The National Centre for Operational and Technical Management of Telecommunications Networks has updated the requirements for mobile operators' base stations under martial law.
Now, mobile operators must ensure the availability of mobile communications during power outages for 10 hours, instead of 4 hours as before.
This is stated in the order of the National Centre of 15 July 2024, Ekonomichna Pravda reports.
In addition, by 1 October 2024, at least 60% of operators' base stations must be equipped with autonomous backup power to meet the new standard. By 1 November - 70%, by 1 December - 80%, and by the end of January 2025 - at least 100%.
Also, by 1 December this year, at least 25% of base stations in each Region must be connected to generators with a reserve of fuel or equipped with a replaceable battery pack for the first 72 hours.
Starting from 1 September 2024, all physical infrastructure facilities of electronic communication networks that serve as international switching centres, long-distance telephone exchanges, transit stations and national Internet traffic exchange points must be connected to stationary or mobile power generators with a fuel reserve or equipped with batteries to operate for the first 72 hours.
The relevant requirements also apply to special services nodes, which are connected to communication centres (stations) of operational dispatch services that provide emergency communications via telephone numbers 101, 102, 103, 104 and 112.
Stabilisation and emergency power outages are currently in place in Ukraine. They last up to 7 hours (with blackouts in grey areas). Previously, the cutoff was supposed to be 4 hours. In a significant number of cases, communication is lost within hours of a power outage because mobile operators have not purchased batteries for their base stations.
- In May, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhaylo Fedorov said that 25% of fixed networks in Ukraine had been damaged as a result of Russian aggression, and 4,300 mobile base stations had been destroyed or damaged.