Consumers won’t notice: Why disabling communication during attacks in Ukraine isn’t such a bad idea

Disabling mobile communications during Russian attacks is not a bad idea, but only in areas where missiles are flying. Moreover, the majority of users won’t even notice it, states aviation expert Kostiantyn Kryvolap in a comment to the RBC-Ukraine YouTube channel.
"Turning off all mobile communication and mobile internet might not make much sense. But in areas where a cruise missile is flying, operators can disable stations. The point is that right now, the Russians are trying various ways to improve the navigation capabilities of their Shaheds so they can achieve better targeting," Kryvolap said.
According to him, the Russian forces tried to do this by deploying a large number of Kometa antennas for satellite communication.
"We 'paid a visit' to the plant in (Russia's - ed.) Cheboksary, where these drones are produced — and judging by the results, quite effectively. Even though the Shaheds used to have 4–8 antennas, now they have 16. This doesn’t significantly improve performance, so the Russians started exploring an option where they try to enhance navigation by using satellite communication towers to receive signals from them," the expert explained.
He noted that turning off all mobile communication "makes sense, but in some extreme situations, communication is truly necessary."
"Coordinating a missile’s route with a temporary shutdown of communication services — well, a missile only flies over for a few minutes, and the majority of users won’t even notice. Moreover, if you have a fixed internet connection, you won’t be disconnected; you’ll stay online. It’s just that the mobile service will be unavailable in specific areas where missiles are passing through. That’s not the worst option — it’s manageable. So I support using this approach, but not a global internet shutdown. Disconnections should happen only in areas where there is a threat," Kryvolap said.
Disabling communication during air raid alerts
Earlier, the Deputy Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Digital Transformation, Member of Parliament from the Sluha narodu (Servant of the People) party, Oleksandr Fedienko, stated that the information claiming mobile communication would be shut down in Ukraine during air raid alerts is not true.
He was responding to reports circulating on social media and in some media outlets in recent days, suggesting that starting from June 9, mobile communication would supposedly be disabled during Russian attacks.
It was claimed that Ukrainian programmers and mobile operators had launched a system called Tryzub (trident) to ensure that Ukrainians would not be left without information during air raid alerts.