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The MTS Ukraine mobile communication operator on March 2 renewed the MTS Office line of tariff plans for corporate subscribers. The renewed line comprises tariffs MTS Office 10, MTS Office 30, MTS Office 50 and MTS Office 90. In these tariffs the number of in-package minutes of calls to subscribers of MTS and other operators from 150 — 600 minutes to 250 — 1,000 minutes depending on the tariff. Also, in all tariffs but MTS Office 10 prices of calls to other operators' subscribers have been cut by 10 kopecks a minute to 50 kopecks a minute. In the MTS Office 10 tariff calls within the MTS network over the package minutes cost 10 kopecks a minute, while in other renewed tariffs these remain at the previous level, 20 kopecks a minute. Before, the MTS Office line included tariffs MTS Office 20, MTS Office 40 and MTS Office 80. Numbers in the names of the old and renewed tariffs mean the amount of monthly subscriber fees in hryvnias. One-time advance payment in the renewed tariffs makes UAH 29, UAH 49, UAH 99 and UAH 199 respectively. Apart from this, MTS Office 50 and MTS Office 90 offer free-of-charge internet traffic of 200 Mb and 400 Mb a month within the Mobile GPRS Internet service. The MTS Office line has per-second billing. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, MTS introduced the MTS Office line of tariff plans for corporate subscribers on October 1, 2010.

In January, the number of subscribers of Ukrainian mobile-telephone operators fell by 0.6% or 0.32 million to 53.69 million. Ukrainian News has learned this from results of a research conducted by iKS-Consulting, a wording of which was made available to the agency. In particular, the combined number of subscribers to the services of Kyivstar and Beeline (Ukrainian Radiosystems and Golden Telecom companies) made up 24.33 million, the number of subscribers to MTS' services made up 18.21 million, and to the services of Astelit company (life:) brand) 9.02 million. The rest of subscribers belong to the biggest telecommunications company Ukrtelecom and three CDMA operators. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, in December 2010, the number of subscribers of Ukrainian mobile-telephone operators fell by 0.5% to 54.01 million.

The Kyivstar telecommunications operator introduced the “Long Conversations” tariff plan for subscribers to its prepaid services on March 1. Kyivstar announced this in a statement. subscribers to this tariff plan can make telephone calls among themselves at UAH 0 per minute (this rate applies to subscribers of the Kyivstar, Beeline, and Golden Telecom telecommunications operators) if they top-up their accounts by UAH 30 or more per month. In addition, the tariff plan offers 100 free SMS text messages within the network. A subscription fee of UAH 10 is charged every time a subscriber tops-up his account. A connection fee of 35 kopecks is also charged. Telephone calls to numbers on the Kyivstar and Beeline networks in excess of the number of minutes offered by the tariff plan cost 35 kopecks per minute and calls to numbers on other mobile and landline telephone networks cost 85 kopecks per minute. SMS text messages to numbers on Ukrainian mobile networks cost 50 kopecks per message and MMS multimedia messages cost UAH 1 per message. Telephone calls are charged by the second. The number of subscribers of the Kyivstar and Beeline reduced by 0.2% to 24.33 million in January. Kyivstar and Beeline intend to complete their merger by 2014.

The Kyivstar telecommunications operator has introduced the Simple, Business 40, Business 80, and Business 120 tariff plans for corporate subscribers. Under the Simple tariff plan, Kyivstar charges subscribers UAH 0.25 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the networks of all operators and UAH 0.05 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the Kyivstar network. Payment for calls under this tariff plan is charged by the second. A one-time connection fee of UAH 50 hryvnia is also charged (all this money goes into the subscriber's account). The subscription fee is UAH 10 per month. In contrast to the Simple tariff plan, the Business 40, Business 80, and Business 120 tariff plans have limits on free services. In the Business 40 tariff plan, Kyivstar charges subscribers UAH 0.22 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the Kyivstar network and UAH 0.75 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the networks of all operators after the limit is exceeded. In the Business 80 tariff plan, Kyivstar charges subscribers UAH 0.20 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the Kyivstar network and UAH 0.70 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the networks of all operators after the limit is exceeded In Business 120 tariff plan, Kyivstar charges subscribers UAH 0.19 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the Kyivstar network and UAH 0.65 per minute for calls to telephone numbers on the networks of all operators after the limit is exceeded. The cost of sending SMS text messages in all the tariff plans is UAH 0.5 each. Telephone calls in the Business 40, Business 80, and Business 120 tariff plans are charged by the minute. The monthly subscription fee for these tariff plans are UAH 40, 80, and 120, respectively; the one-off advance payments for them are UAH 80, 120, and 150, respectively. In cases of connecting to the Subscriber Group service, calls among members of a group are free in the Business 40, Business 80, and Business 120 tariff plans. The subscription fee for the Subscriber Group service is UAH 5 per month. There are no connection fees for the new tariff plans. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Kyivstar reported a profit of NOK 5.1 billion for the year 2009, when its net revenues reduced by NOK 4.787 billion or 34.6% to NOK 9.047 billion compared with 2008. On October 5, 2009, the Altimo company (Russia) and Telenor agreed to merge Kyivstar and VimpelCom to create a new cellular communications operator, VimpelCom Ltd. (Bermuda islands), to provide integrated cellular communications services in Russia, Ukraine, and other member-countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as in Georgia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Kyivstar and Beeline intend to complete their merger by 2014.

The Kyivstar telecom operator and the Beeline communications operator (Ukrainian RadioSystems and Golden Telecom companies) have introduced from February 16 a tariff plan "Keep in Touch" for contractual subscribers and subscribers to the pre-paid communication services of both networks. Ukrainian News learned this from a joint statement by the two operators. According to the tariff plan, subscribers to pre-paid services of both networks are provided with 1,500 package minutes within the networks of Kyivstar and Beeline and 50 package minutes of calls to other networks. Contractual subscribers of Kyivstar are provided with 1,600 package minutes within the networks of Kyivstar and Beeline and 60 package minutes of calls to other networks. The monthly fee for all subscribers is UAH 60. Nothing is charged for connection. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Kyivstar on November 22, 2010 opened the national roaming for the subscribers of Beeline. Kyivstar and Beeline communications operators plan to close the merger deal by 2014. The companies will be merged in several stages: at the first one Kyivstar will open national roaming for Beeline subscribers to enable them communicate under the Beeline tariffs within the united network.