“Kyivstar”, “Vodafone-Ukraine” (“VF-Ukraine”) and lifecell (“Lifecell”) without much struggle received new frequencies in the 2100, 2300 and 2600 MHz bands for use for 15 years according to the results of the auction held on Tuesday, in total offering 2 billion 894.734 million UAH for them for the initial total price of 2 billion 871.531 million UAH, reports the correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
In total, five lots were put up for auction, and two or three bids were submitted for the purchase of each of them. Bidding for all took place in one round.
In particular, the first lot in the range of 1935-1950/2125-2140 MHz was won by “Vodafone-Ukraine” in the fight against “Kyivstar” for UAH 458.3 million. The second in the same range for UAH 463 million was won by lifecell in the presence of applications from Kyivstar and Vodafone-Ukraine, and the third (without Kyiv) for UAH 448.5 million was won by Kyivstar in the presence of applications from all three operators.
The fourth lot in the range of 2355-2395 MHz, according to the results of the auction, will be awarded to “Kyivstar” for 994.8 million, which competed for it with “Vodafone-Ukraine”.
Finally, “Kyivstar” and “Vodafone-Ukraine” submitted applications for the fifth lot in 2575-2610 MHz, however, due to antimonopoly restrictions, “Vodafone-Ukraine” was recognized as the winner with a price of UAH 530.1 million.
“We started preparing these frequencies in 2021, but the war became an obstacle. In 2022, these frequencies were provided on the terms of temporary use, because the frequencies were “cracked”. And here we are at last,” Oleksandr Zhivotovskyi, head of the National Commission for State Regulation in the Fields of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum and Postal Services (NKEK), said during the opening of the auction.
