By asking Andrii Valya, technical director of Datagroup-Volia, one of the largest telecom providers in the country, the questions many of you are interested in, we decided to hear first hand how the telecom industry survived this 7-month war.

How did the network of the company “Datagroup-Volia” survive the beginning of the war?

How the network of the company “Datagroup-Volia” survived the most difficult periods of the beginning of the war. Has a lot of damage been done?

Let’s start with the fact that preparations for a possible large-scale invasion of the company have already been made. Redundant traffic routes were developed and studied, communication node switching schemes were optimized, action algorithms for power supply redundancy were developed, warehouse stocks were updated and increased. This was very helpful during the prevention and elimination of accidents, because many solutions had already been studied and prepared.

From the moment of full-scale occupation, the company’s technicians continued to provide telecommunication services to subscribers in all regions of Ukraine, even in cities where there was active hostilities.

Specialists from the technical department boldly and courageously solve extremely difficult tasks, without losing for a minute optimism and faith in victory. Hostilities did not go unnoticed by anyone, including our company.

Telecommunications facilities of the Datagroup-Volia network were badly damaged both in the early days of rocket and bomb attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure, and during the fighting in the northeast and south. But thanks to the redundancy and modernization of the network, this practically did not affect the services of the company’s customers, or their restoration was carried out in the shortest possible time.

Which period was the most difficult?

At the start of a full-scale invasion – in the first weeks, when it is necessary to adapt processes to new realities and maintain the “safety / efficiency” balance of employees.

In the first six months of the war, call center workers processed more than 780,000 calls

Maybe your call center was simply “torn” during this time? How many applications were closed during this period?

Of course. In total, call center workers handled more than 780,000 calls in the first six months of the war. During the first three months after the occupation, managers and supervisors worked without days off, and the call center itself did not stop working for a minute. We optimized all call center resources and reorganized employee work for remote staffing.

Maybe there is a special story about emergency work during conflicts?

There are many such stories, but I especially remembered Nizhyn’s story. On March 5, at 16:43, a malfunction was recorded in the 10 gigabit Chernihiv-Nizhyn link in Nizhyn. The accident occurred on the network of one of the local operators. In addition to the “Datagroup” telecommunications network, the Internet from other providers in the city also stopped working. The whole city was left without access to the Internet. In addition, three towers of one of the national mobile operators, covering a large part of Nizhyn, were not working.

The operators, whose networks were damaged, were unable to quickly organize emergency teams to repair the damage caused by the continuous shelling. Taking this into account, the chief engineer of the “Datagroup” and a technician who took the initiative, obtained a pass from the town hall to leave the city area and went to look for the accident with the help of the regional defense unit. area. Damage to the cable was not far from Nizhyn. Ensuring the integrity of the operator cable, on which the Datagroup connection runs, was carried out by two of our employees, with a short break at night, until the morning of the next day. After restoring the main cable, the guys did not leave any room and decided to repair the cable of another mobile operator whose connection in the city did not work!

I would like to express the incredible support and mutual assistance of all my colleagues, both inside and outside the company, without exception. It can be said that war unites even the fiercest opponents to work for victory. In the early days of the full-scale occupation, a working chat was established with the CTOs of all the major national telecommunications companies. In this group, we can quickly share data on network damage, create joint repair teams for urgent work, transfer necessary equipment and supplies, and switch main channels to reserve the most vulnerable routes. I am sincerely grateful to my colleagues from Life, Kyivstar, Vodafone, Ukrtelecom, ETT for active cooperation and mutual assistance!

Network restoration: how expensive

How much resources does the company spend on restoring damaged networks?

It is difficult to give a total figure, because we do not have the opportunity to assess the extent of the damage done in the temporarily occupied territory or in the zone of active hostilities. But now we estimate that the cost is around 50 million hryvnia. In total, more than 100 kilometers of fiber optic lines were replaced and more than 20,000 repairs were carried out for war-related accidents.

As for the communication nodes, their restoration and recommissioning took place in the shortest possible time, and there were guarantees of safety for workers. As soon as we received permission from the military administration, our engineers immediately entered the liberated city of the Armed Forces to restore communications. All communication nodes that have the need and ability to provide services are currently operational.

About the field of fiber optic lines

After the merger of the Datagroup and Volia networks, many experts called the combined network the largest in Ukraine. Can you confirm this?

Therefore, after the merger, the total length of its own fiber optic lines is now about 34 thousand kilometers, which makes it possible to consider the network as one of them, if not the largest.

Did the company announce a modernization project in partnership with Cisco before a full-scale war began? At what stage is he now?

