Earlier this week, Latvia’s Public Utilities Commission SPRK closed its tender of 1.5GHz spectrum without confirming the results. Bite Latvia has now stated that it will acquire spectrum in the 1432MHz-1452MHz range for EUR200,000.
Bite’s bid has not exceeded the reserve price for the available lots of spectrum, while rival operator Tele2 stated that it had bid EUR220,000 for its 1.5GHz rights. The licences are valid for 20 years from February 2022.
TeleGeography quoted Bite CEO Kaspars Buls as saying: “We have obtained the best frequency bands for the operation of the 5G network, which also have the least technical limitations. The newly acquired frequencies are intended to increase the data download capacity, which is especially important considering the amount of data consumption, which is growing by approximately 80% annually in the Bite network.”
Buls added that the additional frequencies played a key role in Bite’s EUR70 million [USD78 million] investment strategy. Over the next three years, the operator plans to build several hundred 5G base stations as part of a gradual implementation programme.
