LMT continues to evolve and joins the fight against Covid-19

In the 1st quarter of 2020 LMT continued to develop modern data technology and contents services to people and companies, but already since mid-March great attention was paid to reducing the emergency situation at the national level, and mitigation of stress for each customer.

“The Covid-19 pandemic can only be overcome through joint effort, so already since March we have been concentrating a lot of LMT’s capacity and attention to areas where we can contribute to limiting the pandemic and mitigate its effects. The main task of LMT is to ensure stable and continuous operation of mobile services under conditions of significantly higher usage intensity. In addition, we provide the necessary support – both advisory and practical – for the use of our services, including, for health professionals who are at the forefront of the fight against the virus. Likewise, we engage in national and international initiatives, in order to limit the spread of the pandemic and reduce its effects, through technological innovations,” Juris Binde, LMT President, describes the priorities of the emergency situation.

In response to the call of the Ministry of Education and Science, LMT has ensured 2266 smart devices and free internet for distance learning for children throughout Latvia. The TV channel "Tava klase" (Your class) created for distance learning is available on LMT Smart TV, as well as for everyone – including customers of other operators – on LMT Straume app and on the internet straume.lmt.lv. 

Participating in the digitalisation of the medical system, LMT has provided more than 1000 devices, connections and solutions for remote work to the largest hospitals in Latvia and the State Emergency Medical Service. Expanding the range of technologies available in the hospitals allows to provide high-quality services to people both in person and remotely and facilitates the work of health professionals in the emergency.

Researchers of LMT and the University of Latvia have analysed the behaviour of people during an emergency using statistics from mobile network events. Such data may ensure the decision-makers with real-time information on major gathering places of people and change of their behaviour that allow them to make data-based decisions. LMT together with its partners is also working on other initiatives for the use of technology in the fight against Covid-19, participating in Latvian and international hackathons, as well as a group of initiatives aimed at introducing Bluetooth app-based PEPP-PT technology to identify possible sources of infection transmission in Latvia.

LMT turnover in the 1st quarter of the year amounted to 56.3 million euro, which is by 7.1 % more than in the same period of 2019. LMT profitability or EBITDA* in the first quarter of 2020 was 19 million euro, but the number of customer connections reached 1.3 million.

* EBITDA – earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization.