FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19
Ensuring Network Reliability
During COVID-19 pandemic, high-quality mobile communications and reliable Internet become one of the most important components of the daily life and work of Ukrainians as well as the key to functioning of business and critical infrastructure – hospitals, utilities, government agencies. Therefore, lifecell team is ready for peak network loads and our specialists 24/7 ensure smooth operation of all services.
Caring for Ukrainian health care workers
We understand how difficult it is for Ukrainian doctors today and are grateful for their work. Therefore, on March 22, lifecell launched an initiative providing support to doctors and medical personnel. The company started providing 20 GB of Internet and 1,500 minutes for calls to city and mobile numbers within Ukraine to health care workers who are lifecell subscribers at no extra charge. Minutes and gigabytes have already been provided to more than 13,000 health care workers throughout Ukraine who had been registered in medical information systems. And on April 30, all medics will be provided with the same quantity of gigabytes and minutes, which will be valid until the end of May. In addition, lifecell continues to accept new applications until the end of quarantine.
Purchase of mechanical ventilation devices
lifecell purchased two ventilators for Ukrainian COVID-19 control centers. These are RV200 and RS300 devices designed to provide invasive and non-invasive, continuous or intermittent inspiratory support for newborns, children and adults. One of them, the company has already transferred to Bila Tserkva city hospital number 3 – Kiev region supporting hospital. The second one will be sent to Uman city hospital in early May, which also provides treatment to patients with coronavirus. A part of the funds for the purchase of devices was provided by company employees. lifecell will also provide all consumables for these ventilators to both hospitals during the next few months.
SMS notifications sending on behalf of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Supporting regular informing of Ukrainians about the spread of coronavirus prevention, the operator carried out SMS sending on behalf of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 8 million information messages have already been sent to lifecell subscribers.
Calls to hotlines and Internet traffic to web resources of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine at no extra charge
lifecell cancelled charging for calls to hotlines of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as for visits to the official information portals:
- hotline of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine 0-800-505-201;
- the Center for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine telephone +38 (044) 425 43 54;
- hotline and telephones of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine +38 (044) 238 16 57; +38 (044) 238-16-57, +38 (044) 238-18-88;
- web-site "FRIEND" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (for registration of Ukrainians located in countries where cases of COVID-19 infection of citizens are registered https://friend.mfa.gov.ua/#/, telephone: +38 (044) 238 16 57;
- 1545 ―Government contact center;
- 1677 ― National Health Service of Ukraine contact center;
- The official information portal of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “Coronavirus in Ukraine” ―https://covid19.com.ua/
Subscribers who are currently in roaming can call the above numbers without roaming charges (except for 0-800 and short numbers).
Network Name Change
lifecell encourages Ukrainians to stay at home during the quarantine by changing the name of our network on the devices of our subscribers – now it is Bud'Vdoma.
Useful services
A special section has been created on the company's official website containing information on countering the spread of coronavirus, as well as services useful during the quarantine:https://www.lifecell.ua/en/emergency/
1. Multiple accounts managing function in My lifecell application. Today, lifecell subscriber can manage the connected services and refill his/her own account as well as the accounts of his/her family. This is especially useful for elderly people who often refill their account and enable/disable services by visiting the operator’s stores.
2. “BiP SOS-package” for those subscribers who do not have the opportunity to refill their account. Using this service, a subscriber can call to all Ukrainian numbers via BiP messenger, even if there is no money on his/her account.
3. Emergency BiP virtual number – a service allowing subscribers, who are outside of Ukraine, to purchase Ukrainian number for 1 UAH and call to all numbers within Ukraine via BiP messenger without a physical SIM card. This service helps Ukrainians who are now abroad to stay in touch with their family and work contacts.
4. Remote purchase of eSIM – a virtual SIM card. This service is available to subscribers whose devices support e-SIM settings.
5. Free delivery of lifecell SIM cards using Glovo service.
6. Mobile Care service, allowing subscribers to pay for the service packages of their nearest and dearest ones.
7. Group video calls function in BiP messenger, allowing to hold meetings, conference calls and talks for 10 participants simultaneously.
8. Preferential conditions for lifecell business products during quarantine, helping businesses to organize remote work comfortably end efficiently.
9. Additional offers and promos, providing their participants unlimited calls to all numbers within Ukraine, since Ukrainians began to communicate more via traditional voice calls.
CONTRIBUTING TO BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY
Specialized courses for people with visual impairments
lifecell supports specialized courses of the Educational and Informational Computer Center of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind (EICC UTOS) for visually impaired people.
The project is aimed to help blind people learn how to use a touchscreen smartphone.
