Telephones

(See population of Latvia)

Telephones - main lines in use:around 700,000 (2006)

Telephones - mobile cellular:over 2,000,000 (2006)

Telephone system:fixed line quality and coverage inadequate outside major cities; however, around 96.53% of the country is covered by at least one mobile operator.

"Domestic:"expansion underway in intercity trunk line connections, rural exchanges, and mobile systems; still many unsatisfied subscriber applications
"International:"international connections are available fixed, mobile, cable (VoIP) and a satellite earth station all over Latvia

Until 2003 Lattelecom had a monopoly in the fixed telecommunications market (2003). This led to overwhelming use of cellular phones for private customers, fixed lines being requested mostly by companies. In Latvia exist 2 Million mobile phones but only 700000 fixed phone connections.

Since the fixed-line voice communication monopoly ended on January 1, 2003, several companies entered the market for fixed voice communication services: Aeronavigācijas serviss, Baltkom TV, Beta Telecom, Latvenergo Tehniskais Centrs, Rigatta, Telecentrs, Telenets, Telekom Baltija and CSC Telecom. These voice telephony providers provide services for cheaper foreign calls, as well as local calls. The telecom regulator SPRK tries to provide a competitive environment so that new operators can compete with Lattelecom which owns most of the last-mile connections.

Broadcasting

Radio

Radio broadcast stations:AM 8, FM 56, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:1.76 million (1997)

Television

Television broadcast stations:44 (plus 31 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:1.22 million (1997)

The state public television broadcaster is Latvijas Televīzija.

Internet

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):150+ (2006)

Internet users:312,000 (2002)

Country code (Top-level domain): .lv

:"See also :" Latvia

External links

* [http://www.sprk.gov.lv Public Utilities Commission]
* [http://en.sam.gov.lv/ Latvian State Department of Communications]
* [http://www.telecomblog.lv Telecommunications and IT blog] with all the latest hype on telecoms in Latvia

Telecommunications operators in Latvia:
* [http://www.lattelecom.lv/ Lattelecom]
* [http://www.lmt.lv/ Latvia Mobile Telephone (GSM)]
* [http://www.tele2.lv/ Tele2 (GSM)]
* [http://www.bite.lv/ Bite Latvia (GSM)]
* [http://www.triatel.lv/ Triatel (CDMA)]
* [http://www.nulltel.lv/ Nulltel (VoIP)]