The telecommunications operator Bite Latvija has installed 25 new base stations in the Latvian region of Latgale during the past three years, boosting the total number by 20%. This was reported by the company to the LETA news agency.
Aleksandrs Belajevs is the director of Bite Latvija’s Radio Network Department, and he says that the company will continue to develop its Latgale network this year, including with the aim of strengthening the quality of communications in border zones.
Bite Latvija has 147 base stations in Latgale, and 65 are equipped with the latest technologies from Ericsson in Sweden. These help to speed up the mobile internet and not expand network coverage.
This year the company plans to install six new 5G base stations and upgrade another 30 to operate on the 5G network.
Belajevs says that 4G is still the country’s main network for Internet use, communications, video streaming, television and other population needs, but the shift to newer mobile devices has also driven an increase in demand for 5G networks.
5G networks at this time account for 20.4% of total data traffic, Belajevs explains. The development of the network in Latgale has led to a 40.3% increase in data consumption as against 2024.
The Bite Latvija spokesman adds that the volume of voice calls is continuing to decline – down by 26.7% this year as against last. This is driven by changing communications habits, with people increasingly plumping for messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Messneger as opposed to voice calls.
Bite Latvija also focuses on the quality of communications in border areas. 29 of its 147 base station in Latgale are in the border zone, which covers 10 kilometres from the national border with Russia and Belarus.
Bite Latvija plans to build 5G base stations in 60 new locations in Latvia this year and to upgrade another 210 of them. This will involve an investment of around EUR 20 million for the next-generation network.
By year’s end 5G will be available to 85% of the people of Latvia, the company claims.
Source: BNS
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