Nearly 500 Internet service providers in Ukraine cease operations
MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian National Commission for the State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum and the Provision of Postal Services (NKEK) received 487 requests from businesses asking to be removed from the register of electronic communications networks and services providers from August to October 8, and 386 of those requests have been processed to date.
Alexander Fedienko, head of the Verkhovna Rada's subcommittee on cybersecurity, said in a social media post that the regulator provided him with this information in a formal reply to his parliamentary inquiry, Ukrainian media reported.
"After the Ukrainian State Tax Service started ruining small businesses of Internet service providers, I wondered how many entities providing Internet access services would stop their work. [...] The answer I received not just stunned me, but it simply shocked me: 1,316 entities exited the regulator's register, that is, ceased to exist," Fedienko said in his post, attaching a table showing how many Internet providers shut down in each particular region.
Meanwhile, NKEK spokesperson Bogdana Piven said the figure of 1,316 Internet service providers cited by Fedienko misinterpreted the reality. "A total of 487 business entities filed for being excluded [from the register] in August-October, but each of them provides services in more than one region," she said.
Fedienko assumed that some of the providers stopped their operations, some went underground, and some put their businesses up for sale.
The table presented by the parliamentarian shows that the largest number of businesses that ceased operations were in the city of Kiev and the Kiev region (156) and in the Cherkassy region (108).
The NKEK register included 4,210 Internet service providers as of August 1, and this figure shrank to 4,155 by October 4.
At the same time, according to NKEK, a total of 3,443 operators reported on providing fixed-line Internet access services in the first half of 2024. Similar figures were mentioned in statements by the Ukrainian Internet Association (UIA) and by Daniil Getmantsev, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy.
The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), the UIA, the Association of Rights Holders and Content Providers, the Ukrainian Institute for the Future think-tank, and the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs have circulated a joint statement calling for "stopping the State Tax Service's unlawful actions and preventing the unlawful repeal of a simplified taxation system for Internet service providers."
Following a roundtable meeting reviewing problems in taxing Internet service providers, BRDO said that around 2,672 such providers operated based on a simplified taxation system as of early 2024, providing their services to around 3 million individual subscribers and organizations in Ukraine.
Fedienko said earlier that, starting October 1, the Ukrainian State Tax Service annulled the registration date of all fixed-line Internet service providers registered as individual entrepreneurs.
Getmantsev had warned previously that, starting October 1, Ukrainian fixed-line Internet service providers would no longer be entitled to work based on a simplified taxation system and would have to pay taxes on general terms. He denied that the measure would make Internet access services more expensive and described any allegations to the contrary as "cheap hoax."