Compared with Lithuania and Latvia, Estonia's prices are far higher than its neighbors – even amongst companies operating in all three markets.

Delfi Ärileht highlights that Estonia ranks 26th among the 27 European Union member states in terms of the share of households with at least 100 megabit connections. The number of users in Estonia with a fixed connection was 35.5 percent in Estonia in 2023, compared to 67 percent in Lithuania and 70 percent in Latvia.

The publication stresses that Estonia's slow internet connections are not due to a lack of infrastructure, as 76 percent of the population in Estonia has access to 100 megabit cable, slightly below the European average but 5 percentage points higher than in Latvia.

Delfi concludes that one of the main reasons for the low share of high-speed data connections is the high cost, and points out that while there are few service providers in Europe today that offer customers a connection of less than 100 megabits if they have fibre, Telia and Elisa in Estonia are not shy about offering 15- and 20-megabit speeds to fibre-optic cable owners.

However, if you want to increase the speed from the minimum to over 100 Mbps, Elisa, for example, will add €10 to your bill, charging €28 per month for speeds that have become standard across Europe.

"In other words, what is a minimum elsewhere in Europe is a luxury in Estonia," the outlet wrote.

It points out that Estonia is ranked 67th in the broadband ranking of the speedtest.net website, which measures internet speed, lagging behind Russia, Vietnam and Moldova.

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