Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk supports the involvement of European companies in the participation in a tender to receive a license for UMTS (3G) standard, which would destroy the monopoly of Russian companies on the Ukrainian mobile communications market.
“I want to clarify the position of the government on this issue – we will not allow monopoly in the 3G market. My position as Prime Minister is clear – this time Russia won’t receive an exclusive right over all licenses for telecommunications in Ukraine. The licenses for 3G communication must be sold solely on a public and transparent principle, instead of selling under the table,” he said at a cabinet meeting on Sept. 5.
He said that the price of the license should be justifiable and cost billions of hryvnias.
“And to demonopolize this market I even agree to consider selling one of the licenses for Hr 1, with the only purpose to prevent the Russian monopoly and to guarantee coming of truly European companies in here, that will ensure competition. It is necessary to make the service better and the price cheaper,” he said.
He added that the government should pass the relevant resolution and the regulator to start implementing it.
