Estonia: Illegal collection of telecom data to continue

Estonia continues to collect telecommunication data from its citizens despite it being against EU law and the constitution, ERR reports. The European Court of Justice and Estonia’s Supreme Court have concluded that the data collection is illegal. The data include detailed records from telecommunications and internet service providers, which the EU court argues infringes on…

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Estonia: Russia suspected of attacking Balticconnector gas pipeline: Finnish media

Finnish authorities suspect that Russia attacked the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, Finnish daily Iltalehti reports. The undersea pipeline in the Gulf of Finland was closed due to a leak on 8 October 2023. At the same time, telecommunications operator Elisa’s data cable between Finland and Estonia was damaged as well, ERR reports. Finnish…

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Lithuania: Operators slam mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards

Lithuanian mobile operators criticised the government’s plan to introduce mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards as of 2024, LRT reports. The government argues that mandatory registration is necessary due to phone fraud and other criminal activity. Vytautas Bucinskas, head of business assurance at Telia Lietuva, pointed out that prepaid SIM cards were often used by…

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Baltic: SEB Bank lends EUR 30mn to data centre operators DEAC, DLC

Latvian data centre operator DEAC and Lithuania’s Data Logistics Center (DLC) have obtained a ten-year loan of EUR 30mn from SEB Bank, The Baltic Times reports. The companies will use the funds to further expand their telecommunication infrastructure. DEAC will build a third data centre in Riga, while DLC will expand its data centres in…

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Estonia: Interior Ministry wants to ban anonymous prepaid SIM cards

Estonia’s Ministry of Interior will propose banning the use of non-personalised prepaid SIM cards, ERR reports. Under the proposal, anyone would still be able to buy a prepaid SIM card, but would have to provide personal details to activate the card. Veiko Kommusaar, undersecretary for internal security at the Ministry of Interior, noted that Estonia…

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