Telecommunications company "BITE Latvija" will launch the third generation (3G) mobile services in June. At the first stage 3G services will be presented in Riga and later expanded to other Latvian cities. The company will launch UMTS services in Lithuania already in April. After 3G launch, the customers of BITE Group will be able to use 3G services both in Lithuania and Latvia.
„Presenting 3G in Lithuania and Latvia, we will offer services that are relevant and useful for our customers, putting the biggest focus on high quality of these services", – CEO of BITE Group Maarten van Engeland said. According to him, UMTS is an effective technology allowing to increase the network capacity and the speed of data transmission.
When launching 3G services in Latvia and Lithuania, BITE will present Latvian and Lithuanian versions of totally new "BITE plus" portal, which will become the most advanced 3G portal in the Baltic States. The users of "BITE plus" will be able to watch live broadcasts of 20 world TV channels as well as to have the access to the archives of different Latvian TV programs, adapted for 3G services. 3G novelties, such as video calls and many others will be presented for Latvian and Lithuanian markets as well.
BITE will offer its customers the best service delivery and possibility to use data transmission services conveniently in Latvia and Lithuania by combining the possibilities of 3G and EDGE. "This is an outstanding settlement even compared to many world operators", - M. van Engeland said. The fastest data transmission speed will be ensured for BITE customers also by HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology which allows up to 20 times faster real data transmission speed compared to EDGE (2-3 MBps).
During 2006 at least 20 new 3G enabled mobile phone models will be available in the market. 3G models are already available in BITE outlets. It is forecasted that in five years most of the customers in Lithuania and Latvia will own 3G phones.
Being a member of the TDC group, BITE will use its international experience of providing 3G services. TDC had launched this type of services in the end of 2004, when TDC's virtual operator in Germany, "Talkline", started providing it using the networks of other local operators, "T-Mobile" and "Vodafone", and in the beginning of the year 2005 – "E-Plus". In the end of 2005 TDC launched UMTS services in Denmark, in December - in Switzerland by TDC's Swiss operator "Sunrise".
