At the end of the third quarter of 2006, various entities in Lithuania had the right to engage in electronic communications activities or had submitted notification that they would be launching such activities 60 companies are engaging in the provision of fixed public telephone services (three new notifications were received in Q3), 18 are providing mobile services (one new notification, with four companies being stricken from the list[1]), and 23 enterprises are providing leased lie services (one new notification, two companies stricken from the list).
The largest number of notifications about the launching of activities was in the field of fixed telephone services (12 notifications in 2006). Fewer notifications were submitted with respect to mobile services (four) and leased lines (six notifications during the year).
The number of companies which actually offer fixed telephone services increased by 19.5% over the year (eight new companies). The increase in companies offering mobile and leased line services was at a level of 10% (one company) and 6.3% (one company) respectively.
MAJOR INDICATORS IN THE E-COMMUNICATIONS MARKET
 In the third quarter of 2006, the electronic communications market in Lithuania expanded by 5.4% over the second quarter of the year to a level of LTL 698.76 million. This refers to revenue from the provision of fixed telephone networks and services, mobile telephone networks and services, leased line services, Internet access, data transmission, cable TV, MMDS, wire-based radio, radio and television transmissions and network interconnections. In comparison to Q3 2005, the market expanded by 7.3% in the same period in 2006.
Also during the same period, investments in the infrastructure of the E-communications network declined by 1.7% in comparison to Q2 -- LTL 77.5 million in all. Compared to Q3 2005, however, investments increased by 8.7%.
FIXED TELEPHONY
There are 49 companies in Lithuania which offered fixed public telephone services in the third quarter of 2006. Two companies joined the process during that period. A total of 27 companies have said that they offer fixed telephone services via the Internet protocol (13 of these use cable television networks).
Some 53,000 people in Lithuania were clients of alternative fixed telephone service providers at the end of Q3 2006. This represents 7.67% of the total number of clients (691,060). During the quarter, their number increased by 2.8%. Since the end of Q3 2005, the number of alternative service provider clients has declined by 2.9%.
Total revenue from the provision of fixed public telephone services was LTL 104.17 million in the third quarter of 2006. The revenue of alternative service providers amounted to LTL 4.15 million (3.98% of the total sum). Revenue was down by 2.9% in comparison to the previous quarter, while the revenue of alternative providers was down by 6.8%. In comparison to Q3 2005, total revenue for fixed service providers declined by 4.3% ,while the revenue of alternative providers dropped by as much as 39.6%.
 The number of 785,980 telephone lines that is presented in Figure 3 covers 778,160 lines provided by TEO LT, AB (733,360 main telephone lines and 44,800 ISDN channels). Also included are 7,820 lines offered by alternative operators.
The first agreement on the provision of unbundled access to a local loop service was signed in September 2006. At the end of that month, TEO LT was provided fully unbundled access to 279 local loops.[2]
During the second quarter of the year, the total number of telephone lines declined by 3,490 (0.4%). The number of fixed telephone lines also declined during the preceding year -- a drop of 0.3 line per 100 residents. In Q3, the number decreased by 0.1 lines per 100, constituting 23.2 lines per 100 residents on September 30, 2005, or 46.3 lines per 100 households.
During Q3 2006, the number of xDSL lines in Lithuania increased by 15.8% to 155,020 on September 30. This is an increase of 1.8 times since the end of Q3 2005. Also during Q3 2006, the share of TEO LT phone lines connected to digital telephone stations (ATS) remained virtually unchanged (an increase on the year of 0.5% to 93.7%). Fully 98% of the lines of alternative operators were connected to digital telephone stations.
The total duration of calls initiated in public fixed telephone networks in Q3 2006 dropped by 7% over the previous quarter, with a total of 395.09 million minutes. Fully 96.8% of these involved the TEO LT network. The total duration of calls in Q3 2006 declined by 4.2% in comparison to the same period in 2005. The duration of calls initiated by alternative service providers during the course of the year declined by 2.3%.