So far, the first phase of the modernization of the backbone network has been completed, where we have replaced our equipment with modern Cisco equipment. This made it possible to increase the capacity of trunk connections in key areas by a factor of 10 and to increase the fault tolerance of the mainnet by a factor of two.

In addition, 11 additional backup connections with a total capacity of over 900 Gbits were built, which made it possible to reserve the largest cities of Ukraine in at least two ways.

About the next stage of modernization

What is planned to be implemented in the next phase of modernization?

Cisco equipment plans to use its own redundant trunk fibers that will allow new routes of the trunk network to be configured. In addition, cooperation with other operators on the exchange of network resources is gradually being strengthened in order to improve the provision of the company’s services to its subscribers, in order to further increase the fault tolerance of the mainline network. In addition, city nodes and their connections to the transport network will be gradually modernized.

Also set up a new data center? tell us about it

Thus, a new data center was needed for the implementation of the modernization project and the consolidation of “Datagrup-Volia” networks. Since the “technical heart” of the company had to be in a trusted place, the strategic decision was made to build another data center that would meet the requirements and needs of this class of facilities as much as possible.

The implementation of this project is divided into the phased commissioning of several years of construction and resource units. Of course, the full-scale military campaign and hostilities have made adjustments to our plans, but we have not abandoned them, and today the data center is already partially operational, and work on organizing the infrastructure for new modules is underway. Currently, the new data center has a capacity of 103 telecommunication cabinets with a capacity of 4,326 units, built on 300 square meters. m in a building with the most modern security.

How will the modernization be perceived by business customers?

First of all, modernization solves the problem of increasing network fault tolerance. We work tirelessly in this direction by analyzing the possible situations of such emergencies that may affect the services and by simulating these situations and making a decision in advance.

The second, but no less important detail is the significant increase in the capacity of trunk connections. Currently, all trunk lines between regional hubs have increased their capacity from 10G to 100G (or even 200G) thanks to modernization. This is already noticeable to business – downtime has been reduced and the possibilities of providing any capacity of digital channels have also been significantly increased.

How will the modernization of the network be felt by ordinary subscribers?

Ordinary subscribers in cities where “Datagroup-Volia” is located already feel the improvement of the situation with the provision of services. First of all, this was achieved with the help of planned work on the reservation of cable trunks and updating the equipment park on the basis of a single vendor – Cisco. Conventionally, if an accident occurs in the Lviv – Rivne – Kyiv section, we can instantly transfer the traffic to the Lviv – Vinnytsia – Kyiv section and the subscriber will not experience any interruption in service provision. Moreover, increasing the network capacity allows each subscriber to download large amounts of data, play games or watch the best quality video even during high network load hours.

What are the main advantages of the “Datagroup-Volia” network?

First of all, it is the coverage of the network and the wide coverage of the territory of Ukraine. Secondly, the presence of our own backbone network and the large number of connections between cities allow us to respond immediately to any damage and divert traffic in other directions without any consequences for the subscriber. Third, it has its own large staff of highly qualified technicians and engineers performing network restoration and equipment repair work. Unlike many competitors, we do not use the services of contractors, so we have full control of this process. Fourth is the flexibility and adaptability of services to current realities. All of the above makes Datagroup-Volia one of the most competitive companies on the market.

Datagrup-Volia helps the Armed Forces and engages in charity

As far as we know, the company “Datagroup-Volia” is actively engaged in the interconnection of shelters and social facilities throughout the country. Is it overloading the network?

Yes, indeed, one of the focal points of modern realities is the social responsibility of the company in this difficult time of the country. Therefore, since the beginning of the full-scale war, the company has been implementing a project to connect civilian bomb shelters, as well as bunkers in educational institutions and humanitarian centers for IDPs. So far, we have linked more than 500 such objects.

Network load? We do not currently have such problems. In addition, the company’s resources make it possible to implement such projects for all kinds of demands of both the business world and the government in general, without affecting the quality of service provided to subscribers.

Is this the company’s only social project this large?

Of course not! In such a difficult time, we believe that it is great work that should be the locomotive that will move the Ukrainian society forward and help. That is why from the very beginning of the occupation we have been helping the Armed Forces and the country’s ground defense forces with telecommunications equipment. For example, “Datagroup-Volia” delivered over 4,000 Motorola radios and 27 repeaters for our advocates.

In addition to radio stations, other communication equipment was transmitted. The total value of the transferred equipment is more than $8 million. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

In addition, the company has joined the state aid fundraising platform United24 and has already transferred the first UAH 10 million for the restoration and development of Ukraine’s digital infrastructure.

In addition, “Datagroup-Volia” established the charity platform “Our Children”, where it adopted 50 children who were war orphans. Until they come of age, they will receive a monthly salary for their primary needs. 1,000,000 hryvnia was awarded to children in the first two months of this program.