VILNIUS - An international telecommunications firm has found that Lithuania leads the world in its mobile penetration rate.
Informa Telecoms & Media said that the number of active SIM cards in Lithuania equaled 138.5 percent of the population as of December, indicating that a growing number of mobile phone owners use more than one telephone.
"This is a major achievement for Lithuania in global terms," Tomas Barakauskas, director of The Communications Regulatory Authority said.
Luxembourg was second with 131.9 percent, Barbados third at 131.1 percent and the Netherlands fourth at 128 percent.
Darius Montvila, deputy CEO of mobile operator Bite Lietuva, said that a significant part of subscribers held two or three SIM cards, though this did not necessarily mean that expenditures on wireless services have increased.
Meanwhile, recent survey results show that some 5 percent of Latvia's population are using several mobile prepaid cards or subscription services at the same time.
At the beginning of this year, 73 percent of Latvia's population were using mobile services and the largest part, or 63 percent, were using prepaid phone cards, the Zetcom survey reported.
The poll shows that more than 80 percent of Latvia's residents spend no more than 8 lats (11.38 euros) per month for mobile services.
As many as 3 percent of respondents with prepaid cards switched their mobile operators last year.
Raimonds Bergmanis, communication department director at the Latvian Transport Ministry, said the number of mobile phone users could exceed 100 percent. He added that mobile services have become exceedingly popular because they are cheaper than fixed-line services, simpler to use and make people easier to get a hold of.
