Swedish-owned cellco Tele2 Latvia will connect 99% of its 4G base stations in Riga to the fibre-optic cable network of Tet (previously known as Lattelecom), the fixed line incumbent and sister company of Tele2’s wireless rival Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT). Tele2 claimed in a press release that the move would increase the capacity of its LTE network by ‘about ten times’, adding that the upgrade is essential to meet the growing demand for mobile data services. The work is due to be carried out during 2020.
Commenting on the development, Tele2 Technical Director Liga Krumina said: ‘With the development of various mobile internet services and the rapid growth of mobile data consumption, we are closely monitoring the network load to provide our customers with consistently high quality mobile services. Over the past two years, we have gradually connected our base stations to major optical networks in major cities of Latvia, as well as strategically important centres, and now it’s time for Riga. The capital, which is objectively the most data-intensive in absolute terms, has about a quarter of our more than 1,000 4G base stations.’