Mobile Operators Refused 3G Licenses

The National Communications Regulations Commission (NCRC) announced that it would not provide 3G licenses to KyivStar, UMC, Astelit and URS, because the segment of frequency range they requested was already being used by Ukrtelecom (UTEL: BUY) and the other segment is currently controlled by the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Moreover, the NCRC refused to distribute additional frequencies in the GSM range to any mobile operators. Alexander Paraschiy: Whatever the real reason for the rejection was, the NCRC’s move is beneficial for UTEL, as it is the only operator allowed to use G3 frequencies, at least in the short-term. Still, it is possible that mobile operators will force the General Staff to agree to share some of their frequencies for commercial mobile use in the future.