KIEV (WiMAX Day). In Ukraine, the local subsidiary of Russian telecoms operator Golden Telecom, has won a court battle to retain its license to 2.3 GHz spectrum.

Earlier this year, the Ukraine National Commission for Regulation of Communications (NCRC) ruled that Golden Telecom was in violation of a Ukrainian law that stipulates any license-holder must keep the NCRC updated on any change of legal address.

In July 2006, Golden Telecom acquired a company named S-Line, which was awarded national license for 2.3 ~ 2.4 GHz spectrum in 2005. Following the acquisition, and transfer of business title and offices, Golden Telecom did not register the new address of the company.

In February, the NCRC said it would revoke the coveted 2.3 GHz license. Golden Telecom followed filed a lawsuit against the NCRC. The Economic Court of Kiev was set to hear the case in February, and again in March, but successive hearings were delayed. During these delays, however, the Court ruled that NCRC could not take any action against Golden Telecom.

This week, the NCRC announced that on September 15th, the Supreme Administrative Court in Kiev upheld the right of Golden Telecom to keep its license. According to Vladimir Oliynyk, a spokesman for the NCRC, the Commission decided not to contest a ruling of the court and will re-instate the license.

While the court battle was an unwanted distraction for Golden Telecom, the company still has been busy building its WiMAX network. According to a report in Kommersant, Golden Telecom deputy general director Vladislav Onipko said the company never doubted its ability to win an appeal.

In the interim, Golden Telecom has not had to worry about new spectrum licenses being awarded in Ukraine. The NCRC said earlier this year it would auction new WiMAX licenses, but in August Victor Yushenko, the President of Ukraine, called for the dismissal of the NCRC chairman Vladimir Zverev, and added that no spectrum should be licensed until a new chairman was found.

This has been good news for Golden Telecom, as well as Alternet and the local subsidiary of Russia’s Comstar-UTS, two other networks deploying WiMAX in Ukraine.

The Ukraine market for WiMAX is expected to explode over the next two years, as low penetration for broadband access in the country point to high demand. In the Kommersant report, the President of Alternet said he expects that by 2010, “WiMAX services will have 2-3 million subscribers, each of which will bring the operators an average of about US$40 per month.”

This is a healthy estimate for any business, but in a country of 50 million people, still indicative of the tremendous market opportunity available for WiMAX.