An MP said Ukraine’s communications system has started to fall apart

Mobile operators in Ukraine should prepare for times when there will be no electricity at all.

This was written on Facebook by MP Oleksandr Fediyenko from the “Servant of the People” party, who also heads the subcommittee on cybersecurity and government communications.

According to him, the major mobile operators previously did not invest in the resilience of their networks.

“The first to go down, as predicted, were the mobile operators. And when they tell me how ‘great’ everything is working for them, I always ask them to look not at the center of the capital, but at villages and small towns. For example, yesterday at the entrance to Brovary there wasn’t a single bar of signal from all three operators. None. The duration of power outages has become so long that after mobile networks, fixed-line operators that were not modernized have also started to collapse. Their networks are built on old schemes where there are batteries at every node, but batteries don’t last forever. They run down. And then everything disappears. Operators should prepare for a scenario in which electricity stops being supplied altogether. Not for four hours. Not for three. Not even for one hour a day. It simply won’t be there. Kherson is an example,” Fediyenko wrote.

He emphasized that any attempts to monopolize the sector, reduce the number of operators, or “optimize the market” must be firmly stopped.

“Ukraine has long formed a different technological niche — operators working on PON technologies, which depend less on constant power supply and large staff numbers. Big business, of course, won’t give up. To retain subscribers, it will resort to any tricks. But essentially, it’s selling air you won’t be able to breathe. In my opinion, it’s worth investing not in loud brands (especially foreign ones), but in those who truly work for you,” the MP said.

Continuing the topic, a message from residents of Izmail is quoted: “Yesterday in Izmail there was no power from 12:30 to 24:00. Closer to 7 p.m., mobile service became very poor. Mobile internet also didn’t work.”

Earlier, Fediyenko painted an apocalyptic picture of possible consequences for Ukraine’s energy system if Russian strikes continue.

Recall that in November, just under one third of the mobile operator Kyivstar’s network in Ukraine was left without power.