"Kyivstar" completed the mass shutdown of 3G throughout Ukraine

“Kyivstar” has completed the mass shutdown of 3G technology throughout Ukraine. More than 1 million subscribers of the operator have switched to 4G, and the freed frequencies are directed to the development of the LTE network. At the same time, for a small number of corporate clients, 3G will continue to work locally for the time being.

This is stated in the company's press release.

“Kyivstar” became the first among Ukrainian electronic communications operators to take 3G out of mass operation. The company began the phased winding down of the technology back in 2023, gradually transferring frequency resources to a more modern communication standard.

The company reported that more than 1 million 3G users have already switched to 4G. For subscribers whose SIM cards did not support the new standard, the operator provided the opportunity to replace them free of charge with USIM while keeping their number.

One of the main results of the project was the redistribution of 20 MHz of frequency resources in the 2100 MHz band in favor of 4G. As a result, the volume of frequency resources available for LTE increased by 25%. Now the entire resource of this band is used to increase the speed, capacity and coverage of the 4G network.

According to “Kyivstar”, the redistribution of frequencies together with the modernization of telecommunications equipment has made it possible to increase data transfer speeds by 20–40% depending on the area.

Overall, during 2022–2026, the average speed of mobile internet in the operator's network has more than doubled. As of August 2026, the average data download speed approached 100 Mbit/s, and in the largest cities exceeded this figure.

Currently, 4G remains the main mobile communication technology in the “Kyivstar” network. LTE coverage is available for more than 96% of the population of Ukraine, and the peak data transfer speed, according to the company, reaches 1 Gbit/s.

The complete technical disappearance of 3G has not yet occurred. For a small number of corporate B2B clients, the technology is temporarily kept in certain places due to the peculiarities of the location of their equipment. “Kyivstar” plans to convert such sites to 4G in the near future.

As of June 30, 2026, “Kyivstar” served about 21.8 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.3 million fixed-line subscribers.

Based on materials from: press release of Kyivstar Group