The Kyivstar mobile communications operator in January-March 2019 increased total revenue by 20.2% year-over-year, to UAH 5.125 billion, according to a financial report of the shareholder in the company – Veon international group (before rebranding it was VimpelCom Ltd.), posted on its official website.

According to the report, in Q1 2019, Kyivstar saw a 33.6% rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), to UAH 3.223 billion. EBITDA margin grew by 6.3 percentage points (p.p.), to 62.9%.

Mobile service revenue over the period grew by 20.6%, to UAH 4.763 billion.

Kyivstar said that over 60% of subscribers use mobile Internet, and average data traffic usage grew by 98% in Q1 2019 year-over-year, to 3 gigabytes per subscriber. Average Kyivstar's subscriber uses 585 minutes of voice traffic a month.

Strong data customer and data usage growth led to an ARPU (average income per user) increase of 22.8% year on year to UAH 60. The minutes of use (MoU) decreased 0.2%, to 585 minutes.

Kyivstar's mobile customer base slightly decreased 0.7% to 26.3 million following a decline in the need to use several SIM cards.

Fixed-line service revenue grew by 11.4% year on year to UAH 329 million, driven by an increase in the fixed broadband customer base of 11.9% year on year, while fixed broadband ARPU increased by 5.9% year on year to UAH 75. The number of customers grew by 11.9%, remaining 0.9 million.

In January-March 2019, 4G communication coverage is the territory of Ukraine where 65% of the population lives.

Reported capex excluding licenses increased by 43.1% and stood at UAH 983 million. Kyivstar continued to focus on 3G network improvement and further 4G/LTE roll-out during the quarter.

In Q1 2019, Kyivstar sent UAH 1.675 billion of taxes and other payments to the Ukrainian budget.

Kyivstar is a Ukrainian mobile communications operator. VEON international group is the shareholder in Kyivstar. The group's shares are listed on NASDAQ (New York).