Tele2 Eesti AS, previously known as Ritabell, is an Estonian telecommunications company owned by the Swedish company, Tele2. The company was founded in 1995 and has its main office located in Tallinn. Initially, it was established as a joint venture between the Estonian telecommunications company Levicom and the Swedish company Millicom International Cellular. The company was initially named AS Ritabell, with Levicom owning 52% of the shares and Millicom owning the remaining 48%. In 1998, Millicom's stake in Ritabell was sold to NetCom Systems AB, another Swedish telecommunications company which was later renamed as Tele2 AB. This resulted in a change of control, with NetCom acquiring 94.8% direct and indirect control of Ritabell. In the year 2000, the name of the company was changed from AS Levicom Cellular to JSC Tele2 Holding. Following the renaming of its parent company to Tele2 AB in 2001, AS Ritabell was renamed as Tele2 Eesti AS. The mobile network brand Q GSM was also changed to Tele2.
Alias
Tele2 Eesti Aktsiaselts
Country
Estonia
Type
Mobile Network Operator
Ownership
Tele2 Group
Tele2 Logo

3G Network

The company launched 2G GSM services in 1997 over the 900 and 1800 MHz bands, and 3G UMTS services over B1 (2100 MHz) in November 2006. 3G services were expanded further with the launch of B8 (900 MHz) UMTS in March 2011. The network shutdown was scheduled for end-of-year 2025.

Network Frequency Band Status
B1 (2100 MHz)
Active
B8 (900 MHz)
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 3G Network
Launch

4G Network

4G LTE was commercially launched in Tallinn over B3 (1800 MHz) and B7 (2600 MHz) in November 2012. Following the acquisition of additional 2100 MHz spectrum in March 2014 Tele2 announced the replacement of its B7 service with a new B1 (2100 MHz) LTE service, with the B7 (2600 MHz) network deactivated shortly after. May 2014 saw the activation of B20 (800 MHz) LTE to provide additional capacity and extended coverage into rural areas.

The company has since launched its LTE-A network, with 2C carrier aggregation providing 225 Mbps (B1+B3, B3+B20, and B1+B20 configurations), and then in early 2017 3C carrier aggregation to provide a 375 Mbps service. In partnership with Nokia, Tele2 demonstrated NB-IoT over its B1 (2100 MHz) network in June 2016.

April 2017 saw the acquisition of 2300 MHz spectrum, however to date no services are active.

In January 2018 Tele2 upgraded its entire network to LTE-A Pro via a software upgrade to support 256QAM, bumping data rates from 375 Mbps to 485 Mbps.

4G Frequency Bands
Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status Known EARFCNs
B1 (2100 MHz)
20
Active
103
B3 (1800 MHz)
20
Active
1574
B20 (800 MHz)
10
Active
6400
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 4G Network
Launch

5G Network

Tele2 has performed 5G testing dating back to August 2016 when the company and technology partner Nokia demonstrated data rates of 4.5 Gbps at Tallinn's Telliskivi Creative City.

The network was commercially launched in July 2022, using n28 and n40 carriers.

Network Frequency Band Max. Channel Bandwidth Status
n28 (700 MHz)
10
Active
n40 (2300 MHz)
60
Active
Date Event Subtype
Launch of 5G Network
Launch