Kyivstar and Ukrtelecom share fiber to stop parallel network builds

Two Ukrainian carriers have signed an open-access fiber-sharing agreement, Data Center Dynamics reports. Kyivstar will sell home internet and digital services over Ukrtelecom's GPON network. Ukrtelecom will sell optical internet over Kyivstar's fiber on the open market. Each operator keeps its own tariffs, billing, and customer relationships; each network owner stays responsible for operation and maintenance.

The numbers give the deal its weight. Ukrtelecom's fiber spans more than 95,000 kilometers, with GPON speeds up to 1 Gbps. Kyivstar, the country's biggest mobile operator, counts more than 21.8 million mobile subscribers and 1.3 million home internet customers. The model is called Open Access: instead of two capital budgets digging parallel trenches, each carrier gets to sell on the other's plant.

Ukrtelecom CEO Yurii Kurmaz frames it as the end of an old habit. "For decades, the Ukrainian market has been evolving under a model whereby operators and service providers deployed and operated their own parallel networks," he said in the announcement. Open Access, he said, uses infrastructure that is already built and should drive the next stage of telecom growth. Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov called the partnership a milestone in expanding Ukraine's digital infrastructure and reaching more customers with fiber broadband, including converged bundles of mobile, home internet, and TV.

The deal turns an existing asset base into a revenue stream. In regions where Kyivstar has no fiber, it can sell converged packages without digging. Ukrtelecom gets a tenant for its GPON footprint and a route into optical internet sales on Kyivstar's fiber. One side brings the network, the other brings the subscribers.

Sharing matters most where building is hard. New construction in Ukraine is likely slower and costlier under wartime conditions, and leasing installed fiber avoids that cost and risk. That is a trade an underwriter can price more readily than a greenfield build. It also shows what open access looks like when the physical plant is concentrated in one owner: Ukrtelecom holds the fixed network, Kyivstar holds the customer base, and neither needs to duplicate the other.

The first phase of the project is set to begin, though the announcement does not disclose wholesale pricing, revenue splits, or contract length. That means the financial case is still unproven. The pilot has to show that the transfer price between the two operators is high enough to make Ukrtelecom's network a real business and low enough for Kyivstar to sell converged services at a competitive price.

If the pilot works, Ukraine gets a working example of fixed-network open access, and two carriers expand their footprints at a fraction of the cost of building. If it fails, the model remains a pilot. The cheapest fiber is the fiber already in the ground, and this deal is an attempt to prove it at national scale.