Though it has only existed as an independent nation since 1918, Latvia is no stranger to invasion. Home to just 1.8 million residents, it was occupied by Germany during both World Wars and twice by the Soviet Union on either side of World War II. From 1944, Russification took hold of the nation. The neo-Baroque architecture, still hidden behind Soviet facades in the capital city of Riga today, is a stark reminder of the country that endured Soviet political repression and socioeconomic reform.
Following Latvia’s liberation from the Soviet Union in 1991, the nation’s economy, which had been heavily reliant on companies such as electronics manufacturer State Electrotechnical Factory (VEF) providing goods for the Soviet market, collapsed.
New titans of industry were required, and Juris Binde, a project conductor at VEF, was appointed president of the state-owned telco Latvian Mobile Telecom (LMT) in 1991 and was handed the challenge of building Latvia’s first mobile network operator.
Thirty years on, Binde might consider his efforts to have been a success, with LMT recording revenues of €175 million ($182m) in 2023. In his own words, he is “the only president the LMT has ever seen”, and the telco is a reflection of the man at the helm: a traditional mobile operator with innovation and engineering at its core.
Binde explains: “Many telco companies are managed by finance people, or by lawyers, or marketing people.” LMT, on the other hand, is run by engineers, he says, and it becomes clear that Binde prides himself on running a company that does more than churn out mobile data plans.
Since joining the EU in 2004, Latvia has enjoyed economic growth and stability. However, the country, still haunted by its occupation, is facing its Russian enemy once again. In 2022, it designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and closed entry for Russian citizens, ceasing visas for Russians entirely.
LMT has now launched its 5G military testbed, a site dedicated to the experimentation and demonstration of 5G military applications. Although born out of a willingness to expand its offerings, this experiment is now more significant than ever and has now been met with Latvia’s need to defend itself from the Russia that once occupied it.
Fighting fire with 5G
Since the war in Ukraine began in 2022, relations between Latvia and Russia have completely “frozen”, says Sergejs Potapkins, a researcher at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs and former member and deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Parliament. Bilateral trade has come to a complete halt, and the budget for defense has been on the rise, he adds.
Potapkins represented Latvia’s Harmony Party (also known as Concord), which is commonly accused of having a pro-Russia stance by opponents. He claims the party is categorically against the annexation of Crimea and the Ukrainian invasion, but it secured less than five percent at the 2022 Latvian general election, an indicator of anti-Russian sentiment that prevails throughout the small nation.
But fear of Russia was not the reason behind the LMT’s Ādaži testbed. Ingmārs Pūķis, vice president and chief marketing and business development officer at LMT, points out the testbed was launched before the Ukraine invasion in 2022, with the war merely being a “catalyst” for the support the telco has received.
The testbed is located at the Ādaži military base, 20km from the center of Riga. The base serves as a training camp for the Latvian army and, since 2017, has been home to a multinational NATO battalion. The testbed itself has been in operation since 2020 and is formed of two standalone 5G networks. It is open to all NATO allies to develop 5G defense applications.
The testbed was born when LMT realized that 5G was surplus to requirements for most of its domestic customers. The telco has deployed more than 160 5G base stations across the nation, but according to Pūķis, 4G is sufficient for human use.
“Almost all broadband necessities can be addressed by 4G,” Pūķis says. Indeed, many Latvians eschew a wired broadband connection in their own home in favor of relying on 4G. According to the European Commission, as early as 2017, mobile and fixed services have directly competed, with 4G emerging as an alternative to fixed broadband, particularly in rural areas. Pūķis says: “WiFi is lousy, it’s clumsy, it’s slow, it’s unsafe.” Binde and LMT have sustained a “mobile is the future” approach in almost all their campaigns.
So, instead of punting 5G at its customers, the Ādaži testbed was born.
The use of 5G for military use has still had its fair share of skepticism. Pūķis says: “People asked, what is a telco doing getting involved in state defense? We are historically a civilian company selling iPhones and doing nice little adverts about the Internet.” More saliently, civilian technology has historically been perceived as “vulnerable and insecure” compared to the hardened systems used by the military, he explains.
Neils Kalniņš, director of the Techritory Forum, an international 5G event organized by the state-owned Electronic Communications Office of Latvia. He says previous editions of the forum, held in Riga, saw anti-5G protesters travel from across Europe to voice their opposition. He argues the root of the anti-5G sentiment was started in the Kremlin, with Russia harvesting its ability to dismantle European countries by causing panic around emerging technologies.
This has not stopped LMT from developing 5G military use cases.
Kaspars Pollaks, LMT’s head of business for defense and public safety, says the capabilities of 5G at the site, which he calls “the digital backbone of the allied forces”, are significant. He was formerly a navy officer, and is just one of several military personnel who joined LMT’s innovation and defense team to facilitate the telco’s pivot from civilian technology.
