In 2022, Lithuania, like the other Baltic countries, has fallen behind its Scandinavian neighbours in most statistical indicators of electronic communications, according to statistics compiled by “Nordic-Baltic Telecom Market”.
“In all three Baltic countries, revenues from the retail electronic communications market are relatively low. For example, per person per year in Lithuania €270.0, in Latvia and Estonia €250.8 and €248.8 respectively. This compares with €488.2 in Norway, €379.0 in Denmark and €377.2 per person per year in Finland. This may be due to the relatively lower prices of electronic communications services and the generally lower use of e-communications services compared to Scandinavian countries,” explains Marijus Balnys, Chief Adviser of Electronic Communications Regulatory Group.
According to the expert, although investments in electronic communications infrastructure in Lithuania are growing, we are still in the last place in the group of countries analysed. According to the latest data, in Lithuania such investments amount to €40.8 per person per year. This compares with €77.8 in Estonia and €254.9 per person per year in Denmark.
“On the one hand, due to the country’s geographical location, natural conditions, terrain or population distribution, our operators are likely to need relatively less investment to develop their networks than their northern neighbours. On the other hand, there is certainly room for improvement – the expansion of the fibre-optic network, which reached 61% of households in 2017, has slowed down considerably in recent years,” emphasises M. Balnys.
It is true that, although the growth of fibre networks has slowed down, existing fibre networks are being used quite well: around 4 out of 5 customers receive fixed internet services using fibre-based technologies. This is the third best result in the Nordic-Baltic group.
“Lithuania also performs relatively well in terms of the use of mobile services in terms of the number of subscribers (1.63 active SIM cards per person), the number of minutes spoken (280 minutes per month per person) or the amount of data transferred over mobile networks (34.1 GB per month per person),” says M. Balnys, Chief Advisor of Electronic Communications Regulatory Group of the CRA.
Estonia is the country with the highest number of mobile card users, with 1.99 active SIM cards per person, followed by Norway with only 1.15 SIM cards. Meanwhile, Swedes speak the most – 310 minutes per month, while in Finland – only 235 minutes per person. Finland has 63.3 GB/month of data per person, while Norway has only 10.4 GB/month.
The figures for all countries can be found here: https://statistik.pts.se/en/telecom-and-broadband/nordic-baltic-telecom-market/graphs/
Updated on 2024-03-15