February 11 (SeeNews) - Slovenian telecommunications equipment manufacturer Iskratel and Ukrainian sector player Ukrtelecom have so far invested 3 million euro ($3.4 million) as part of their 12 million euro project for expanding Ukraine's fibre optic network, Ukrtelecom said.
Iskratel and Ukrtelecom signed a three-year network expansion programme in September to provide internet access to 300 localities in various regions of Ukraine, the Ukrainian company said in a statement on Thursday.
"This first investment is a testament to our high competence in cost-effective management and complex project management, and underscores our commitment to providing Gigabit Internet access to more than 1.3 million users in 530,000 households," Iskratel CEO Robert Kuzmic said in the statement.
The expansion of the fiber-optic network covers rural and urban settlements and involves the use of modern certified telecommunications equipment, which is assembled in Slovenia at the facilities of Iskratel and will enable customers to gain access to speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, IPTV and other IP-based services.
"The first steps of our programme to deploy the infrastructure of optical lines in Ukraine have contributed to a 60% increase in the number of optical Internet users and, accordingly, revenues from these services," Ukrtelecom CEO Yuri Kurmaz said.
In 2020, Iskratel and Ukrtelecom launched a 7 million euro two-year network construction project to connect more than 200 localities in 13 Ukrainian regions.
($ = 0.87673 euro)