The I’m Fine installation made of war-damaged communication equipment was opened on Kontraktova Square in Kyiv. The installation can be seen near the Ferris wheel. It is a continuation of the I’m Fine artistic and social initiative presented at this year’s Burning Man festival by Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Say and founder of the Ukrainian Witness media project Vitaliy Deinega.
The new sculpture, which symbolizes the resilience of the Ukrainian telecom, is part of the #I’mFineChallenge. Ukrainian companies are joining the challenge to support Ukrainians who continue to live, work and fight, and despite the daily pain, destruction and losses, rebuild the country.
The 7-meter-long, human-sized structure is the letters I’m Fine, made up of real elements of the company’s base stations and other network equipment damaged by Russian shelling and occupation.
Shot through antennas, mangled masts, broken wires and chips torn apart by explosions are what Vodafone engineers see almost every day. They could work for many more years, connecting millions of people across the country, but now they are witnessing the devastation that telecom networks suffer during war.
“Since February 2022, the company’s engineers have eliminated the consequences of about 900,000 network failures, which is an average of more than 900 incidents per day. During this time, we managed to restore the operation of more than 1000 base stations and restore communication in 865 settlements,” says Yevhen Frunza, CTO of Vodafone Ukraine, “This is exhausting work, but it is necessary for every Ukrainian, which allows us to keep ourselves together and stay in touch. So that we can always hear back “I’m fine, I’m fine”.
Vodafone has incurred more than UAH 2 billion in losses due to the destruction caused by the full-scale Russian invasion, and this figure continues to grow. Vodafone is also investing in further network development – since the full-scale invasion, the company has built 7,118 new base stations to increase coverage and capacity.