So far, 5G has enabled connectivity solutions that could be far superior to radio. Pūķis explains that one of 5G’s biggest advantages is that it is easier to hide because of all the other activities within the spectrum, making it difficult for the enemy to distinguish between civilian or military communications.
It can also be handy in training, using mobile Edge solutions to assist soldiers from different geographies to participate in the same virtual reality, as well as for remotely repairing vehicles. For example, a specialist was once flown out to repair a broken-down SATCOM vehicle in Afghanistan. Now, Pūķis says, 5G would allow any soldier to remotely repair the vehicle using an open-reality solution.
In light of Russian satellite GPS jamming, 5G triumphs once again, allowing aircraft and vehicles to be located and tracked without interference. Speaking of land, air, and sea, Pollaks believes 5G will solve all connectivity problems across the three, interconnecting all operational military domains and changing the strategic game entirely.
The modern battlefield
But where does the game begin? Pollaks argues that modern warfare is no longer soldiers lined up on a battlefield, and that we have instead entered the era of cyber warfare. Kalniņš adds the government’s greatest challenge is to create a digital border to defend itself from Russia. He warns that “drone technologies” are just one of the “provocations” that can pose a threat to the nation.
Last year, Latvia proposed the Drone Coalition in conjunction with the UK. The coalition aims to supply drones to the Ukraine. Potapkins says whilst Latvia may not be able to produce heavy military tanks, it can still play its part by innovating drone technologies. He says for a small nation with limited human and capital resources, it is “unique” to be able to produce such a competitive product.
On the physical border, Pūķis says 5G can be used to assist immigration teams. Latvia has recently accused Belarus of letting illegal migrants cross into Latvia. This is an instance where border security, police, and military need to collaborate. Not all of these units would have access to the traditional military “green radio.” However, 5G has the potential to simplify coordination and collaboration at the country’s borders.
Ādaži lies on the coast of the Baltic Sea, which has had an uneasy few months, with accusations of Russian subsea sabotage rife. In spite of some EU intelligence personnel stating these incidents, which have hit multiple undersea cables, were accidental, Kalniņš remains fairly certain that Russia is responsible.
Protecting these cables is now a “super high priority” in the minds of the Latvian government, he says, and 5G could be deployed to underpin surveillance systems and underwater drones to detect potential enemies in the sea. For example, Kalniņš says, Russia has been accused of operating a “shadow fleet” or “dark fleet”; ships with opaque ownership, that frequently change their names and operate outside maritime regulations, but which have links to the Kremlin. A report from the Atlantic Council confirmed that since 2022, Russia’s dark fleet has grown to some 600 vessels.
Even months before the Baltic Sea became a hotbed for geopolitical tension, Binde says he predicted that trialing and testing 5G deployment in the Baltic Sea would be critically important.
The LMT has already successfully trialed its 5G network in Baltic waters, using shore-to-ship, and ship-to-ship communication. On board Latvian port service provider LVR Flote’s Varma icebreaker ship, the LMT has deployed 5G connectivity that can be delivered as far as 53km from the base station. Pilot boats and floating drones are all part of an intricate system to broadcast seabed measurements and remote video transmissions.
Kalniņš says that whilst Latvia might not have Ericsson or Nokia like its NATO counterparts, the country has always been good at telecoms. From its radio factories to its engineering university in Riga, developing telecommunications is almost “like a genome in Latvian DNA,” he says. The 5G Techritory event in Riga was developed eight years ago to highlight this expertise and invite big names from the telecoms industry to use Latvia as a national testbed and a playground for technological innovation.
He adds the country already has shared its expertise and innovations with the likes of Ukraine and Moldova. The country’s relations with the rest of Europe and its Baltic siblings remain strong, and Kalniņš does not fear the spread of misinformation or Russian propaganda in the country. He says, “You can switch off the Internet, or do whatever you like in Latvia, but Latvians will be part of the European Union in our minds and souls.”
LMT’s future looks slightly less clear. Recent attempts to merge the company with Tet, another Latvian telco, have raised questions about whether it will continue to innovate and drive forward change. Sweden’s Telia has shares in both LMT and Tet, as does the Latvian government. But a merger would create a new and incredibly dominant company that could drive up market prices. Alternatively, the government could buy out Telia’s shares in both companies to bring in a new strategic investor.
Telia initiated a vote of no confidence against Binde at the end of last year, but Binde survived. Regardless, he is sure the government will make the right choice, and does not lack confidence in his own abilities. He says “You can take away my millions, but if you leave me with my system, I will be a millionaire once again.”
This feature originally appeared in Issue 56 of the DCD Magazine. Read it for free today.