The biggest challenge currently facing the telecommunications industry is unfair competition, Mindaugas Rakauskas, CEO of mobile operator Bite Latvija, told the news agency.
He noted that the challenge is particularly significant in situations where state-owned enterprises or state-affiliated companies simultaneously influence access to infrastructure, public procurement and the end-user services market.
Rakauskas said that under such circumstances, it is essential for government decisions to strengthen an open market rather than create advantages for a single market participant or group of companies.
At the same time, Rakauskas noted that competition in Latvia’s telecommunications market remains intense. Although three major mobile operators are active in the market, competition for every customer remains fierce in both the consumer and business segments. This forces operators to continuously invest in network quality, service development, improvements to customer experience and competitive pricing.
He stressed that
such investments are possible only if all market participants operate under equal competitive conditions
and the same rules. Strong competition ensures better quality, greater choice for customers and continuous innovation. Rakauskas added that it is important to prevent excessive market concentration or situations in which both critical infrastructure and significant influence over the end-user services market are concentrated in the same hands.
“Such a weakening of competition could, in the long term, reduce customer choice, slow the pace of innovation, decrease investment in the sector and negatively affect both service quality and prices,” Rakauskas said.
Rakauskas also noted that a key issue likely to shape the future of the sector is the potential merger of Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) and Tet.
Bite Latvija has previously publicly expressed concerns that such a transaction could significantly alter the competitive landscape in Latvia’s telecommunications and digital services market, particularly if both strategically important infrastructure and the ability to compete in the end-user services market were concentrated in the same hands, Rakauskas said.
He stated that Bite Latvija’s position has remained consistent:
such a process must be transparent, comprehensively assessed and based on the long-term interests of competition.
It is particularly important to clearly establish who will control critical infrastructure, how equal access will be ensured for all operators, how conflicts of interest will be prevented, and what practical and enforceable safeguards will be introduced to ensure that competition is not weakened either on paper or in the actual market.
As previously reported, Swedish telecommunications company Telia has signed a memorandum of understanding with Latvia, Latvenergo and the Latvia State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC) regarding the sale of all its shares in Tet and LMT. Following the acquisition of Telia’s stakes and the involvement of a strategic investor, all parties to the transaction — Latvenergo, LVRTC, Possessor and the strategic investor — could each hold approximately 25% of the shares in the two companies.
Bite Latvija’s revenue last year amounted to 209.825 million euros, an increase of 14.2% compared with the previous year, while the company’s profit stood at 24.703 million euros, down 26.7% from 2024.
The company was registered in 2005 and has a share capital of 44 million euros. Bite Latvija is wholly owned by Lithuania’s Bite Group, which is owned by global asset management company Providence Equity Partners.
Read also: LMT and Tet deal: Latvian PM demands an “easy-to-understand explanation” of the planned transaction