LMT (, 'Latvian Mobile Telephone') is a mobile

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technolog ...

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

operator Operator may refer to: Mathematics * A symbol indicating a mathematical operation * Logical operator or logical connective in mathematical logic * Operator (mathematics), mapping that acts on elements of a space to produce elements of another sp ...

in Latvia. LMT was founded on January 2, 1992. It was the first mobile network operator in the country and established itself as an operator for the

NMT NMT may refer to: Science and technology * Nordic Mobile Telephone, an analogue mobile phone system * Neurologic Music Therapy * Neural machine translation * Neuromyotonia, a form of peripheral nerve hyperexcitability * Network management protoco ...

system, but in January 1995 it started operating a

network alongside the existing NMT network. Based on market research, it requested for its license to be expanded to permit the use of the 1800 MHz range, which was allowed in the summer of 1999. On December 1, 1999, there were 14 active GSM 900/1800 base stations, with the plan to have 11 more operational before the end of the millennium.

History

LMT announced on April 3, 2000 that it was partnering with

Hansabank Hansa Group or Hansabank Group was a Baltic banking group operating in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania between 1992 and 2008. It started in Estonia and expanded to Latvia in 1995 then Lithuania in 1996. It was acquired by Stockholm-based Föreni ...

to release the first ever mobile banking solution in the country. It allowed the user to, for example, look up currency rates, check the account balance, see the transactions done on the account and receive text messages notifying about actions done on the account. The account holder was able to choose how often those notifications should arrive with the options ranging from monthly up to after each action takes place. It was also noted right away that there are plans to provide a method for making payments via mobile banking as that was not initially possible saying that this marks the start of a new generation of services. In November 2000, LMT started a prepaid service called OKarte (OCard) along their existing subscription based service. The cooperation with Hansabank was continued by allowing the prepaid accounts to be instantly refilled from any Hansabank ATM. On October 7, 2013, the prepaid service was merged with the LMT branding and renamed to LMT Okarte. LMT announced in January 2002 that it will stop supporting the NMT network at the end of the year and started rolling out

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

later that year, providing GPRS everywhere in Latvia by September 2002. Following the expansion, LMT announced the support for MMS on March 31, 2003. After acquiring the licence, the initial release of the commercial

network was in December 2004. Soon after that, in June 2005,

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

was introduced in Riga and

Jūrmala Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in the Vidzeme region of Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and is sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach and is the ...

by LMT and the

HSDPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunic ...

rollout started in August 2006. In cooperation with

TeliaSonera Telia Company AB is a Swedish Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in S ...

, LMT started selling the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

in Latvia on September 26, 2008. The

network was commercially released on May 31, 2011, but was not made available to phone users initially. The first citywide coverage of the network in Latvia was in

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

in July 2012 and following further network development, LTE was made available to phone users on November 5, 2013, without any additional charges. As of April 2014, 50% of Latvians had access to the LTE network with the future goal of providing it in the whole territory of Latvia, including rural areas, by 2016. In April 2013, LMT started the project ‘LMT for Latvia’ (''LMT Latvijai'' in Latvian) – a comprehensive and nationwide CSR project, in cooperation with local municipalities and locals of different Latvian towns and cities. New children’s playground and modernized library in

Preiļi Preiļi (; Polish: ''Prele''; ; , previously also ''Прели'') is a town in Preiļi Municipality in the Latgale region of Latvia. It is also the administrative center of Preiļi Municipality. History Preiļi is one of the oldest settlements i ...

, outdoor fitness equipment in

Tukums Tukums (; ; ) is a town in Latvia and serves as the administrative center of Tukums Municipality. It is located in the eastern part of the historical region of Courland, and with more than 16,000 inhabitants Tukums is the 13th largest settlem ...

