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Austria's EPIC, whose Ukraine-based unit ESU was the only company to have filed a bid to buy the Ukrainian government's 92.79% stake in fixed-line monopoly Ukrtelecom, plans to restructure Ukrtelecom following the purchase, Peter Goldscheider, EPIC's managing partner, told PRIME-TASS late Tuesday. Goldscheider said the planned purchase of Ukrtelecom was a long-term investment for EPIC. He also said he was surprised that Russian companies did not file any bids for the Ukrtelecom stake, adding that he expected competition from Altimo, the telecommunications arm of Russia's multi-industry holding Alfa Group, and from major Russian mobile operator MTS. EPIC is ready to make serious investments in Ukrtelecom to carry out a large-scale restructuring of the company's operations, Goldscheider said. He also denied a rumor that EPIC was acting on behalf of Deutsche Telekom. The State Property Fund of Ukraine announced an auction for the government's stake in Ukrtelecom in October. The starting price for the stake has been set at 10.5 billion hryvnas. Bids were being accepted until Monday. A total of seven companies expressed an interest in taking part in the auction, and five of them signed confidentiality agreements. According to earlier reports, MTS and Ukrainian financial and industrial group System Capital Management (SCM) were considering taking part in the auction. On Wednesday, the fund announced a tender to choose an independent appraiser of the government's stake in Ukrtelecom. Bids for the tender are accepted till December 30, while the tender is scheduled for January 6, 2011, the fund said. The fund is carrying out a tender because only one company had filed a bid for Ukrtelecom stake. The fund's Chairman Alexander Ryabchenko said Tuesday that the stake could not be estimated at less than 10.5 billion hryvnas. An independent appraiser will have 30 days to estimate the value of the stake, the fund said. According to Ukrainian brokers, Ukrtelecom shares fell 10% on Tuesday and continued to fall on Wednesday. The company's capitalization fell 16.8% during the two days to 9.9 billion hryvnas. EPIC is a full-service investment house for Central and Southeastern Europe, Turkey, Russia, and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It focuses on voucher privatization, direct equity investment, and providing consulting and investment services. Established in 2005 in Kiev, ESU focuses on rolling out and modernizing mobile operators' networks, providing technical support, supplying equipment, and providing logistics services. It has branches across Ukraine. The company's net profit amounted to U.S. $430,000 in 2009, while its revenue was at $16.5 million. The accounting standards used were not available. (с) PRIME-TASS

According to Yandex.ru, Russian search engine company, the Ukrainian users have more than 420 000 blogs and about 20 000 communities. That is 70% more than 6 months earlier and 3.5 times more than 1.5 years ago. There are 15% blogs and 13% communities may be considered as active ones. About 80% of all Ukrainian blogs (both active and non-active) are hosted on 3 blog hostings: LiveJournal.com, Blogs.Mail.ru and LiveInternet.ru. Four Ukrainian blog hostings (Dnevnik.Bigmir.net, Blog.I.ua, Blog.Meta.ua and Blox.ua) host about 15 Ukrainian blogs. Twitter.com is growing rapidly (9 times)in Ukraine for the last 6 months having reached about 5 000 accounts with 90% of active ones. Great majority of personal blogs (73%) and communities (95%) have been registered in 8 Ukrainian cities with Kiev, Odessa and Kharkov at top of the list. An average statistical Ukrainian blogger is a 22 year-old girl living in Kiev. She has 19 friends (9 mutual ones) and participates in 13 communities. Her blog is about 1.5 year-old and has 21 subscribers. Above 75% of Ukrainian bloggers are youngsters (15 - 29 y.o.). Every week day the Ukrainian bloggers add about 20 000 posts and approximately 60 000 comments.

The Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar has introduced a service called "Additional Number" for their subscribers. It was reported by the company's press service. This new service allows Kyivstar subscribers to use two phone numbers on one SIM-card. The service is provided on a temporary or permanent basis, and it costs UAH 2 for one week of use , 4 UAH for two weeks, and 8 UAH for a month. Ongoing contract subscribers can order this service for 8 UAH/month, while prepaid customers will pay as much as 0.3 UAH/day. The cost of changing the additional number is 10 UAH.

The Ukrainian mobile operator Astelit (TM life:) has introduced GPRS-roaming for all its  subscribers while  in Spain. According to the company's press service, it selected a local telecom operator Orange (ESPRT) to be its partner for GPRS-roaming in Spain. The move will allow the Ukrainian mobile visitors to use WAP, MMS and the Internet.

Ukrainian journalists to distribute music over the Net free-of-charge Ukrainian music journalists announced the launch of a non-profit project aimed at free distribution of licensed music by the Ukrainian performers in order to make them well-known. "Radiohead and Jamiroquai were the first to spread their new albums via the Internet completely free of charge, and after such a move the army of their numerous fans became even bigger," - said Sergey Kane, one of the initiators of the action. The most popular social network of music lovers has long been a stronghold of independent musicians, but the creators of the project under pressure from rights holders had to impose a monthly fee of $ 3 for the opportunity to listen to more than 30 tracks per month. Recently, more and more musicians are posting their new tracks and albums for free. In 2007 the very first  was the Radiohead, British rock group that invited all interested at any price or for free to download their new album on the Internet. The experts identified then it is a revolution in the field of show business. After the Radiohead other internationally renowned musicians followed their way. Ukrainian music journalists announced the launch of a non-profit project aimed at free distribution of licensed music by the Ukrainian performers in order to make them well-known. "Radiohead and Jamiroquai were the first to spread their new albums via the Internet completely free of charge, and after such a move the army of their numerous fans became even bigger," - said Sergey Kane, one of the initiators of the action. The most popular social network of music lovers has long been a stronghold of independent musicians, but the creators of the project under pressure from rights holders had to impose a monthly fee of $ 3 for the opportunity to listen to more than 30 tracks per month. Recently, more and more musicians are posting their new tracks and albums for free. In 2007 the very first  was the Radiohead, British rock group that invited all interested at any price or for free to download their new album on the Internet. The experts identified then it is a revolution in the field of show business. After the Radiohead other internationally renowned musicians followed their way.