Astelit awarded fixed line licences in Kiev and three other regions

Ukrainian cellco Astelit (Life:)) has been awarded four regional operating licences and telephone number allocations for fixed local telephony services by the National Commission for State Regulation of Communications and Informatization (NCCIR, or NKRZI). The Turkcell-backed GSM operator was issued with capacity of up to 10,000 numbers in each of its newly licensed regions: Kiev, Lugansk, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk. The five-year concessions were approved at a meeting of the NCCIR on 30 August 2012. Earlier in the month, CommsUpdate reported that the NCCIR had awarded Astelit CDMA 800MHz mobile licences covering twelve regions, including Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Lugansk, allowing it to refarm legacy D-AMPS/TDMA 800MHz spectrum. TeleGeography notes that the addition of fixed telephony permits to these regions means that Astelit can offer both fixed and mobile telephone numbers and service rates to CDMA-based customers, in a similar fashion to several of Ukraine’s established CDMA operators which operate in cities nationwide.