INTERVIEW: Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov (pictured) told Mobile World Live Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine would not halt the operator’s progress, with a stack of fresh sites being built, a major acquisition in the works and plans for a NASDAQ listing proceeding.
Komarov explained Kyivstar is progressing a commitment to invest $1 billion into Ukraine from parent Veon and, while major sums are going into ensuring the resilience of its network and services, he still has an eye on the bigger picture of deploying fresh technologies and advancing a digital strategy.
“We need to run the network, it should be a reliable network”, he explained, adding Kyivstar “announced that this year we will build an extra 1,000 sites, which is actually two-times more than we built before the war”.
Kyivstar is committed to deploying LTE nationwide, though Komarov said it is testing 5G as part of a collaboration with Rakuten Symphony.
Komarov believes Kyivstar leads in digital health services and is a frontrunner in entertainment, value-added propositions which bring the operator in line with broader tech-co efforts. It is locked in negotiations to acquire the “biggest ride-hailing business in Ukraine” as part of this approach.
It continues to work in conjunction with rival operators as part of a “prime objective” to keep Ukrainians connected, even if this involves a loss of competitive advantage. Kyivstar also aims to get a satellite connectivity deal with SpaceX off the ground by the year end.
Komarov remains focused on the here and now, though, explaining the resilience of Kyivstar’s network is the key priority while the war continues.