Kyivstar and Vodafone Ukraine have formed an active and passive infrastructure sharing agreement to boost 4G coverage in rural Ukraine.
As reported in TeleGeography, the Memorandum of Intent will see the operators sharing base stations, communication channels and other network equipment. Cutting down on duplicated infrastructure will allow both operators to reduce their deployment costs.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval, but once this is received the operators expect to begin implementing the arrangement in November this year. Kyivstar president Oleksandr Komarov noted that other operators such as Intertelecom and Lifecell were welcome to join the agreement.
Vodafone Ukraine CEO Olga Ustinova noted that by sharing infrastructure, operators would more efficiently be able to meet the conditions of their LTE-900 licences, which became valid at the start of July. Under the licence terms, operators must extend coverage to all settlements with a population of over 2000.