Belgium - Telecoms Infrastructure, Operators, Regulations - Statistics and Analyses

Synopsis

Belgium’s telecom market has long benefited from comprehensive DSL and cable networks, complemented by limited but increasingly prevalent fibre deployments. Though relatively small, the market has attracted investment from some of the region’s major players, including Liberty Global and Orange Group. There have been significant developments in the competitive landscape in recent years, fostered by regulatory measures which require cablecos to allow competitors access to their networks. This has enabled Orange Belgium to become a viable force in the market for bundled services offerings, hitherto dominated by Proximus. Nevertheless, Orange Belgium has seen its influence in the mobile market wane in recent years, principally through having lost two key MVNOs which are now hosted on the network of its main rival BASE, owned by Telenet since 2016.

Telenet’s acquisition of BASE and of SFR Belgium in June 2017 has made the telco the second largest in the country, a position bolstered by a strong presence in the TV and broadband sectors.

Broadband penetration has made considerable progress in recent years, largely thanks to regulatory measures to promote wholesale and bitstream access. In the mobile sector LTE availability is nearly universal, while there are ongoing investments in developing applications and services for 5G, with commercial services expected soon after the auction of 3.5GHz spectrum in early 2019.

This report provides data and analysis on key aspects of the Belgian telecom market. It assesses the latest statistics on fixed-network services and also reviews key regulatory issues, noting the status of interconnection, local loop unbundling, number portability and carrier preselection. The telecom infrastructure and major fixed-network operators are also profiled.

Key developments:

Regulator issues Strategic Plan covering 2017-19;
Regulator undergoes structural changes to meet strategic vision;
Report update includes the regulator’s market data for 2017, regulator’s annual report for 2017, telcos’ financial and operating data to Q2 2018, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Proximus (Belgacom), COLT, Orange Belgium (Mobistar), Scarlet, Tele2, Telenet, Versatel.

Table of Contents

1. Synopsis
2. Key statistics
3. Country overview
4. Telecommunications market
- 4.1 Historical overview
- 4.2 Market analysis
5. Regulatory environment
- 5.1 Historic overview
- 5.2 Regulatory authority
- 5.3 Government policies
- 5.4 Interconnect
- 5.5 Access
- 5.6 Cable network access
- 5.7 Number Portability (NP)
- 5.8 Carrier PreSelection (CPS)
- 5.9 Wholesale Line Rental (WLR)
6. Fixed network operators
- 6.1 Introduction
- 6.2 Proximus
- 6.3 COLT Telecom
- 6.4 Orange Belgium
- 6.5 Scarlet (formerly KPN Belgium)
- 6.6 Tele2 Belgium
- 6.7 Telenet
7. Telecommunications infrastructure
- 7.1 Overview of the national telecom network
- 7.2 Next Generation Network (NGN)
- 7.3 International infrastructure
- 7.4 Cloud services
- 7.5 Smart meters
8. Related reports

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Belgium – 2018 (e)
Table 2 – Telecom market investment: fixed and mobile by sector – 2006 – 2010; 2014 - 16
Table 3 – Total telecom market investment – 2012 – 2017
Table 4 – Telecom market investment: network and licenses – 2011 - 2017
Table 5 – Telecom investment as a proportion of revenue – 2011 - 2017
Table 6 – Telecom market investment by operator (regulator data) – 2007 - 2013
Table 7 – Retail telecom revenue by sector – 2012 - 2017
Table 8 – Wholesale telecom revenue by sector – 2012 - 2017
Table 9 – Total telecom revenue by sector – 2011 - 2017
Table 10 – Fixed voice ARPU – 2008 - 2015
Table 11 – Unbundled loops and access lines (historic) – 2004 - 2009
Table 12 – Fixed numbers ported – 2000 - 2017
Table 13 – Carrier preselect numbers and annual change – 2000 - 2017
Table 14 – Proximus share of fixed-line traffic by type – 2006 - 2012
Table 15 – Fixed-line telephony revenue – 2002 - 2017
Table 16 – Average price for fixed-line call – 2007 - 2013
Table 17 – Fixed-line and mobile traffic volume – 2008 - 2017
Table 18 – Fixed-line traffic by type – 2005 - 2017
Table 19 – Proximus (CBU) access channels – 2007 - 2018
Table 20 – Proximus Group financial data – 2003 - 2018
Table 21 – Proximus revenue by sector – 2004 - 2018
Table 22 – Proximus revenue by operating division – 2007 - 2018
Table 23 – Proximus fixed-line services revenue by sector (CBU) – 2007 - 2018
Table 24 – Proximus monthly ARPU by sector (CBU) – 2005 - 2018
Table 25 – Orange Belgium financial data – 2013 - 2018
Table 26 – Orange Belgium service revenue by sector – 2007 - 2016
Table 27 – Orange Belgium retail service revenue by sector (new style) – 2016 - 2018
Table 28 – Orange Belgium subscribers by sector – 2008 - 2018
Table 29 – Telenet revenue by sector – 2004 - 2018
Table 30 – Telenet subscribers by sector – 2006 - 2018
Table 31 – Telenet financial data – 2005 - 2018
Table 32 – Telenet subscriber monthly ARPU (historic) – 2005 - 2014
Table 33 – Historical – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 1995; 1997; 1999 - 2009
Table 34 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2010 - 2018
Table 35 – Fixed lines by type – 2006 - 2017

Chart 1 – Total telecom revenue by sector – 2011 – 2017
Chart 2 – Fixed-line traffic by type – 2005 – 2017
Chart 3 – Proximus Group financial data – 2003 - 2018
Chart 4 – Proximus revenue by sector – 2004 - 2018
Chart 5 – Proximus revenue by operating division – 2007 - 2018
Chart 6 – Proximus fixed-line services revenue by sector (CBU) – 2007 - 2018
Chart 7 – Telenet revenue by sector – 2004 - 2018
Chart 8 – Telenet subscribers by sector – 2006 - 2018
Chart 9 – Telenet financial data – 2005 - 2018
Chart 10 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2005 - 2018
Chart 11 – Fixed lines by type – 2006 – 2017

Exhibit 1 – Access and the local loop
Exhibit 2 – Number portability defined

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Technologies

Regulations & Government Policies
Telecoms Infrastructure

Number of pages 39

Status Current

Last updated 20 Sep 2018
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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