OREANDA-NEWS. April 17, 2015. Lattelecom has begun the largest recent internet network upgrade in Latvia in order to let 180,000 of its clients all over the country, particularly outside town centres, gain access to up to ten times' faster internet by the end of the year.

The copper cable network upgrade uses VDSL vectorisation (the "Internet 5" service) and will result in the availability of the latest generation internet connection, which is especially important to those households in Latvia, to which, so far, it has been impossible to lay an optic fibre cable network. The new technology will allow users to get an up to ten times' faster internet connection, up to 60 Mbit/s, via the available copper cables, including outside the town centres.

The CEO of Lattelecom, Juris Gulbis, told: "Although Latvia is the European leader when it comes to optic fibre networks, and optical internet connection is available to more than a half of the country's households, we want to provide equal technology opportunities to all our residents, regardless of where they live. Latvia's future is related to the availability of technology to its people, and this is a platform of the information age, which will allow to improve the quality of life by offering more flexible working conditions and various forms of doing business, as well as access to various media, like interactive television and the features it provides." Gulbis also notes that the common European goal to make sure that half of each country's residents have access to internet at speeds of no less than 100 Mbit/s by 2020 was accomplished by Latvia as early as 2014.

So far, Lattelecom has completed the upgrade of 117 copper cable service nodes and installed new signalling equipment, so that the first 14,000 of Lattelecom internet users in certain areas of Al?ksne, Balvi, Bauska, Dobele, Gulbene, Jelgava, Lielv?rde, M?rupe, Ogre, Olaine, R?zekne, R?ga, Ropa?i, Salaspils, Saldus, Sigulda, Talsi, Tukums, Ventspils and other towns and municipalities will be able to gain access to the new "Internet 5" service. Depending on which internet service these people currently use, "Internet 5" can be installed remotely, resulting in a particularly simple transition to this new service. There are plans for further upgrades in more than 80 areas that will include a large number of Lattelecom clients. Overall, by the end of the year, new services will be available to approximately 180,000 people all over Latvia.