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The National Communications Regulatory Commission (NCRC) intends to raise utmost monthly fees for fixed-line telephones in towns and district centres by 10% — 25.1% or UAH 3.38 — UAH 4.12 to UAH 20.56 — UAH 37.19 from May. At a sitting on March 3 the Commission approved in principle draft changes to the utmost rates for generally accessible telecommunications services. In particular, the Communications Commission intends to raise monthly fees for main station connected to individual line in towns and district centres: for state-financed organisations, and also for the population by 10% or UAH 2.26 to UAH 24.78 without payment by the hour for local calls, and by 25.1% or UAH 4.12 to UAH 20.56 with payment by the hour. For enterprises and organisations not financed from the state budget the regulator will raise monthly fees by 10% or UAH 3.38 to UAH 37.19, and by 25% or UAH 5.92 to UAH 29.59 with payment by the hour. Apart from this, the Commission intends to raise monthly fees in villages and urban-type settlements (except for district centres). In particular, by 25% or UAH 2.5 to UAH 12.52 a month for state-financed organisations and for the population without payment by the hour for local calls, and by 25.1% or UAH 2.2 to UAH 10.96 with payment by the hour. For enterprises and organisations not financed from the state budget the Commission will raise monthly fees by 25% or UAH 3.93 to UAH 19.66, and by 25.1% or UAH 3.45 to UAH 17.22 with payment by the hour. At the same time the Commission intends to lower the cost of installation of telephone connected to individual line: for enterprises and organisations by 58.3% or UAH 350 to UAH 250, for the population by 33.3% or UAH 50 to UAH 100 The rates will be valid from May to September, then these will be raised even more before the end of 2011. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Communications Commission raised utmost monthly fees for fixed-line telephones in towns and district centres by 10% — 20% to UAH 16.4 — UAH 33.8 in April 2009.

The National Communications Regulation Commission expects tenders for reception of licenses for 3G mobile communication UMTS in May-June, chairman of the commission Volodymyr Oliinyk told the Business magazine. He said that there are some discrepancies as for conversion of frequencies, and expressed hope that the Defense Ministry would eliminate the defects by the end of winter. Oliinyk also said that in the future, frequencies that will be allocated for 3G are likely to be used for 4G. He added that the introduction of 4G will be coordinated with European institutions. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the national communications regulation commission admitted announcement of a tender for 3G before February.

Ukrtelecom, Ukraine's biggest telecommunication company, and the Vega telecommunication group are persuading the National Communications Regulatory Commission to look into the possibility of raising the rates of local fixed-line telephony, Commission Member Volodymyr Khilenko has told a news briefing. "Ukrtelecom and Vega have approached us... and now the Commission has to explore this issue in details. Only then we'll say if it is really necessary to raise [the rates] or we have to look for other ways," Khilenko said. Communications Commission Chairman Volodymyr Ollinyk says that the operators have presented substantiation of operating at a loss at the existing rates of local telephony services. Although, he has added, having looked through the documentation they found discrepancies in the methods of calculation of net cost, in particular they included extra expenses in it. Ollinyk says scrutiny of the data will take several months. Alongside with this, the Commission Chairman noted that his agency would also study the local telephony market at the year-end of 2010 in order to propose operators possible ways of reducing their expenses on these services. One of such ways Ollinyk calls more active introduction of new technologies which can bring additional profits and even enlarge the subscriber base, for instance offer multi-service support, when by one line they transmit voice, text data and image (3 play). He notes, it is undesirable to raise the local fixed-line telephony rates because this can even worsen the outflow of clients, especially in rural areas. According to him, Ukrtelecom now has about 1.5 million rural subscribers and their number is constantly decreasing. Ollinyk says that from fixed-line telephony subscribers migrate first of all to mobile one, the level of its penetration in Ukraine is one of the highest in Europe. Alongside with this the Commission Chairman stressed that it was not possible to give up on fixed-line communications in Ukraine, because it was on the list of generally accessible services and had to be inexpensive. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the number of fixed-line telephony subscribers fell 0.6% or 76,000 to 12.362 million in 2010 over 2009. Ukrtelecom, Ukraine's largest telecommunications company, occupies 78% of the fixed-line telephony market in Ukraine, providing services to upward of 10.1 million subscribers. For the last time the National Communications Regulatory Commission revised the rates of local fixed-line telephony in April 2009, when the maximum fees for telephony services for subscribers in towns and district centres rose by UAH 2.15 — UAH 3.07 or 10% — 20% to UAH 16.44 — UAH 33.81 a month.

The Kyivstar telecommunications operator sees no legal grounds to provide free services allowing subscribers to retain their telephone numbers when changing from one mobile communications operator to another. The press service of Kyivstar announced this to Ukrainian News. According to a commentary by Kyivstar's department of regulatory and legal framework, number portability service (transfer of telephone numbers from one network to another) is a telecommunications service and, according to the law "On Telecommunications," operators can set their own tariffs for such services. "Thus, there is no basis for establishment of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) as a free service under the relevant legal realities without making any changes to the law 'On Telecommunications,'" the company said in the statement. The press service of the MTS Ukraine mobile operator told Ukrainian News that the operator considers it tempting to provide this service free of charge but provision of any telecommunications services (including this service) involves expenditures that need to be evaluated and establishment of sources of funds for financing them. The Astelit mobile operator (the life:) brand name) told Ukrainian News that the approach of the National Communications Regulation Commission to introduction of number portability services is fully consistent with Astelit's customer-oriented logic. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the National Communications Regulation Commission preliminarily approved on December 23 a draft provision on provision of subscriber number portability services and use of personal numbers, which proposes providing such services free to subscribers.

The National Communications Regulatory Commission endorsed the reference list of characteristics of quality of telecommunications services for 2011, reads a statement made by the Commission. In particular, operators who offer fixed line communication services have to report on the following indicators: percentage of applications on connection of end user equipment to the network performed in normalised time; percentage of properly functioning public pay telephones; number of complaints for unauthorised connections per access line a year; percentage of applications on of the telecommunication network performed in normalised time. Besides, fixed line communication services operators must report about the number of applications on damage of the telecommunication network per access line a year; about the percentage of bills on which correctness consumers complained; about the percentage of complaints for organisational and for technical aspects of service. Mobile communication operators have to report on the following indicators: percentage of bills on which correctness consumers complained; percentage of open personal accounts of prepaid communication subscribers for which were complaints about improper calculation for the services rendered; percentage of complaints for organisational and for technical aspects of service. Operators have to submit corresponding calculations before January 30, 2012. The Commission intends also to prolong the list of characteristics of telecom services quality for 2012, final decision hereto will be made in the fourth quarter of 2011. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the National Communications Regulatory Commission in August obliged telecommunication operators to yearly report on the quality of telecommunication services