Ukraine’s government, together with the Ministry of Energy, has cut what internet providers pay to rent utility poles — from 10 hryvnias (about $0.24) a month down to 1 kopeck. The discounted rate applies in 1,043 villages that still lack home internet, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said.
Pole rental fees were the main thing keeping providers out of remote villages. Operators paid 10 hryvnias per pole every month, and with thousands of poles needed to reach a single village, the total made connections economically unviable. As a result, small communities went without broadband for years, even though laying the cable itself was never the hard part. Ukraine isn’t alone in that gap — in Kyrgyzstan, for example, 13 settlements still have no mobile coverage at all despite near-universal 2G availability nationwide.
Ukraine’s parliament tried to address the problem back in late 2024, when it backed a bill requiring providers to bring broadband to villages. But the law only obligated providers — it didn’t remove the cost barrier itself. Now the government is doing that directly.
The discount covers poles inside the villages themselves as well as cable runs from neighboring communities. That frees up money providers can put toward equipment, upgrading network nodes, and laying xPON fiber-optic lines — a technology that brings high-speed internet over fiber directly to a specific building or street.
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The discounted rate isn’t temporary: it will remain in place for the full duration of martial law plus one year afterward. That long runway lets providers plan investments with more confidence, instead of rushing short projects to beat a possible price hike.
For residents of the 1,043 villages, the change means access to services that are difficult to use without a stable connection — online education, remote work, Ukraine’s Diia government services app, and banking apps. The government frames the move as part of a broader push to give every Ukrainian equal access to digital services, regardless of where they live.
