Sorainen advised BITE Latvija, one of the biggest ICT companies in Latvia providing mobile and fixed communication services, on a major legal project involving obtaining of the rights to use frequencies enabling 5G services.
In order to start providing 5G services, Bite Latvija needed to acquire permission from the Latvian Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to jointly use the 3.6 GHz frequencies held by Unistars, a company 100% owned by Bite Latvija. Bite Latvija applied to the PUC for the permission in August 2022.
After a thorough assessment on 9 February 2023 PUC adopted a decision allowing Unistars to share frequencies with BITE Latvija. This opens the door for BITE Latvija to finally launch 5G services for its hundreds of thousands clients in Latvia, which will boost competition in the market while also making the whole Latvian economy more competitive.
Our involvement
Sorainen assisted BITE Latvija with legal project management, with the aim of reaching a positive outcome as soon as possible in order to promote competition in the telecommunication market and to open up more opportunities for users of telecommunication services to get access to BITE Latvija’s 5G services. The assistance included legal advice and representation during the administrative proceedings with the PUC; appealing certain PUC actions in court; and challenging previous PUC decisions regarding the results of auctions where Bite was not able to participate; as well as submitting a notice to the Latvian government on a potential violation of a foreign investor’s rights under the bilateral Latvian-US Treaty.
The client is being advised by Sorainen partners Ieva Andersone, Valts Nerets, Laimonas Skibarka, as well as by senior associates Linda Reneslāce, Marika Grunte, and associate Artūrs Kazāks.
