The Ukrainian government has sold state-owned telco Ukrtelecom for US$1.3 billion to an Austrian private equity firm. The sale, for 92.8 percent of the company, was to ESU LLC, a Ukrainian subsidiary of Austrian EPIC Concern. Ukrtelecom controls about 80 percent of Ukraine’s fixed-line market and has a small mobile business Utel, which has around 630,000 customers and a 3G licence.