Tele2 completes €27 million mobile network upgrade in Latvia

Mobile operator Tele2 has all but completed a €27 million modernisation of its network in Latvia. The company says only a few base stations remain before the project is officially finished, and once the work is done, 5G technology will be in place at all of its base stations.

Work this year

Network development continued at a high pace in 2026. In the first nine months of the year, 39 new base stations were installed and another 111 were upgraded in various regions of Latvia.

3G shutdown and 4G growth

A key turning point for network capacity and efficiency was the shutdown of the old 3G network. Within a year and a half of switching that technology off, the freed-up 900 MHz frequency band was reassigned to the faster and more powerful 4G network. According to the company, this has noticeably improved 4G coverage and stability outside major cities and indoors.

The company reports that download speeds have increased more than threefold over these years.

Better voice calls

Voice services have improved as well. Thanks to the wide rollout of VoLTE (voice calls carried over the 4G network), calls connect instantly, HD sound quality is provided during conversations, and users can use high-speed internet without interruption while on a call.

Next steps

Tele2 chief technical officer Līga Krūmiņa says network work will continue. The next task is to increase power and capacity in specific locations where data demand is growing fastest, and to expand coverage where improvements are needed. In her words, the modernisation has been a huge engineering effort that brings measurable benefits to customers and allows the network to keep pace with rapidly growing data consumption.