 During the third quarter of 2006, alternative operators handled:
33.2% of international calls (4.9% for UAB Telekomunikaciju grupa, 4.3% for UAB Cubio, 3.4% for UAB Linkotelus, 3.2% for UAB Eurocom, 3.1% for UAB Tele2 fiksuotas ryys, 2.3% for UAB solocomas, 2.2% for UAB CSC Telepom, and less than 2% for others);
6.8% of long distance calls (including 4.5% for UAB Eurocom);[3]
0.6% of local calls;
7.4% of calls to mobile networks (3.4% for AB Lietuvos geleinkeliai, 2.6% for UAB Eurocom, and less than 2% for others);
0.3% of calls to service and short numbers.
There were15 companies providing call transit services in Lithuania in the third quarter of 2006. The total duration of transit calls amounted to 91.03 million minutes during the quarter. A total of 50.31 million minutes of calls were forwarded to other public telephone networks, while 40.72 million minutes were forwarded to public telephone networks in other countries. TEO LT handled 64.1% of the duration of transit calls forwarded to Lithuanian networks and 77.6% of the duration of calls forwarded to foreign countries.
TEO LT is the only company in Lithuania to offer payphone services. The total duration of payphone calls in Q3 2006 dropped by 1.7% over Q2 to a total of 1.25 million minutes. The average monthly duration of calls from a single payphone was around 115 minutes (one minute less than in Q2).
MOBILE TELEPHONY
 Seven companies offered mobile services in Q3 2006. There are three operators (UAB Omnitel, UAB Bite Lietuva and UAB Tele2), along with four service providers which do not have their own network (UAB Eurocom, UAB Laracijos telekomunikacijos, UAB Teledema and UAB Norfos mamena). They all provide services via the network of Bite Lietuva. Another four companies UAB Autovilgsnis, UAB Mobilus partneris, UAB Metameda and UAB Iml are resellers of services.
The number of active mobile service subscribers rose by 3.2% on the quarter to a total of 4.55 million on September 30, 2006.[4] That represents 134.3 clients per 100 residents a rise of 13.1% over Q3 2005. In comparison to Q2 2006, client numbers rose by 28.4% -- 91,700 in all.
By the end of Q3 2006, 102,400 clients (2.25% of the number of active mobile telephone subscribers) had had their phone number switched to another network. This is the result of the mobile telephone number portability service. Since June 30, 2006, the number of such clients has increased by 14.5%.
At the end of Q3 2006, 66% of mobile service clients used prepaid services and 34% used post-paid services. In this latter group, there were 22% of individual users and 12% of business clients. The number of prepaid service users increased by 1% over the end of Q3 2005, while the number of post-paid users dropped by 1%. The number of business clients in the latter group remained unchanged.
The number of active subscribers who use prepaid services rose by 4.3% in Q3 2006 and by 34.3% on the year. The number of post-paid clients increased by 0.4% on the quarter and 7.9% on the year among individual users and by 2.9% and 13.% respectively among business users.
Most clients use prepaid services, but revenue from such clients amounted only to some 22.4% of all revenues in Q3 2006 (LTL 71.14 million). The rest of the revenue came from post-paid clients, including 36.9% (LTL 117.37 million) from individual users and 40.7% (L%L 128.74 million) from business clients.
Mobile phone users in Lithuania are increasingly making use of roaming services the duration of such calls (originated and received) increased by 16.8% between Q2 and Q3 2006 (and by 21.5% in comparison to Q3 2005) 10.37 million minutes in all. Increasing numbers of public mobile telephone service providers are offering roaming services in Lithuania the duration of such calls rose by 26.6% on the quarter and 11.8% on the year 8.19 million minutes in all.
LEASED LINES
 There were 16 companies in Q3 2006 to offer leased line services. There were 4,376 lines provided to other operators on September 30 0.4% less than at the end of June of the same year. Of the total, 97.6% were primary leased lines, while the rest were secondary.
