Kyivstar plans to completely abandon 3G in 2026
Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, announced that 2026 will be the last year the company will use 3G technology in Ukraine.
"We want to strengthen our technological leadership compared to our competitors," said Kyivstar CEO and President Oleksandr Komarov on Thursday during the operator's Q1 2026 earnings call.
According to him, the company has almost completed fulfilling the relevant licensing obligations to cover almost 97% of the country's population with 4G technology, while fully covering all major roads with LTE technology.
Komarov noted that he doesn't expect 5G to be implemented in Ukraine before the end of the war.
"The most likely scenario is something like 12 months after the war. And that's why we view our investments in LTE technology as strategic," the mobile operator's CEO noted.
Regarding the decrease in the number of Kyivstar subscribers in the first quarter of 2026 by 0.4 million, or by 3% – to 22 million, the head of the company noted that such a reduction reflects a general market trend, which is caused by three factors: a decrease in the number of dual SIM cards, a certain increase in prices, and the general demographic situation in the country.
At the same time, Komarov noted that, according to statistics from the national regulator, Kyivstar maintains its market share in terms of subscriber numbers and even increased it by 0.1 percentage points in 2025 compared to 2024.
"We have been relatively stable in recent years, with a subscriber market share of over 47%," he stated.
As reported, Kyivstar increased its EBITDA profit in Q1 2026 by 28.5% to UAH 7.5 billion, while revenue grew by 31.3% to UAH 13.9 billion.