Baltoscandia provided by the Panevėžys city municipality, but the functions of the academy did not meet the criteria of the functions of the mentioned municipality. The Nordic-Baltic Eight or "NB8", where 8 stands for the number of States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden). Baltoscandia The Baltoscandian Confederation or Baltoscandia is a geopolitical concept of a Baltic–Scandinavian union (consisting of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The idea was proposed by a Swedish professor Sten de Geer (1886–1933) in the journal "Geografiska Annaler" in 1928 and further developed by Professor (1893–1960), a Lithuanian scientist in
Telecommunications in Latvia mobile-cellular subscribership is roughly 150 per 100 persons; the Latvian network is now connected via fiber optic cable to Estonia, Finland, and Sweden (2008). Until 2003 Lattelecom had a monopoly in the fixed telecommunications market. This led to overwhelming use of cellular phones for private customers, fixed lines being requested mostly by companies. In Latvia exist more than 2 million mobile phones but only 644,000 fixed phone connections. Since the fixed-line voice communication monopoly ended on January 1, 2003, several companies entered the market for fixed voice communication services: Aeronavigācijas serviss, Baltcom TV, Beta Telecom, Latvenergo Tehniskais Centrs, OPTRON, Rigatta,