“The subscriber sent 200 Gbit of garbage traffic through an old router.” Vega CEO Serhiy Skripnikov on business survival during blackouts, cable across the Black Sea, and AI instead of call centers

What is happening behind the scenes of the provider when 15,000 people are waiting in line to connect to the non-volatile Internet? How is artificial intelligence preparing to replace hundreds of support operators? And why is Vodafone pulling optics across the Black Sea and preparing networks for 5G? dev.ua frankly talked about all this with Serhiy Skripnikov, CEO of the telecom company Vega (part of the Vodafone group).

— Sergey, how did you survive this winter? What were the difficulties and what did you have to fight against?

— Previous winters have been much more difficult for us, because we learned the lessons of the first blackout back in 2022. Most believed that outages would not happen again, but we were preparing for a more dramatic scenario and constant interruptions. And I still believe that we should be guided by the fact that even this summer we may encounter similar outages.

— How have business clients adapted? Are they ready to put backup equipment on their side?

— Today, for a business, regardless of size, the main value is the continuity of production of goods, provision of services and services for citizens. It doesn’t matter whether it is a large business or a small company in the segment of medium and small businesses. Different risks, but everyone needs stability. Clients decide the main issues on their own, but when it comes to communication, the Internet, it doesn’t matter whether it is a mobile or fixed solution, the business expects that the provider already has a backup and can provide high-quality and uninterrupted service.

This business segment has a special specificity. The difficulty is that the owner of the coffee shop often does not know about the problems until the PPO stops or payments are not made. The employee on site does not make decisions and often does not even know who the service provider is. Previously, in the absence of fixed Internet, mobile Internet actually covered the basic needs of the business — as a backup, and sometimes the main solution. Previously, terminals worked perfectly on SIM cards. But this winter showed that mobile communication did not always withstand the load during blackouts.

«I had this experience myself: I bought a cake in Boyarka. I arrive during a power outage, and the saleswoman says: „Give me cash.“ I don’t have any cash. We go outside with her, she picks up the terminal, catches the network — gets lost, catches it again… We spent an hour on it! In the end, we had to go to a neighboring store, where there was Wi-Fi, buy something there, so that they could pay the cake seller by barter. Natural exchange!»

— What about large businesses, for example, chain retail?

— In retail, there is a systematic approach: they immediately order backup channels for all stores. Big business is ready to pay more if they provide turnkey solutions, transparent pricing, and a guarantee of uninterrupted service. Today, business is no longer enough to simply have access to the Internet — companies need stability, security, and the ability to create their own closed infrastructure within Ukraine. That is why we develop solutions with guaranteed speed and dedicated secure channels (ZVID), and provide telephony and cloud PBX services.

We build a network and provide services using modern GPON technology, and provide stable internet for up to 100 hours during power outages. We have cases, in particular in Odessa and Kharkiv, where our network worked and customers received uninterrupted services during long blackouts of over 120 hours.

Another pressing issue is cybersecurity. If the network is hacked, it can have very serious consequences for business. Therefore, today one of the key requirements is protection against DDoS attacks and a certified infrastructure in terms of security. We have this protection implemented at a high level thanks to the resources and investments of the Vodafone Ukraine group.

— Has the demand for cloud services increased?

— Very much so, primarily due to the issue of data security from attacks by a neighboring state. For us, critical infrastructure is a priority, so data redundancy, security, and protection have become basic requirements today.

We provide this, in particular, thanks to our own data centers located in safer regions of the country. We also have significant expertise and practical cases of building secure Direct Connect channels to European countries and directly to Amazon cloud services. This allows us to ensure reliability, high speed, secure data transfer and information exchange between client offices and cloud storage.

Moreover, at the end of last year, Vodafone Ukraine CEO Olga Ustinova created a separate cool team based on Smartflex. Its goal is to implement not only our internal solutions for businesses, but also Microsoft, Amazon, Google clouds and relevant licenses, together with Vodafone sales. That is, we provide the client with a comprehensive approach.

— It’s clear with business clients, but what is critically important for home clients and IT professionals?

