| has gloss | eng: The Internet in Latvia began to experience significant growth in 1999, as the consolidation of regional internet providers began to drive down prices for dial-up access. By 2000, there were 75,000 internet users and about a dozen e-commerce shops in Latvia. The average salary for a web programmer was 1.000Ls/month. High-speed access costs remained prohibitive; for example, an ADSL service planned to be introduced in July 2000 and planned to charge a monthly fee of 50,00Ls. By 2003, however, still only 5.4% of Latvians used the internet at home, and 60% did not use it at all; those who did instead accessed it in public areas or through their place of work, as high subscription prices for home usage remained a barrier. By 2008, access prices had fallen to 11,90Ls (17€) per month for the Lattelecom ADSL line. |