Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Belgium, and Sandrine Dufour, acting CEO of Proximus, signed the final agreement for the sharing arrangement they proposed in July.
The shared mobile access network will be designed, built and operated as a new joint venture, owned 50/50 by Orange Belgium and Proximus, which will be based in Brussels.
Each party confirms its respective expected benefits and investment as per complementary information for investors and analysts issued on 11 July.
Growing trend
Sharing of mobile access networks is becoming increasingly common in Europe, with such agreements already in place in Italy and Germany, with the UK set to follow.
Trabbia said “I look forward to implement our agreement for the benefit of Belgian customers as well as society.
“This collaboration will enable Orange Belgium to continue to challenge the telecom market, while facilitating a faster and more extensive 5G deployment in Belgium and meeting the growing demand of our customers for mobile data.
“The agreement will therefore reinforce the competitive environment and maintain a strong differentiation on services and customer experience.”
Sandrine Dufour, CEO ad interim of Proximus: “I’m glad that we finalised the mobile access network sharing agreement between Proximus and Orange Belgium before the end of the year.
“This mobile access network sharing will allow us to aim for a faster and broader 5G roll out, to improve the mobile network capacity and coverage to the benefit of our customers. Proximus will continue to differentiate to offer the best mobile experience.”