, purchase of binoculars for bird watching in Sātiņi Nature Reserve and a youth festival in

Saldus Saldus (; , ) is a Latvian town located in Courland () region of Latvia, and the largest town in Saldus Municipality. The name Saldus has been noted in historical sources as far back as the mid-13th century, but the founding year for the establis ...

are few of the ideas implemented in 2014 thanks to the initiative ‘LMT for Latvia’. The ultimate goal of the project is to improve the life and environment of Latvian regional communities and support the initiatives of the individuals, companies and various NGOs in order to achieve growth of the city/town and make life better and surroundings – more beautiful. In 2014, 88 ideas were submitted in eight Latvian cities and towns, 32 were chosen for the implementation. More than 28 000 people participated in the voting and the initiative was covered in more than 200 press cuttings. The winners of the competition received 500 to 2000 euro funding or co-financing. In total, LMT donated 64 thousand euro for the project in 2014. The project has greatly improved the local communities, as well as helped establish excellent cooperation with the local municipalities, that has improved the relations and business results in the specific towns. As of June 2014 LMT had roaming agreements for voice calling and text messaging services with 446 operators in 204 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and America also including ships and satellite communication networks while mobile internet services were available in 372 operator networks in 171 country. LMT is now the largest telecommunications service provider, in the beginning of year 2015 serving 1 113 197 clients, which is 30 thousand more than the year before. On June 1, 2021, it was announced that SIA "Latvijas mobilais telefons" will purchase the data transmission network and IT security solutions company SIA Santa Monica Networks, which also operated in Lithuania. Until then, the owners of SIA Santa Monica Networks were the limited partnership KS EuVECA Livonia Partners Fund I (51.89%), SIA C 3 (34.68%), the Estonian company Alkonda OÜ (11.64%) and several natural persons. After receiving permission from the Competition Council of Latvia and Lithuania, LMT completed the acquisition of Santa Monica Networks on October 11. In several rounds of 700 MHz frequency auctions held in Latvia in December 2021, LMT acquired 700 MHz frequency bands for 5.758 million euros.

Main products

While subscription based telephone services are the most prominent product of LMT, prepaid plans (LMT Karte) are also provided, along with a variety of data plans aimed at tablets and computers. As of June 2014, three mobile internet tiers are available for whole households consisting of unlimited data, with the top tier not imposing any arbitrary speed restrictions for the transfer.

Events

LMT has been a major sponsor of the LMT Smart Future Conference since 201

The conference purports to bring “experts across multiple industries and disciplines” to the :lv:VEF Kultūras pils, VEF Kultūras pils in Riga each year. Speakers have included former Culture Minister Dace Melbarde, journalist Ilze Jaunalksne and

Emojipedia Emojipedia is an emoji reference website which documents the meaning and common usage of emoji characters in the Unicode Standard. Most commonly described as an emoji encyclopedia or emoji dictionary, Emojipedia also publishes articles and prov ...

founder

Jeremy Burge Jeremy Burge (born 14 July 1984) is an Australian emoji historian, founder of Emojipedia, creator of World Emoji Day and widely regarded as an expert on emoji. Business Insider listed Burge in the ''UK Tech 100'' in 2016, 2017 and 2018 referr ...

Patron of the University of Latvia

LMT is a silver patron of the

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

Foundation. The company has been supporting the University of Latvia since 2007 by donating to

exact sciences The exact sciences or quantitative sciences, sometimes called the exact mathematical sciences, are those sciences "which admit of absolute precision in their results"; especially the mathematical sciences. Examples of the exact sciences are ma ...

projects and providing conferences and forums. The direction of support is research and development of the learning environment.

