Lifecell, previously known as life:), is the third largest mobile telephone network operator in Ukraine, providing coverage for nearly the entirety of the country's inhabited territory. The company was first established in January 2005 when Astelit launched the GSM-1800 service under the life:) brand. By December 2007, the company had gained 7.6 million contract and prepaid subscribers. In terms of ownership, Lifecell is wholly owned by Turkcell, a prominent Turkish telecommunications company. This came about after Turkcell finalised the acquisition of a 44.96% stake in the company from Rinat Akhmetov's SCM Holdings in July 2015.

Alias
Lifecell LLC
Country
Ukraine
Type
Network Operator
Ownership
Turkcell Group
Lifecell Ukraine logo

3G Network

Lifecell had provided 2G GSM services over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands since inception. 3G UMTS was launched in June 2015, offering a unique 3C-HSPA+ service providing a peak DL of 63 Mbps.

Network Frequency Band Status
B1 (2100 MHz)
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 3G Network
Launch

4G Network

After securing 2600 MHz spectrum in January 2018, the company launched 4G LTE-A Pro services over the B7 (2600 MHz) band in April 2018. Following the awarding of 1800 MHz spectrum in the March 2018 auctions, Lifecell announced plans to expand its LTE-A Pro network to include a B3 (1800 MHz) service by July 2018. This was later confirmed when the company announced B3 coverage of 232 settlements in June 2018.

As Lifecell's 2600 MHz holdings are non-contiguous (10 MHz UL: 2535 to 2545 MHz), (5 MHz UL: 2565 to 2575 MHz), the addition of B3 may permit the company to utilise the 5 MHz carrier in a CA_3A-7A-7A aggregation mode, however this is yet unconfirmed.

The company announced it had begun testing of 32T32R Massive MIMO in April 2019 advising it expected to provide up to a 5x increase in DL throughput on its network.

4G Frequency Bands
Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status
B7 (2600 MHz)
10
Active
B3 (1800 MHz)
15
Active
B8 (900 MHz)
3
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 4G Network
Launch

5G Network

In partnership with Ericsson, the company tested mmWave 5G in May 2019.

Date Event Subtype