Communications in Estonia

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The National Telecommunications act in the second period of Estonian independence granted a Monopoly on international and local fixed line telephony to Estonian Telecom (Eesti Telecom). In the process of privatization, a concession was granted to liberalize mobile, CATV and packet-switchted telecommunciations. This concession was critical for developing a competitive market. Three licensed mobile operators encouraged one of the highest rates of mobile telephony penetration. CATV licenses were granted at a local level, and while it was a more natural monopoly, pirate operators proliferated within populous cities in the 1990s.

Internet penetration blossomed. Beginning with a Satellite link and widerspread undersea leased line connectivity, Estonia connected with the rest of the world. The concession for packet communications, perhaps against the constraint of limited international telephony competition (with the global exceptions of callback, transit and re-file arbitrage) -- created conditions in which Skype was natively created.

Telephones - main lines in use: 476,078 (1998)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 850,000 (2002)

Telephone system: Foreign investment in the form of joint business ventures greatly improved telephone service. Internet services are available throughout most of the country; there are about 150,000 unfilled subscriber requests. Usually, Estonia is considered to be the most advanced country in terms of communications in Eastern and Central Europe.
domestic: local - the Ministry of Transport and Communications is expanding cellular telephone services to form rural networks; intercity - highly developed fiber-optic backbone (double loop) system presently serving at least 16 major cities (1998)
international: Fiber-optic cables to Finland, Sweden, Latvia, and Russia provide worldwide packet switched service. Two international switches are located in Tallinn.