Ukraine was waiting for the third generation of mobile communications (3G) indecently long. The government promised that 4G would have to wait much less.

In 2015, after a decade of waiting, the big cellular triple - Kyivstar, Vodafone and lifecell - finally received 3G licenses. Operators immediately began feverishly to develop their networks.

As of September 2017, in all major cities (of course, except for the Crimea and parts of the Donbass), and sometimes even on highways, high-speed mobile Internet from these companies. However, even in Kiev, which is attractive from the point of view of the concentration of subscribers and, accordingly, the income region, one often encounters "holes" in the coverage. About that, when the 3G connection in Ukraine will become more qualitative, and also about how many years the Ukrainians still wait for 4G and 5G, said Vladimir Korsun, general director of the state enterprise Ukrainian State Center for Radio Frequencies (UGTSR).

Why is Ukraine such low-quality mobile communication and 3G?.

I would not say that it is generally substandard. For more than 20 years of development of voice communication standard 2G operators almost covered the whole of Ukraine. Coverage depends on where the company installed its equipment. That is, it's just a competitive struggle.

So, for 20 years, operators have covered 2G-connection almost the whole of Ukraine, and 3G is developing in our country only two years. And this standard already works in all regional centers. The operators under the licenses have time until 2021 to cover the settlements with a population of more than 10 thousand.

If we talk about the data transfer speed, then in the 3G standard it is declared at 2.5 Megabits per second. And in the vast majority of places where 3G already works, I think the operators can withstand this indicator.

When can we expect the connection of the standard 4G?.

According to our plans, 4G-connection should appear in Ukraine at the end of this year. There is an appropriate presidential decree, the National Commission for Regulation of Communications and Informatization is preparing for a tender. In my opinion, from the next year, certain development will begin and coverage of 4G networks will appear in Ukraine.

How much is Ukraine technically ready to launch 4G?.

There are certain problems and nuances. When we introduced 3G communications, the government had free radio frequency bands that could be licensed and sold for the implementation of a full 3G.

In the case of 4G free radio frequencies, there is no. It is necessary to release certain bands of radio frequencies. It is necessary to carry out refarming - the exchange of bands between operators. Technically, companies are ready.

As far as we know, the base stations, which are now installed by operators, are multi-standard. Therefore, to run 4G companies just change the software. Smartphones, which are now sold in Ukraine, almost all support 4G.

Therefore, the main problem is to give operators free radio frequencies for implementing 4G. The bands of radio frequencies that are primarily offered are 1800 and 2600 megahertz.

It should be noted that the lower the frequency, the wider the coverage. Therefore, Ukraine will not immediately have a wide geographical coverage of the new standard. Europe switched to 4G in the 800 MHz band. Accordingly, there is wider coverage. In Ukraine this range is busy and it will not be possible to quickly release it.

I think that major cities, regional centers of Ukraine from the moment of sale of licenses in the near future will be covered by the 4G standard.

And what will this new standard give to the mobile user?.

First of all, the new standard is new technologies and better speed. At least an order of magnitude higher than in the previous generation. If now we say that on average 2.5 megabits per second provides the standard 3G, then 4G is about 25 Megabits per second.

And what's the difference between 4G and 5G? And when will 5G appear in Ukraine?.

The difference is also significant. And above all, in the data transfer speed, which will be an order of magnitude better than 4G. But the question of introducing 5G in the world is only being discussed. Because the frequency range for this standard is not yet allocated. It will be defined at the World Radiocommunication Conference, to be held in 2019.

When certain frequencies are already allocated, harmonized in order to apply them in the world, it can be considered the beginning of the 5G standard in the world. The range that is supposed to be implemented for the 5G is 700 megahertz. Europe frees this range from television broadcasting. In Ukraine, this process is also started. I think it will be a little slower than in Europe. Because in Europe from television broadcasting this range is almost released. We need to move in this direction and the Ukrainian State Center of Radio Frequencies does everything possible for this.