— In fact, the most demanding category of users are PlayStation owners. If you can meet their requirements (in terms of ping and speed), then the rest of the users will be satisfied.

In general, we see that many people take gigabit not because of the speed itself, but for the sake of stable optics. We have a huge number of users on our network with outdated routers (Wi-Fi 4). They do not even pull 100 Mbps, but people do not change them. Therefore, we are launching a program of «gigabitization» of the population: we will offer to replace equipment so that people really feel the difference.

— By the way, do you test routers yourself or just resell them?

— First of all, we set clear requirements for routers and each type of equipment. Then, in practice, we check whether the provided samples meet these requirements. And only after our own confirmation of the quality parameters do we make a purchase decision.

We monitor the market, work with well-known vendors (Nokia, ZTE, Huawei, Asus). We have our own test laboratory, where we check the equipment for failures, errors and security. If we see vulnerabilities, we do not allow such a router to be sold.

By the way, we recently brought a batch of ZTE gigabit routers. They were simply perfect in terms of performance and much cheaper than the market. Do you know what’s interesting? We didn’t even advertise them — the first batch sold out instantly purely through word of mouth, because customers themselves recommended them to each other.

— Returning to the blackouts, how big were the queues for connection?

— At peak times, our queue across Ukraine reached 15,000 subscribers (mainly Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava). The biggest shortage was in installers and communications. Dispatchers worked 24/7, but could not reach customers due to the lack of electricity and mobile network. The installer arrives, but cannot even ring the doorbell. But we have fulfilled all orders and provide high-quality service that covers all user needs. These include security solutions such as video surveillance, security systems, and regular Internet access.

We realized that contractors «off the street» at such a speed make a lot of mistakes (for example, they weld the optics poorly). We then had to go and redo everything. Now we only hire experienced partners.

— How actively are you implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into your processes?

— At Vodafone, AI is now the number one topic. For our telecom direction, the main goal of AI is prediction (predicting problems and workload). Human resources are becoming more expensive, and during emergencies, the call center (where 600-700 people work) is simply «flooded» with calls.

We are working on AI analyzing data from the network and understanding the client’s problem before they even call. For example, a person complains about speed, and AI sees that they are testing gigabit on the old 2.4 GHz frequency. The system will be able to close 50-60% of such requests automatically.

We also implemented RPA (robotization of software) in accounting. Our robot is integrated with the SAP system. Last year, the number of contracts increased by 10,000, but thanks to automation, we processed this increase without hiring a single new accountant!

— What happens to wholesale traffic and IP addresses?

— Traffic consumption is steadily growing, with online games, TikTok, and YouTube generating the most traffic today. But we, together with Vodafone Ukraine, are ready for any consumption.

Regarding IP addresses: for the mass market we use NAT technology, where up to 64 clients are hidden behind one external IP address. We rent static IPv4s to businesses (banks, security). The transition to IPv6 does not yet have clear deadlines in the world, so IPv4 is a valuable asset now. We are saving them for our future project «Vodafone Home» (smart home ecosystem, video surveillance), where dedicated addresses may be needed.

By the way, ordinary home routers can threaten the provider’s network. Users do not update their firmware for years. Hackers turn them into botnets. We had an incident: a subscriber with a white IP address was using his own old router. An attack was directed at him, and he drove 200 Gbit of «garbage» traffic into our network. Therefore, now the global trend is that the operator takes control of the router and its security upon himself.

— Last question: what major infrastructure projects are you currently conducting and how are you preparing for 5G?

— Vega has become the exclusive supplier of fixed infrastructure for Vodafone. Our strategic goal is to bring optics to every base station (XGS-PON standard) in order to completely abandon old radio relay lines in large cities. Vodafone has a clear plan to prepare the network for 5G, and we are implementing it.

And let’s not forget about even larger things. For example, Vodafone is preparing to build a new submarine cable system across the Black Sea — Kardesa, which is being implemented together with NEQSOL Holding. We believe in such powerful infrastructure projects, because they are the foundation for the digital future of the entire country.