Ukrainian mobile operator Intertelecom has opened sign-ups for a pilot of Keep Your Number, a service aimed at Ukrainians living abroad. The operator ports a Ukrainian mobile number onto its own network. Calls and texts sent to that number then land in the IT Phone app over the internet.
No Ukrainian SIM card is needed after the switch. The number is tied to an account inside the app rather than to a piece of plastic in the phone. That means it works anywhere with a connection, which comes from a local SIM or Wi-Fi in the country where the user lives.
The number itself stays exactly the same, digits and prefix included. That is the whole point. Banks, Diia — Ukraine’s government services app — messengers and social networks are all tied to that number, and they keep texting it after the switch.
The service costs UAH 95 per 30 days, and Intertelecom has locked that price in until at least December 31, 2027. Keeping a Ukrainian number on a full plan in roaming runs between UAH 300 and UAH 550 for the same period. That figure is the operator’s own estimate, based on published tariffs as of August 1, 2026.
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The UAH 95 covers incoming calls and texts plus unlimited calls to other Intertelecom numbers. Subscribers also get 125 minutes to any Ukrainian number and 50 outgoing texts. Beyond that, a minute or a message costs UAH 0.50.
The service only works with a number ported from another Ukrainian operator. A new number, or one already on Intertelecom, will not qualify. Joining means installing IT Phone and registering with an email address, then filing a porting request and confirming identity through Diia.Signature. The switch itself takes one working day, with no more than three hours without service.
The main limitation follows from how the service is built: it does not work offline. Intertelecom provides no mobile data of its own abroad. If the phone is left without Wi-Fi and without local mobile data, the number is simply unreachable. That is why the operator warns against treating IT Phone as the only way to call emergency services.
The second caveat concerns service texts. The app receives messages from banks, Diia and other services. But Intertelecom cautions that it cannot guarantee delivery of every one of them, since that depends on the sender and the routing. Losing access to the email address is a risk too: it is the only key to the account, and a number cannot be reassigned to a different address.
The pilot is open to adult Ukrainians who have lived outside Ukraine for at least six months. Those selected get their subscription covered for the first six 30-day periods, and in return they have to fill in a survey about the experience. After the pilot, Intertelecom says it will open the service to everyone.
Intertelecom has been on the market since 2001 and was once the first nationwide CDMA operator in Ukraine. In the autumn of 2024 the company announced a move to GSM/3G.
