The National Commission for Communications Regulation (NCCR) in Q4 2017 will hold tenders to issue licenses for 1,800 MHz range and 2,600 MHz range to provide 4G mobile communications services with the starting price of around UAH 4 billion and near UAH 2.3 billion respectively.
"We expect that the public and competitive sale would allow attracting money to the budget, but the main thing is that the new communications system will be created, which is important infrastructure for economic growth," Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said at a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.
NCCR Head Oleksandr Zhyvotovsky said that they managed to find a scheme that would guarantee continuity of provision of communications services by three key mobile operators and the Justice Ministry approved it.
He recalled that the Cabinet of Ministers earlier approved all the documents for holding the 4G tender for 2,600 MHz, but it is inappropriate to hold it without solving the problem of the tender for 1,800 MHz where now the operators are providing 3G communications service and it is cheaper for them to switch to 4G standards in this range.
Zhyvotovsky said that for providing continuity of provision of communications services by the operators that service 50 million subscribers in the 1,800 MHz range amendments to the radio frequency spectrum use plan are to be made. This decision could be made at the next government meeting.
He said that the two tenders to issue 4G licenses for 15 years will be held in Q1 2017, but if the funds for 2,600 MHz are received in Q4 2017, it is likely that the funds for 1,800 MHz will be received in Q1 2018.
He also said that there is no military and special users in these frequency ranges.
Zhyvotovsky said that when the starting price of the licenses was approved the position of Analysis Mason, a hired advisor, was taken into account, as well as the financial indicators of the sector, seeing UAH 34 billion of revenue in 2016 and UAH 12 billion of profit. The sector invested UAH 6 billion in development of 3G communications and paid UAH 2.5 billion for the use of radio frequency bands.