The largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, has initiated changes to several tariffs to balance the increased costs of servicing subscribers and revenues, announced the company's president, Oleksandr Komarov.

"Growing consumption, inflation, devaluation require all manufacturers, service providers to raise prices one way or another. We are doing this for the first time since the beginning of the war. Moreover, we give customers a choice: either switch to a new tariff with a larger volume of services or choose an alternative from existing tariffs at a lower price and with a smaller volume of services. And, in fact, it is necessary to understand that this is an inevitable process," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Komarov said that the changes will affect tariffs that have not changed for several years. "We revised tariffs that we haven't touched for several years. We have not reviewed tariffs since the start of the full-scale invasion, despite the fact that inflation over these two years has reached, even by cautious estimates, about 20% or more," said Komarov.

According to him, the key factors of inflation remain electricity prices. For Kyivstar, this expense item amounts to billions of hryvnias per year and has increased by more than 100%. Additionally, about 70-80% of the company's investments are related to purchases in foreign currency amid a 45% devaluation of the national currency since December 2021. Moreover, mobile internet consumption is increasing amid a slight decrease in demand for voice services. The average traffic consumption per subscriber already exceeds 12 GB per month.

"Therefore, we have no choice but to balance this situation through pricing for the consumer," said Komarov.

The increase affected only a part of the customer base, said the president of Kyivstar.

"We have a rule. We do not change tariffs within 12 months. For example, if we have a new customer base that joined less than a year ago, we do not change their tariffs. Another example is that we have hundreds of thousands of customers at Kyivstar who change tariffs every month. The main driver for why they do this is because they lack something. For example, internet volume or they want to have not one but two Superpowers, which is available on more expensive tariffs. This prompts hundreds of thousands of customers to change their tariffs, which in peak months reaches 300,000-400,000 transitions within the Kyivstar network. And all these customers have immunity from the company's initiative to change their tariffs for 12 months," he said.