able to withstand long-term blackouts. Since the start of the full-scale war, Kyivstar has made significant investments to ensure energy independence. The company directed UAH 2.625 billion of capital investments in Q3 2024 to modernize, restore and expand network infrastructure and strengthen the energy security of its telecommunications networks. As of February 2025, about 200,000 batteries have been installed at base stations (one battery is considered to be a 12 V 100 A*h battery). Additionally, more than 3,000 generators support the operation of key network facilities.
At the same time, the company’s total investment volume since the beginning of the full-scale war as of the end of September 2024 reached about UAH 18.3 billion.
Vodafone Ukraine noted in a report for investors that by the end of 2023, the total number of base stations that will be provided with electricity by generator sets in the event of blackouts is 1,535 (including its own stationary, mobile and various types of partner stations) and this number is constantly increasing. The company is also actively investing in infrastructure development. Vodafone Ukraine CEO Olga Ustinova announced plans to invest about UAH 1 billion and build 1,000 base stations. According to her, over the two years of full-scale invasion, the company invested UAH 9.3 billion in the country’s infrastructure. 5,040 base stations were brought online during the active phase of the war in the country to expand coverage. The company did not provide information on the results of 2024.
According to the CEO of the company, Mykhailo Shelemba, Lifecell has already invested over UAH 1 billion in infrastructure, and is currently ready to invest another UAH 1 billion to ensure the operation of generators, install batteries with a large number of charge-discharge cycles, and additional equipment for them. Lifecell’s priority task in 2024 was to ensure the energy stability of the network. In general, since the first blackouts in 2022, lifecell has already equipped the network with a large number of generators, installed 27,000 lithium batteries (48V 100 A*h) and the necessary additional equipment, investing UAH 1.5 billion in this project. «Now the company is investing another half a billion in the energy independence of its infrastructure and continues to install modern lithium batteries (21 0)0, 48V 100 A*h) throughout the network, which, depending on the load on the equipment, can ensure its operation for up to 10 hours. A large batch of 33 thousand batteries was delivered to Ukraine in several parts in December 2024 — January 2025. The batteries are immediately transferred to the regions and installed at the facilities,» the press service reported.
6 more reasons to stay with Kyivstar and choose it
In addition to the best coverage and the largest investment and social activities, Kyivstar, unlike its competitors, has unique competitive advantages.
«First, the company has signed an agreement with Starlink and will provide subscribers with a direct-to-cell satellite communication service. The direct-to-cell service is able to provide mobile communication on any 4G smartphone where there is no traditional coverage from operators,» says the post of Kyivstar President Oleksandr Komarov.
The Ukrainian operator is the ninth in the world and the second in Europe after the Swiss Salt to use this technology from Starlink. It is the first Ukrainian operator to have agreed on such a partnership with Starlink.
Secondly, Kyivstar is developing a large-scale project to build a GPON network. This means that the Home Internet service will also become better.
Thirdly, the operator has special offers for new subscribers who switch to Kyivstar via MNP, offering a tariff of 125 UAH/4 weeks (fixed price for 13 payments) or 100 UAH on a contract.
Fourth, Kyivstar is a powerful taxpayer among Ukrainian mobile operators. The company paid over UAH 28.3 billion in taxes during the full-scale war, which means it is a powerful donor to the Ukrainian economy.
Fifth, since the beginning of the full-scale war, the national telecom operator has provided assistance to the state, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and subscribers for a total amount of over UAH 1.162 billion. In particular, the company allocated UAH 300 million to restore Ukraine’s digital infrastructure, UAH 55 million to strengthen the country’s cyber defense, UAH 45 million was transferred to the «Return Alive» army competent assistance fund, UAH 10 million to equip engineering and sapper groups within the «We Have a Place to Live» initiative, and another UAH 10 million was received by the «Nezlamny» National Rehabilitation Center for equipment for the treatment of children with burns.
Sixth, Kyivstar has a Superpower called «Help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.» Over 111,000 subscribers have used it, transferring more than UAH 120 million to help the army.