Voice-over programs, navigators, banknote recognition applications and other smartphone functions allow a blind person to read, write, manage finances, travel, study and work. However, at first a modern smartphone is not more than just a smooth rectangle for the blind person. To learn how to use it you need a strong motivation and an experienced trainer. The purpose of the courses is to ease this process and help a visually impaired persons socialize.
lifecell provides smartphones and ensures mobile connection for the courses, as well as financial support for specialized education of trainers from regions.
Project geography - Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Mariupol. These courses were the first free courses on smartphone usage in the capital, and in the regions they remain the only active ones. More than 70 people with visual impairments have already finished the training courses. The project is being scaled to other cities.
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT
lifecell universities
Since 2015, the company has been implementing “lifecell universities” project The operator opens educational telecom laboratories in technical universities of the country. In such laboratories students of telecom specialties study the work of a mobile operator using their own university mobile network and equipment. As a result, Ukrainian mobile communications market receives qualified specialists.
The operator has already opened three educational telecom laboratories: in Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, Lviv Polytechnic National University and at the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”.
Upgrade yourself with lifecell
The technologies of the modern telecommunication market are developing faster than the lecture program of Ukrainian universities. Hence the level of students’ knowledge often does not meet the requirements of the business.
Since 2015, lifecell has been implementing the social and educational project Upgrade yourself with lifecell to overcome this problem. This is a training program conducted by lifecell employees for teachers of Ukrainian universities. The program helps teachers update their knowledge and lecture material.
Upgrade yourself with lifecell includes lectures 1) on highly specialized technical topics (review of the transport network. DWDM; overview of the switching network; billing systems for a mobile operator, etc.) and 2) lectures on the development of soft skills (finance for non-financiers, mobile financial services; creative thinking, public speaking, etc.). The subjects of trainings are changed annually according to the teachers’ needs and universities’ curriculum.
130 teachers from 12 technical universities of the country have already attended lifecell trainings. Annually 10 lifecell specialists conduct lectures for teachers and help adapt curricula pro bono.
Jump into life
“Jump into life” is a student internship program that lifecell has been implementing since 2009.
The aim of the project is to provide students with practical experience, to teach them how to perform work tasks and to help develop professional competencies. Program participants become a part of the large multinational company and work together with the market experts. The project raises the prestige of technical specialties and helps overcome the problem of lack of work experience among university graduates.
For 11 years, 400 students have completed the company’s internship program. Out of them every third student received a job offer from lifecell and became a part of the operator’s team.
SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP
Partnership with the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine
In 2018, lifecell started cooperation with the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine as an official digital technology partner. Throughout 2018 and 2019, the operator ensures free of charge mobile connection for the Paralympic team and the Deaflympic team of Ukraine within Ukraine and in roaming at international competitions (including the 2018 Paralympics in Korea, the Deaflympics in 2019 in Italy).
Cooperation with the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine
lifecell helps to modernize the national emergency alert system with the latest information technologies. The system will provide the capability to address the nation and deliver urgent alerts to the public in case of national emergency or disaster.
Partnership with the Public Union "All-Ukrainian Association of ATO Participants “UKRAINIANS TOGETHER! "
In 2018, the company joined the loyalty program developed by the Public Union “All-Ukrainian Association of ATO participants “UKRAINIANS TOGETHER!” as a digital technology partner. Since then, lifecell has been providing the holders of the “Social card of the ATO participant “Ukrainians Together!” with an opportunity to receive discounts on company products and services.
For several year lifecell has been providing the following short numbers:
116111 – a free of charge child helpline of La Strada-Ukraine civil organization for consultation and prompt help to protect child rights.
116123 – a free of charge helpline of La Strada-Ukraine for emotional support and domestic violence prevention.
1551 – an alert service «Informing of Kyiv Residents» designed for notification of Kyiv residents in case of emergencies in the city.
1545 – Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine helpline. It’s a single communication center for interaction of the government and the citizens.
112 – free of charge emergency telephone number to dial emergency services (ambulance, fire and rescue, police).
116000 – Hotline of «Missing Children Search Service» of «Magnolia» all-Ukrainian civil organization
527 – Human trafficking counteraction hotline of International Organization for Migration (IOM)
CONTRIBUTING TO CHARITY DEVELOPMENT
Telecom charity development
lifecell contributes to the development of SMS charity in Ukraine. Since 2013, the operator collaborated with the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum on the development of SMS service as a channel for raising funds for charity projects. The company took part in the development of legislation on the abolition of taxation of charitable SMS. In 2017, the company, together with representatives of the charity sector and telecommunications, became a member of the Working Group on the Implementation of Telecom Charity.
On March 20, 2018, laws on the abolition of taxation of charitable messages came into force. And on June 1, 2018 lifecell launched SMS charity service in Ukraine. lifecell provided free of charge short numbers to six charitable organizations that were the first to apply to the operator from the moment the legislative changes came into force. The company fully covers the expenditures for short numbers servicing and SMS processing, regardless of their amount.