75.2% of the leased lines (3,289) were analogue, and most (79.1%) were local (up to 4 km long). Total revenue from leased lines in Q3 2006 rose by 3.2% over Q2 to a total of LTL 6.76 million. In comparison to Q3 2005, the leased lines market expanded by 5.7% in Q3 2006.
INTERNET SERVICES
In Q2 2006, there were 114 Internet service providers in Lithuania with a total of 1,532,200 clients (45.2 per 100 residents). This was an increase of 6.5% over Q2 in 2006 and a doubling in client numbers over the previous year.
Broadband technologies are used for internet access by 20.6% of clients.
Individuals represent 82.6% of the total number of clients, but they contribute only 54.5% of revenue received from the retail provision of Internet services.
 During the third quarter of 2006, wireless Internet zones were expanded and the number of wireless Internet hotspots increased. By the end of the quarter, there were some 730 hotspots, including 689 offered by TEO LT. In comparison to the end of the second quarter of 2006, the number of hotspots rose by 43%.
The number of dial-up Internet service users declined by 17.5% in Q3 over Q2 2006 and by two times on the year. In Q3, dial-up clients used the Internet for an average of 12.5 hours per month (1.8 hours less than in Q2). The number of dial-up clients has dropped as a result of increased use of broadband access.
There were 15 companies in Q3 2006 with direct international Internet communications channels (as opposed to channels provided by other Internet service providers). The total speed of direct international channels amounted to 7,889 Mb/s at the end of the third quarter an increase of 44.2% on the quarter and a doubling in speed on the year.
The number of broadband clients was 315,400 at the end of the third quarter 286,100 clients in all. This was an increase of 10.2% on the quarter and 59.8% on the year.
At the end of Q3 2006, broadband penetration (clients per 100 residents) was 9.3%, which was a rise of 0.9% on the quarter and 3.5% on the year.
DATA TRANSMISSION SERVICES
 Other data transmission services (i.e., those not involving Internet access) were provided by 14 companies in Q3 2006, with total revenue rising by 2.6% in comparison to the second quarter of the year LTL 11.9 million in all. Total data transmission revenues increased by 20.3% over the same quarter in the previous year.
CABLE TELEVISION, MMDS NETWORKS
Cable television services were offered by 49 companies and microwave multi-channel services (MMDS) were offered by four companies in the third quarter of 2006. On September 30, 306,400 clients received television services (an increase of 1.9% on the quarter), while 42,200 people used MMDS services (a rise of 7.8%). Some 26.7% of Lithuanian households were connected to cable or microwave multi-channel services, while the number of households which could theoretically receive such services was around 78%.
Figure 9 presents the number of cable and MMDS service clients in ten cities and towns. Other parts of Lithuania have a total 53,270 clients of such services.
WIRE RADIO
Wire radio activities were pursued by only one company, the public enterprise Teleradijo Kompanija Hansa, in the third quarter or 2006. There were 60,300 wire radio sets at the end of the quarter, including 50,100 used by individual consumers. The number declined by 2.1% on the quarter.
 Total revenue from wire radio activities in Q3 2006 dropped by 11% in comparison to Q2 of the year some LTL 0.37 million in all. The drop since the third quarter of 2005 was 28.8%.
Source: Communications Regulatory Authority of Lithuania (RRT). Report on the electronic communications sector (Quarter III, 2006)
[1] Lithuanian law says that if a company fails to launch operations within one year after filing notice of its intention to do so, it can be stricken from the list of E-communications network and service providers.
[2] Fully unbundled access to a local loop means the provision of access to the local loop or sub-loop of an operator. This process is governed by the law which authorises the use of the full frequency spectrum of the physical circuit.
[3] This includes long-distance calls and calls to other public fixed telephone networks in Lithuania.
[4] The number of active subscribers (i.e., active SIM cards) is calculated by taking the number of mobile phone clients who have paid a bill during the reporting period or have engaged in an electronic communications event irrespective of whether they are pre-paid or post-paid clients. An electronic communications event is placing a call, answering a call, sending or receiving a message, sending data traffic, or making use of any other service, including the supplementation of a pre-paid account. | 
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