Lettonie : la couverture mobile

Ce que veulent dire les chiffres de Lettonie

Deux nombres comptent et un seul est celui que tout le monde cite. Le débit habituel, 82 Mbit/s, dit à quoi ressemble un bon moment.

Le dixième centile, 24 Mbit/s, c'est celui qu'il faut lire. C'est le débit du dixième le plus mauvais de la journée, quand l'antenne au-dessus de la gare est saturée et que tout le monde autour de vous est dessus. Un pays à médiane haute et à plancher bas, c'est un pays qui marche à merveille jusqu'au moment où vous en avez vraiment besoin.

Si le voyage dépend des appels vidéo ou du partage de connexion, organise toi en fonction du chiffre en heure chargée plutôt que du débit habituel.

Ce qui se passe en Lettonie quand le réseau est saturé

La congestion n'est pas une panne, c'est un mardi soir. La question est ce que votre eSIM peut y faire, et pour la plupart des eSIM de voyage la réponse est rien : un accord de gros par pays, un réseau, et aucune issue sauf acheter une deuxième eSIM chez quelqu'un d'autre, debout dans la rue.

Ici le trafic Orbislo passe par LMT et Tele2. Quand le réseau où vous êtes se dégrade, nous vous basculons sur un autre, en plein voyage, sans que vous demandiez, et nous vous le disons après plutôt que de vous interrompre sur le moment.

Les opérateurs mobiles en Lettonie

• Tele2: Tele2 served 43 percent of private individuals' mobile voice and internet connections in 2023, the largest share in Latvia according to the regulator SPRK.
• LMT: Latvijas Mobilais Telefons served 34 percent of private individuals' mobile voice and internet connections in 2023, according to the regulator SPRK.
• Bite Latvija: Bite Latvija served 23 percent of private individuals' mobile voice and internet connections in 2023, the third of the country's three mobile networks.
• Market size: Latvia had 3.2 million active mobile connections at the end of 2023: 71 percent voice, 13 percent routers for laptops and tablets, and 16 percent machine to machine. LMT, Tele2, Bite and Tet together earned 81 percent of sector revenue.
• Network sharing: Tele2 builds its 5G network on its own because a planned network sharing deal with Bite Latvija did not win full approval from the regulator SPRK.

Les anciens réseaux en Lettonie

• LMT closed 3G in Kurzeme in autumn 2023, in Zemgale, Latgale and Vidzeme during 2024, and finished in Riga in March 2025. It has offered VoLTE calling on 4G since early 2021, and most of its voice traffic now runs that way.
• Tele2 switched off its last 3G base stations, more than 70 of them in Riga, Pardaugava and Marupe, on the night of 5 March 2025. Phones used only for calls keep working over 2G.
• On Tele2, a phone limited to 2G and 3G can still make calls and send texts over 2G, but it has no mobile data once 3G is gone. Mobile data needs a 4G or 5G phone.
• Bite Latvija scheduled its final 3G switch-off, in Riga, for the night of 17 to 18 March 2026, after closing 3G across Zemgale, Vidzeme, Kurzeme and Latgale during 2025. In Riga, 75 percent of its voice calls already ran over VoLTE.

La 5G en Lettonie

• SPRK's December 2021 auction of 700 MHz spectrum raised 13.273 million euros. Tele2, LMT and Bite Latvija each won a base block for 20 years from 1 February 2022, and Tele2 and LMT bought extra blocks valid from 2025, all running to 31 January 2042.
• Under the government's 5G roadmap cited by SPRK, the 700 MHz licensees must keep extending their base blocks beyond the state cities along land transport roads, including the Via Baltica highway.
• LMT bought rights to 3750 to 3775 MHz for 20 years at an SPRK auction in 2023. It then had about 400 5G base stations serving more than 180 populated places across Latvia.
• Tele2 paid 4.65 million euros in total for its 700 MHz spectrum, which it pairs with 3.5 GHz rights won earlier. At the time of the December 2021 auction its 5G reached 15 towns.
• By March 2026, Bite Latvija's 5G network covered nearly 90 percent of the population. Its 900 MHz spectrum, freed from 3G, now strengthens 4G coverage along the main highways.

Le réseau en Lettonie : à savoir

• Mobile users in Latvia consumed an average of 48 GB per connection each month in 2023, up 15 percent in a year and the highest figure among OECD countries, driven by unlimited data plans.
• Tele2 uses its 900 MHz spectrum for 2G and 4G voice and data and says the band is vital for service in sparsely populated areas. It held 1460 site permits in the band in August 2026, against a required 760.
• All three mobile operators hold 900 MHz spectrum of comparable width, and SPRK found the band almost fully used, with no one operator holding a concentration of it.