Justice ministry: Stake in media delivery company Levira must be maintained
The Ministry of Justice says Levira's role has grown, as its masts ensure vital services reach people and TV alerts work even if mobile networks fail.
The Ministry of Finance reached out to the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of the Interior to assess which of media infrastructure company Levira's services operate within a functioning market, which do not and to gather the ministries' views on whether the state should retain its stake in Levira, along with their assessments of the company's goals and performance.
Tõnu Grünberg, deputy secretary general at the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, responded that the state should retain its stake in Levira. According to him, Levira's importance has increased rather than diminished over time.
"The tall masts under Levira's control remain critically important as they ensure that services vital to the state reach as much of the population as possible," Grünberg said.
He added that Levira remains the only telecom company in Estonia offering over-the-air nationwide digital television broadcasting or DVB-T. It is through Levira that channels such as ETV, ETV2 and ETV+ are available free of charge and over the air.
"DVB-T is a crucial media transmission platform, providing an additional means of accessing television in cases where data services may be disrupted," Grünberg noted. "This gives the state an alternative way to issue emergency alerts and behavioral guidance to the public during crises, nationwide."
According to Grünberg, Levira is currently developing a 5G broadcasting solution that would serve as a reliable communications channel for informing the public in emergency situations.
The project is still in the testing phase and involves cooperation from the Ministry of the Interior, the Rescue Board, the Defense Forces, the Emergency Response Center, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, the Ministry of the Interior's IT and Development Center, the State Information and Communication Technology Foundation and the Government Office.
The Estonian state owns 51 percent of Levira, with the remaining 49 percent held by French telecommunications company TDF.
Levira's responsibilities include providing services necessary for compiling broadcasting programs and transmitting them. The company is obligated to ensure the transmission of nationwide public broadcasting programs throughout Estonia.
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Editor: Karin Koppel, Marcus Turovski
