VEON’s Kyivstar CTO Crowned Telco Executive of the Year

October 24, 2022 at 10:30 AM EDT

Telco Community Votes Volodymyr Lutchenko as Telco Executive of the Year
in Network X Awards

Kyiv, Ukraine, 24 October 2022 - Kyivstar, the largest mobile operator in Ukraine, announces that Volodymyr Lutchenko, Chief Technology Officer has been named Network X’s Telco Executive of the Year.

The award recognises the outstanding achievements of an individual telco executive, voted for by industry peers, and acknowledges Volodymyr’s extraordinary accomplishments over the past year.
On declaring Volodymyr the winner, Network X expressed, “Volodymyr has been recognised by his industry peers as being a trailblazer in the telecoms industry. His determination to keep networks connected, as well as the bravery of his Kyivstar colleagues in the field, has guaranteed essential communications for the people of Ukraine. Building such a resilient network and conducting repairs in such dangerous circumstances has afforded a lifeline to Ukrainians.”

The Network X “Telco Executive of the Year” award is bestowed upon an individual who has championed innovation and demonstrated excellence in telecoms. The shortlist was decided by influential telco executives, with Volodymyr’s win decided by the public within the 5G, Broadband and Telco Cloud community.
"In this unprecedented time for Ukraine, we are proud that Kyivstar was able to preserve and provide people with vital communication and Internet services. Thanks to Volodymyr and his team, 93% of the company's telecom network is working as usual, and we are not only restoring what was destroyed, but also developing, building new communication facilities, helping the country to overcome the challenges of wartime,” said Oleksandr Komarov, Kyivstar President

Lutchenko took over the technical direction of Kyivstar in October 2021. Under his leadership, a set of technical measures have been implemented to protect the company's telecom infrastructure from the threats of war. Already in 2022, his team have completed the construction of 439 new LTE base stations, upgraded 6,200 existing base stations to increase the speed of mobile Internet, provided 1,280 bomb shelters throughout Ukraine and created more than 600 modular houses connected to the internet for internally displaced people.
As well as this he is also responsible for protecting the company's network from phishing and DDoS attacks, the number of which increased during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine to 200% compared to last year.

"Being able to keep people connected is an honor and I am very grateful to my industry peers and the telecom community for choosing me for this award. To my team at Kyivstar, I would like to express my gratitude for the tremendous work you have all done to keep mobile networks operating across Ukraine in such dangerous conditions", said Vladimir Lutchenko.

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About Kyivstar
Kyivstar is Ukraine's largest provider of electronic communications services, serving 26.2 million mobile phone subscribers and over 1 million subscribers to the Home Internet as of the end of 2021. The company provides services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G. Today more than 90% of Ukraine's population lives in the LTE coverage area of Kyivstar. The company provides the highest average mobile data transfer speeds among Ukrainian mobile operators, as confirmed by Ookla's Speedtest research. The company's customers have access to mobile, fixed-line Internet, convergent solutions, innovative Big Data, IoT, Cloud solutions, mobile financial services, digital TV, etc. Kyivstar has been operating in Ukraine for 24 years and is recognized as the largest taxpayer in the communications market, the best employer, and a socially responsible company.

For more information: pr@kyivstar.net, www.kyivstar.ua.