Crimean mobile operator opened an office in Kherson

The Russian mobile operator K-Telecom operating in Crimea, which launched the sale of SIM cards in the Kherson region under the +7 brand in May, opened an office there. The division in Kherson is recruiting new employees, including those with technical specialties, who will ensure the operation of the network.

The first announcement of vacancies at the operator in Kherson was published by the city Telegram channel “Kherson.ru”. According to the announcement, the company is looking for an office administrator, a B2B sales manager, as well as recruiters and IT specialists. The representative of K-Telecom confirmed the information about the opening of an office in Kherson and the hiring of employees, without commenting on the details.

K-Telecom operates in Crimea under the Win Mobile brand. Kherson Telegram channels announced the start of sales of SIM cards with the Russian prefix “+7” in May, publishing brochures describing tariffs. But the name of the operator was not disclosed then, and the call center of the Crimean Win Mobile did not confirm the sale of SIM cards of the operator in Kherson. However, the fact that it was then about the sale of SIM cards of K-Telecom was reported by sources (Vedomosti told about this on May 26).

Already after the publication of Vedomosti, a representative of K-Telecom confirmed that the operator “expressed its readiness to develop mobile communications on the telecommunications infrastructure of the Kherson region.” This was preceded by an appeal from the military-civilian administration (CAA) of the Kherson region to the leadership of the Russian Federation, he noted. After that, K-Telecom turned to the CAA “with a proposal to restore and develop mobile communications in the liberated territories.”

The operator then also expressed its readiness to “accept the telecommunications infrastructure necessary to perform these tasks for temporary administration,” the representative of K-Telecom added. He emphasized that the operator was not the only one who proposed “to restore mobile communications in the Kherson region.”

According to the CEO of the analytical agency Telecom Daily Denis Kuskov, in the future it is possible that offices of other mobile operators will open in Kherson. Most likely, these will also be Crimean companies. “It is unlikely that the federal Big Four will appear there in the near future, despite the confrontation with the main part of the Western world,” the expert believes.

The operator that opened the office will need telecommunications equipment, mainly from foreign manufacturers, which is currently in short supply. “And most importantly, no one can now guarantee that this equipment will not be disabled by military operations,” Kuskov said. The expert estimated the cost of opening an office and deploying networks in the region at “hundreds of millions of rubles.”

The purchase of equipment may become a problem for the operator in Kherson, General Director of Infoline-Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov agrees, but it is definitely not unsolvable. The company may well either purchase used equipment in Russia, or move to a new location those devices that it has in Crimea, the expert believes. He estimates the cost of launching the office in the range of up to 100 million rubles. “Now the situation in the region is very ambiguous due to hostilities. But it is obvious that mobile communications are needed there, and whoever comes here first will obviously have good starting positions,” Burmistrov concluded.