Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre (also known as Telecentras), which provides broadband services under the MEZON brand name, has increased the number of its 4G LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) base transceiver stations (BTS) to 600 across the country, providing coverage of 170 towns and cities. Local newspaper Verslo Zinios cites the company’s director Remigijus Serisand as saying that a further 300 BTS, operating in the 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands, will be rolled out in 2017, with an emphasis on expanding to smaller towns and villages. Next year, the state-owned operator plans to migrate as many WiMAX customers to its high speed LTE network as possible and will introduce an app for its recently launched IPTV service.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, in September 2015 Telecentras contracted Huawei to migrate its existing WiMAX networks to a new LTE-A platform, which was switched on in Klaipeda, Taurage, Telsiai, Utena, Alytus and Anyksciai two months later, followed by the capital Vilnius at the start of this year, and Kaunas and Siauliai, two of the country’s largest cities, in May. By August 2016 a total of 400 BTS had been installed to provide coverage in over 100 towns and cities, serving a customer base of around 15,000.