Lattelecom profits surge 12.6 %

Lattelecom's profits rose 12.6 % to LVL 39 million in 2006 while revenues rose 7.7 % to LVL 143.7 million. The results are a good sign that the company is maintaining and increasing profitability, apparently by expanding into new, non-voice areas such as internet, information technology, business process outsourcing and media (IP TV to begin with). Revenues from internet services were up 30 % while revenues from new services, like outsourcing, IT and call centers, rose 84 %.
As this blog reported, starting probably in April, Lattelecom will offer triple play (DSL internet, voice and IPTV) as its basic services package. Voice calls within Latvia to other Lattelecom numbers will merely be a "free" feature included in the variable flat fee (depending on internet speed and number of IPTV channels).
This, however, is not the most radical change Lattelecom will undergo. Look for the company to become, for households, a media and home-management platform. This means that by 2010, the average middle class Latvian will get up and "awaken" an always-on high definition flat screen and request a color print of what was once called the morning newspaper. The person will then open a window to check any videovoicemails left by friends, and perhaps play a TV program missed the night before (if there is still any TV broadcasting on a fixed schedule). The user will open a screen to see whether a small child is still sleeping and under the covers, and also link to a remote camera at a summer house 60 km away, where a frail grandmother is living. The Lattelecom customer will then query his/her car on WiFi and see that it needs to tank up on biofuel, do a price check on the internet, and print a discount offer coupon (or send it to a mobile phone) to get a few santims off each liter. With his/her favorite London internet radio station playing in the background over the 100 Mbps internet connection, the Latvian of 2010 will finish morning coffee, switch the radio stream to a mobile device or the car's HSDPA link, and continue listening on the drive to the biofuel station and work.