Vodafone has expanded available roaming for Ukrainians to all EU countries

Vodafone Ukraine has expanded the possibilities of using mobile communication services, allowing its subscribers to use home tariffs in 28 countries of the European Union without additional costs and connections. Cyprus and Malta have been added to the list of countries, making the service available throughout the EU.

Users of tariff plans such as Turbo, Joice Start, Joice Pro, Joice Max and SuperNet Pro+ can use gigabytes of Internet and minutes for roaming calls under the terms of their home tariff. This is convenient for travelers, business people, as well as military personnel and volunteers who are abroad, because now there is no need to activate additional services or pay roaming fees.

Ukrainian telecommunications operators “Kyivstar”, Vodafone and lifecell issued a joint statement regarding the requirements of the National Center for Operational and Technical Management of Telecommunications Networks (NCU) regarding 10-hour autonomous operation of the network during power outages.

The operators indicated the need to solve a number of technical and logistical problems in order to fulfill the assigned tasks. In particular, they need to obtain permits from oblenergo to increase capacity for charging batteries. .8 GWh of electricity, which can be compared with the capacity of one power unit of a nuclear power plant.

Operators also emphasize the lack of qualified specialists to service the new equipment, estimating that tens of thousands of workers need to be hired additionally. In addition, there are restrictions on installing generators and batteries on the roofs of buildings where most base stations are located due to building codes and sanitary standards.

According to the resolution of the National Center of Ukraine from July 16, operators are obliged to equip all base stations with batteries and generators by February 1, 2025. according to the estimates of industry experts, the fulfillment of these requirements will require investments in the amount of more than 13 billion hryvnias.

Despite the difficulties, operators have already invested heavily in increasing the energy independence of their networks. They invested more than 3 billion hryvnias, upgraded 370,000 batteries at base stations and purchased 5,400 generators and other sources of uninterrupted power.