New stationary (land line) phones have been installed free of charge for all benefit recipients in Hryshkivtsi (Zhytomyr oblast), Fursy (Bila Tserkva raion, Kyiv oblast), and Sadky (Poltava oblast), without running a cable into homes. New technologies have helped those who have been on a waiting list for a telephone since Soviet times. Deputy Prime Minister Andrii Kliuiev announced this a few days ago, when he presented a new government program entitled “A Phone for Every Home.” He gave his assurances that once the program is implemented, every Ukrainian citizen (above all, benefit recipients) who still has no stationary phone will now get a whole package of telecommunication services, including Internet.
The program will be implemented in 2008-09 at a cost of 480 million hryvnias. A key feature of the program is that CDMA phones, not ordinary cable stationary ones, will be installed. “CDMA technology, which has the lowest cost and the highest quality, was recognized as the most promising,” Kliuiev said. One of the major advantages of the new technology is that there is no need to install a cable, which means a relatively low cost of telephone installation.
All the necessary equipment will be purchased from the US for 480 million hryvnias. It will then be transferred to the Ukrtelekom Company, where a special department will be created. Kliuiev added that over time some parts of this equipment will be produced at domestic enterprises, which may additionally reduce the cost of the technology. This prospect, in the opinion of the deputy prime minister, will allow the government to correct the sorry state of affairs with regard to telephone installation.
According to statistics cited by Kliuiev, there are 26 stationary phones for every 100 people in Ukraine today. In Western Europe the ratio is 80 telephones for every 100 people. “In Ukraine 1,800 inhabited areas have no telephone service. These are remote rural, mountain, or depressed areas. Five thousand settlements do not have stationary phones, and there is a waiting list for phone service of over 20 million people. Some have been on the list for 20 or 30 years. Many have died without ever having received a phone,” the deputy prime minister commented. “Without civilized means of communication throughout the country we have no right to assert that we are living in a developed, civilized country.”
According to Kliuiev, the main reason for this state of affairs is the excessively high cost of installation, where the lion’s share goes to installing telephone lines in remote areas in the countryside or in mountainous areas that are difficult to access. “Using this standard, we will reduce expenditures for telephone installation in remote areas and those with difficult access. The state’s expenditures will drop by 50 percent,” Kliuiev said, adding that the problem with ordinary stationary phones is that you have to install a large amount of cable. This is practically impossible in areas with difficult access. The new technology combines the advantages of cell phones and stationary land lines and at an accessible price. The prices for the new type of telephone will correspond to current stationary telephone service fees.
“By the end of 2009 practically all of Ukraine will have telephone communications. We will fully liquidate the waiting lists for phone installations. By the end of this year (2007) 15 percent of the territory will be covered, by the end of 2008 - nearly 65 percent, and by the end of 2009 Ukraine will be fully hooked up,” Kliuiev assured his listeners.
Is this not one way of raising the value of Ukrtelekom shares before the company’s long-awaited privatization? Kliuiev assured journalists that even if Ukrtelekom is privatized, the special department will remain state property.
