Latvia demonstrates promising progress in digital content creation, with 64% of its population possessing basic skills in this area, nearing the EU average of 66%.
In efforts to further improve its fixed broadband infrastructure, Latvia has made strategic investments, including a EUR 4 million investment from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) aimed at 'last-mile' VHCN development, and an additional EUR 8.7 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
[2] Calling code: +371[3] International call prefix: 00 Fixed lines: Mobile cellular: Telephone system: Recent efforts have focused on bringing competition to the telecommunications sector; the number of fixed lines is decreasing as mobile-cellular telephone service expands; the number of telecommunications operators has grown rapidly since the fixed-line market opened to competition in 2003; combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular subscribership is roughly 150 per 100 persons; the Latvian network is now connected via fiber optic cable to Estonia, Finland, and Sweden (2008).
[4] Since the fixed-line voice communication monopoly ended on January 1, 2003, several companies entered the market for fixed voice communication services: Aeronavigācijas serviss, Baltcom TV, Beta Telecom, Latvenergo Tehniskais Centrs, OPTRON, Rigatta, Telecentrs, Telenets, Telekom Baltija, CSC Telecom and Bite Latvija.
The telecom regulator SPRK tries to provide a competitive environment so that new operators can compete with Lattelecom which owns most of the last-mile connections.
[9] In September 2010 the government's Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), which enforces campaign laws, removed a satirical film, The Last Bear Slayer, from the on-demand playlist of the partially state-owned cable provider, Lattelecom.
Reporters Without Borders charged that the prohibition constituted improper censorship, but noted it was ineffective because the film was widely available on the Internet.
[9] On June 1, 2014 new subsection 22 of section 19 of Electronic Communications Law [10] was enforced to enable blocking unlicensed gambling websites.