Latvia plans national roaming for crisis communications

Latvia’s mobile operators will have to provide national roaming during crises from July next year, allowing customers to use another operator’s network, LSM reported. The government approved the plan on Tuesday, but amendments to the Electronic Communications Law must still be approved by the Saeima.

The Transport Ministry developed the plan to strengthen the resilience of the communications sector after a devastating storm in August. The storm disrupted both electricity supplies and communications in many parts of Latvia, leaving residents unable to call relatives or emergency services.

National roaming would allow users to connect to another mobile operator’s network if their own operator’s network stopped working, in a system similar to international roaming abroad.

The service would operate across Latvia because it cannot be limited to an isolated area where one operator’s services are unavailable, the ministry said.

To avoid harming competition, national roaming would be activated only during crises. It could be limited to mobile calls and text messages, excluding mobile data used for internet access.

Because national roaming could create costs for operators, the proposed legal amendments would also allow them to charge an economically justified and proportionate fee for providing the service.

Latvia currently has three mobile operators: Latvijas Mobilais Telefons, Tele2 and Bite Latvija. At the end of 2024, they accounted for 38.2 percent, 37.6 percent and 24.2 percent of active SIM cards respectively.