Latvia’s telecom operators offer the lowest rates per minute in all of the European Union (EU), according to data released Tuesday by the mobile operators’ association GSMA Intelligence survey.

As Latvijas mobilais telefons (LMT) summarized, Latvia’s average rate per minute for voice-call cell phone usage of €0.02 is the lowest in all the EU.

Lithuania’s rate is €0.03, and Estonia’s €0.04, bringing the Baltics in right ahead of Romania and Bulgaria.

Malta can bewail the most expensive mobile phone call rate per minute, where it costs €0.19, followed by the Netherlands (€0.16) and Cyprus (€0.13).

“Due to the stiff competition in Latvia, low prices per minute have practical real-life effects,” remarked LMT board chairman Juris Binde. “People in Latvia talk on the phone more than the French or Italians,” he compared.

A resident of Latvia talks an average of 354 minutes a month on their phone, which correspondingly is Europe’s highest phone chattiness rate. In France they talk about 297 minutes per month on their cell phones, whereas in Italy they spend 233 minutes per month on their phones.

Pithier Lithuanians talk an average of 235 minutes, and taciturn Estonians only 214 minutes per month on their relatively cheap cell phone subscriptions.

The Maltese of course frugally avoid the device, spending only 84 minutes yapping away unnecessarily with friends, family and business partners.

GSMA compiles mobile phone use data from over 26 million telecom data points around the world.

LMT is a telecom provider owned 49% by Nordic telecom concern TeliaSonera, 23% by Latvia’s Lattelecom, 23% by Latvia’s Radio and Television Center, and 5% by the state through the Privatization Agency. It was founded in 1992.