Bite Group, a telecommunications and media group in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, announced that business subscribers for its Bite Latvia ICT services grew by 14% in 2021. It also plans to invest more than 70 million euros in the next three years, building several hundred 5G base stations in Riga and major Latvian cities.
The operator provides the services under the Bite One IT brand. The company said that there is a constant high demand for a stable and secure Internet, data transmission, cloud services, data security solutions, as well as data center services. However, decisions on faster and further digitization are closely linked to economic stability, so entrepreneurs tend to be cautious in their future plans, it said.
"The pandemic has prompted many to address the often delayed issues surrounding ICT solutions. At the same time, however, it has been a time to assess which business processes can be done differently in the future, recognizing that without ICT solutions, it is very difficult to stay competitive and think about growth today. For this reason, more and more often legal entities outsource the maintenance of their ICT infrastructure, requesting personalized services for their specifics, ”said Diana Smite, Marketing Manager of Bite.
Bite also revealed its plans to invest 70 million euros in the development of the 5G network. Bite bought the 723-733MHz upload and 778-788MHz frequency bands in the 700MHz band, which is the most popular frequency in Europe for the construction of a 5G network. The right to use the spectrum has been granted to Bite for 40 years.
Previously, this frequency was used for digital television broadcasting, but now it is used for more advanced technologies - 4G and 5G networks. Thanks to the fact that the 700 MHz frequency is able to transmit a 5G signal over a much wider area, Bite will be able to provide strong IoT, NR-Voice, uRLLC, and eMBB services.
"Data consumption on devices is growing by an average of 50% every year, but in recent years it has been growing by 83% every year. New societal habits transformed by the acceleration of digitalisation are unlikely to disappear. It is no secret that the ICT and telecommunications sectors are the ones paving the way for innovation, which is ultimately an investment magnet and a driver of development. Therefore, the 5G infrastructure will be vital during the economic restart, which Bite will also focus on in the future, ”said Kaspars Buls, the head of Bite, adding that the independent implementation of the 5G network on this frequency will start already in 2022.