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Broadband market in Ukraine expanding rapidly |
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Friday, 02 November 2007 |
Ukraine is one of the fastest growing broadband markets in
Europe with an annual growth rate of over 180% (Q206-Q207). With market penetration at only 1.5% the growth potential and motives for competition remain strong according to recent data from analyst company Point Topic.
The Ukrainian market is dominated by two major players - the incumbent Ukrtelecom and cable operator Volia.
90% of Volia’s subscribers live in the capital
Kiev. The operator offers broadband with speeds up to 38Mbit/s and over 100 cable TV channels in
Kiev, Alchevsk,
Chernovtsy and
Lvov. Volia is planning to set up a digital TV service in
Kiev by the beginning of 2008.
It seems that the only operator which might compete with Volia in the capital’s market is Golden Telecom. It joined the competition in September this year offering a pilot, unlimited broadband service with 100Mbit/s speeds via fibre for UAH 200/month. It is currently available in two districts.
In early 2007 Volia was involved in a price war initiated by the incumbent Ukrtelecom. Ukrtelecom reduced its ADSL tariff and offered unlimited 512kbit/s broadband for UAH 150. In response, Volia launched new tariffs from February offering 30 GB of traffic and 20-38Mbit/s speeds for the same monthly price. As a result of price reduction, each of those operators gained about 60,000 new subscribers. By the end of June Ukrtelecom’s subscribers base reached about 130,000 while Volia’s about 140,000.
However, it is likely that Ukrtelecom will focus on the regional markets where about 90% of its broadband customers live. The regional market offers easier competition primarily due to lower internet penetration – only 40% of Ukrainian internet users live outside
Kiev. In addition it still has high growth potential because subscribers are mostly using dial-up access having little choice of other services.
www.point-topic.com |
