The largest Ukrainian telecom operator Kyivstar will continue to invest in the energy independence of the fixed Internet in 2024, and investments by the end of the year will amount to UAH 50-70 million.

As the company's press service reported on Friday, during 2023 Kyivstar invested more than UAH 200 million in providing uninterruptible power supplies to the fixed-line Internet network.

Investments will make it possible to provide about 700,000 subscribers with access to the Internet even during power outages.

Equipment for the uninterrupted operation of the Kyivstar home Internet will be installed in 44 cities of Ukraine. Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices will be installed at 22,300 addresses. Some 180 specialists were involved in their installation.

Thanks to this modernization, the Home Internet network will be able to operate in the absence of power for up to five hours, the company said.

Kyivstar began connecting the Home Internet network to the UPS in October 2022. In addition, since the end of 2023, the company continues to develop the direction of energy-efficient Internet using GPON technology.

In 2024, the company plans to carry out partial modernization and replacement of existing technologies with GPON in some cities, the company reported.

"In conditions of short- and medium-term outages, GPON can provide consumers with access to the Internet for longer, including due to the fact that we build lines from base stations where mobile diesel generators are installed. And while we have human resources and the ability to supply fuel and components, ensuring the operation of the generator at the base station, users connected via GPON technology will maintain an Internet signal," Head of the Kyivstar fixed-line communications department Serhiy Sukhoruk said.

Earlier it was reported that Kyivstar began connecting business clients in Dnipro to the GPON gigabit optical network.

By the end of March 2024, Kyivstar plans to connect seven more cities to high-speed Internet using GPON technology. The company will provide such services as fixed-line Internet, data transmission, telephony using this technology; at speeds of 20 Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s and 100 Mbit/s. In the future, the range of services and connection conditions will expand, the company said.

GPON (Gigabit-capable passive optical network) is a gigabit passive optical network, thanks to which the Internet can operate even when there is no power supply in the building. Such a network is less dependent on the influence of external factors, since optical fibers can transmit data over long distances without significant signal loss and without active equipment, Kyivstar said.