References

{{Reflist, 2, refs= {{cite web, title=LMT share owners, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/lmt-dalu-ipasnieki, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, accessdate=31 May 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601035857/http://www.lmt.lv/lv/lmt-dalu-ipasnieki, archive-date=1 June 2014, url-status=dead {{cite web, title=Abroad, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/arzemes, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, accessdate=1 June 2014 {{cite web, title=Internet for the home, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/internets-majai, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, accessdate=1 June 2014 {{cite press release, title="Latvijas Mobilais Telefons" uzsācis GSM 900/1800 tīkla darbību, trans-title=Latvian Mobile Telephone has started operating the GSM 900/1800 network, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=1999&pid=47, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=1 December 1999, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title="Latvijas Mobilais Telefons" sagaida 2000.gadu ar 200 000. abonentu, trans-title=Year 2000 arrives with the 200,000th subscriber for Latvian Mobile Telephone, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2000&pid=50, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=7 January 2000, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT un Hansabanka piedāvā "Mobilo banku", trans-title=LMT and Hansabank provide "Mobile bank", url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2000&pid=51, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=3 April 2000, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT piedāvā priekšapmaksas sarunu karti, trans-title=LMT provides a prepaid talk card, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2000&pid=62, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=2 November 2000, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=Hansabankas bankomātos var papildināt OKartes kontu, trans-title=OCard accounts can be refilled in Hansabank ATMs, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2001&pid=105, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=5 July 2001, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=Latvijas Mobilais Telefons slēgs NMT mobilo sakaru tīklu, trans-title=Latvian Mobile Telephone to close the NMT mobile communication network, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2002&pid=126, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=3 January 2002, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT klientiem visā Latvijā pieejami GPRS pakalpojumi, trans-title=LMT clients in the whole Latvia have access to GPRS services, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2002&pid=149, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=18 September 2002, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT klienti var izmantot MMS, trans-title=LMT clients can use MMS, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2003&pid=160, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=31 March 2003, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT atklāj UMTS tīklu komercrežīmā, trans-title=LMT releases the UMTS network in commercial mode, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2004&pid=186, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=13 December 2004, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=Ieviešot EDGE, LMT trīskāršo datu pārraides ātrumu, trans-title=By implementing EDGE, LMT triples the data transfer speed, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2005&pid=191, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=9 June 2005, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT 3G tīklā desmitkāršots datu pārraides ātrums, trans-title=LMT 3G data transfer speed increased ten times, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2006&pid=207, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=30 August 2006, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT uzsāk iPhone 3G tirdzniecību Latvijā, trans-title=LMT starts iPhone 3G sale in Latvia, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2008&pid=226, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=24 September 2008, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT pirmie Latvijā komercrežīmā sāk piedāvāt 4G mobilo internetu, trans-title=LMT is first in Latvia to start commercially providing 4G mobile internet, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2011&pid=268, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=31 May 2011, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=Liepāja - pirmā pilsēta Latvijā ar pilnu 4G mobilā tīkla pārklājumu, trans-title=Liepāja - the first city in Latvia with full 4G mobile network coverage, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2012&pid=291, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=6 July 2012, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=Okartes zīmols tiek apvienots ar LMT, trans-title=The Okarte brand is being merged with LMT, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2013&pid=578, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=7 October 2013, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT pirmais Latvijā piedāvā 4G internetu telefonos, trans-title=LMT first in Latvia to provide 4G internet in phones, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2013&pid=587, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=5 November 2013, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite press release, title=LMT 4G internets pieejams jau 50% Latvijas iedzīvotāju, trans-title=LMT 4G internet already available to 50% of Latvians, url=http://www.lmt.lv/lv/preses-relizes?g=2014&pid=634, language=Latvian, publisher=Latvian Mobile Telephone, date=25 April 2014, accessdate=31 May 2014 {{cite web, title=SIA "Latvijas Mobilais Telefons", url=http://www.fonds.lv/mecenati/sudraba/sia-latvijas-mobilais-telefons/, language=Latvian, publisher=University of Latvia, date=30 April 2014, accessdate=31 May 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423093755/https://www.fonds.lv/mecenati/sudraba/sia-latvijas-mobilais-telefons/, archive-date=23 April 2019, url-status=dead Telecommunications companies of Latvia Companies based in Riga Telecommunications companies established in 1992 1992 establishments in Latvia

History

Main products

Events

Patron of the University of Latvia

See also

References