Kyivstar, the largest mobile communications operator in Ukraine, in a year after receiving the 4G license has built LTE network covering 4,587 localities where 58% of the Ukrainian population, the company reported on Wednesday.

"Now Kyivstar has more than 24,700 towers. They provide 3G connection for 81% of the population and 4G connection for 58%," the company said in a press release.

According to Kyivstar, the development of 3G and 4G communications in Ukraine cost Kyivstar UAH 22.5 billion in 2015-2018, of which UAH 7 billion was paid for licenses for new communication technologies, UAH 3.5 billion for using frequencies, and UAH 12 billion was invested in the construction of communication networks.

"In 2019, we intend to increase investment in the development of 4G, so that as many Ukrainians as possible get access to new communication technologies," the press service said, citing Kyivstar President Alexander Komarov without specifying other details.

The company said that the rapid expansion of the 3G and 4G network made it possible to boost the volume of Internet traffic: over the year, data traffic grew by 300%. According to the press release, in March 2019, 46 petabytes were used in the Kyivstar network (of which 43% in the 4G network) – the same as in the entire 2016.

According to the company, in a 4G network, a subscriber uses an average of 5.6 GB of mobile Internet per month, while in a 3G network – 3.8 GB, and 70% of business clients in a 4G network upload data to cloud storage.

Kyivstar said that subscribers use 4G in locations where fixed-line Internet is not available or its speed is low. For example, in a number of villages in Kherson region, the average usage of 4G per subscriber is 75 GB per month, in Lviv region – 56 GB, and in Zaporizhia region – 50 GB. For comparison: in large cities, the average consumption of data traffic in a 4G network: Uzhgorod – 12 GB per subscriber; Kherson – 10.59 GB, Dnipro – 6.64 GB, Kyiv – 6.25 GB, and Odesa – 6.19 GB.