PEOPLEnet

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PEOPLEnet is a relatively new mobile operator in Ukraine launched commercially in February 2007 by Telesystemy Ukrainy, becoming the first wireless network in Ukraine to offer 3G services (1xEV-DO standard). The operator has said it will have invested a total of US$180 million in network development by the end of 2007.

The service is currently (late 2007) commercially available in just a few large metropolitan areas: Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Lviv, Zaporizhia, Kryvyi Rih and Simferopol but there were plans for service to all regional capitals by the end of 2007, and to cover 79% of the Ukrainian population by the end of 2009.

PEOPLENet is the first mobile operator in Ukraine to offer bundled airtime plans (when a monthly fee pays for a certain amount of voice minutes, text messages and data transfer) and flexible plans (a subscriber can modify his or her daily usage and service fee every day)^{[citation needed]}.

PEOPLEnet's network code is 92 (+380 92 from outside Ukraine).

[edit] Criticism

PEOPLEnet has been criticized for building "3G" hype more on marketing than on technology. As of April 2007, not all base stations actually had the possibility to work in the 1xEV-DO mode, so that in fact a significant part of the network is actually an old 2.5G CDMA2000 1x network that previously operated under another brand name^[1]. PEOPLEnet is also being unofficially accused for playing on the anticipation of launch of "full 3G" UMTS networks that would bring not only faster rates for data-only connections, but also principally new services like video telephony. PEOPLEnet is hiding the actual type of its technical standard (CDMA2000 EV-DO) on their Web site, replacing it (even on pages with technical specifications of mobile terminals) with "3G", for example, writing "3G 1x" for phones that only support the 2.5G CDMA2000 1x technology^[2].