Report on Business after Hours with BITE Latvia in a Joint Chamber event with the Irish Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, Thursday, November 22nd, 2018

Report on Business after Hours with BITE Latvia in a Joint Chamber event with the Irish Chamber of Commerce in Latvia, Thursday, November 22nd, 2018
26.11.2018

The BITE Latvia Business After Hours in a joint chamber event with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Latvia and the Irish Chamber of Commerce in Latvia took place on Thursday, November 22^nd, 2018 at BITE’s offices at Uriekstes ielā 2A, Riga, https://www.bite.lv/lv. Twenty two people participated and were treated to an office tour and presentation followed by refreshments. We thank Valts Karklins and Līva Paupere for an enlightening experience.

BITE is a mobile operator operating in the Baltics, in Latvia as SIA BITE Latvija and in Lithuania as UAB BITĖ Lietuva. Their parent company, Bite Finance International B.V., was established in the Netherlands and is owned by Providence Equity Partners, a private equity investment fund in the United States. The BITĖ mobile telephone network began its work in Lithuania in 1995, and in Latvia in October, 2005.

In February 2007, the Danish telecommunications company TDC BITE, the parent company Bite Finance International B.V. sold the company to the private equity firm Mid Europe Partners. On the 24th of December 2015, Mid Europa Partners announced that BITE's parent company, Bite Finance International B.V. was to be sold to Providence Equity Partners. The deal was completed on February 16^th, 2016. In July 2016, Bite Latvija acquired 28.5% of the Latvian telecommunication company Baltcom shareholding. On April 9, 2018, BITE Latvia purchased the Stream Networks parent company of the Latvian Internet service provider LATNET Serviss.

BITE is both a mobile operator and internet provider employing over 400 people at its home office in Riga, and provides support equipment such as phones, tablets, computers, televisions, videogames and modems as part of its service package, along with other services including insurances and ant-virus programs. BITE received an award for being Latvia's fastest 4G mobile network in 2015.

Opening of the new hockey season on Tuesday, November 6, the president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation, Aigars Kalvītis and the head of BITE, Kaspars Buls, signed a cooperation agreement that will continue the agreement to support Latvian hockey. The new agreement provides for cooperation in the 2018/2019 hockey season.

During the first nine months of this year, BITE invested 8 million euros in the regional development of the BITE network infrastructure, and improving the experience of using mobile communications - network expansion and capacity building.

BITE and the technology giant Huawei of China signed a Memorandum of Understanding on November 12^th, 2018 providing for the construction of a 5G infrastructure in the operator's network, including the construction of several 5G base stations in 2019 in Riga and Narrowband Internet of Things network development throughout Latvia.