Telecommunication in Latvia

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 67.85 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Latvia ranked 53rd in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 49.92 Mbit/second (30th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 5th place.
In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Latvia comes 41st with a download speed of 46.88 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 10 Mbit was only enough for 67th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in April 2022 from 181 countries.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the Internet in Latvia from 1990 - 2020

Broadband internet in Latvia 2000 - 2020

Latvia is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband Internet connections. Around 89% of all residents have access to the Internet. Around 26% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the Internet via mobile communications. With around 2.3 people per household, this means that around 59.4 percent of all households are equipped with a fast Internet connection.