Kyiv, July 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyivstar joint-stock company has assessed the starting price of a 3G (UMTS standard) license at UAH 660 million, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer at Kyivstar Andriy Osadchuk said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

The top manager of the operator expressed hope that the tender to receive the licenses will be held by the end of the year. He said that it is important that the operators receive access to the actual radio frequency spectrum and not simply a paper.

Commenting on the possible cost of the license, he said that earlier the Defense Ministry announced the cost of conversion of UAH 1.998 billion, and it the sum is divided into three operators-winners (three licenses will be put up for the tender), this will be the approximate starting price of a license.

"UAH 660 million per operator should be the starting price of the license," he said.

Kyivstar believes that mobile operators should not be bound to the Defense Ministry and be dependable on it for four years (the ministry named the said term for conducting the conversion).

"The operators are made dependant on the Defense Ministry. We would like the operators to jointly sign agreements with the ministry, not separately. The NCCR [the National Commission for Communications Regulation] should become our only partner, which will receive money for the licenses. We should understand: the larger the fee for the license the longer it will take to build the network," the top manager said.

He said that all expenses of the operator on getting access to radio frequency spectrum should not exceed UAH 1 billion.

Osadchuk positively assessed statements of Deputy Head of Presidential Administration Dmytro Shymkiv that the introduction of new communications solutions will result in the growth of the country's GDP. He said that the effect could be reached only via the full coverage of next generation communications of the whole territory of Ukraine.

He believes that the Ukrainian government should study the calculations of the Defense Ministry and present amendments to them so that the conversion could be conducted more efficiently and quickly.

"The government should build a strategy not just by taking into account the logic of a single earning on the cost of the license, but the logic of building an eco-system, which will include operators, vendors and contractors. We should repeat the success of GSM. It would be an economic breakthrough not only in the telecommunications sector, but also in other economic sectors," Osadchuk said.

Commenting on the problematic issues of the future 3G license tender, the top manager said that the participation of Ukrtelecom and Intertelecom in it will be of a destructive character. One of the problems is that today the structure of the NCCR is not permanent.

"It is risky to launch the process when the current members of NCCR could be dissolved, and the previous members are challenging their dismissal in court," Osadchuk said.

The Kyivstar representative also added that it is very important to create equal conditions for all participants of the tender.

"It will be a large mistake if someone does not receive a license. Then the operator will do nothing but dump, and finally the hope of a jump for the sector from the introduction of 3G will be ruined," Osadchuk said.

He again expressed the opinion which several times was presented by Kyivstar that the processes of introducing 3G and 4G communications should be parallel. A principle of technology neutrality is to be introduced jointly with the holding of the 3G license tender.

As reported, on July 23, 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered to take measures to convert radio frequency bands by August 15, 2014 to introduce 3G. According to the order, the tender is to be held by October 30, 2014.