Orange Belgium (known as Orange) is a Belgian

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

company. It competes with

Proximus Proximus (stylised as pro⌘imus; formerly known as Belgacom Mobile) is the largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications companies and is a part of Proximus Group (previously Belgacom Group). It competes with Orange Belgium and Base. H ...

and Base. It was incorporated by

France Télécom Orange S.A. (), formerly France Télécom S.A. (stylized as france telecom) is a French multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 5 ...

in 1996 under the name of Mobistar. The company re-branded as Orange on 9 May 2016 (following its parent company's own change of name in 2013).

History

Mobistar, today Orange Belgium, was founded in 1996 as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between Telinfo and France Télécom (now

Orange S.A. Orange S.A. (), formerly France Télécom S.A. (stylized as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. In 2015, ...

), building a GSM 900 network and then founding a complementary DCS 1800 network. Initially Mobistar added to its network coverage by signing contracts with providers such as

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

& Talkline, Cellway, a subsidiary of

Martin Dawes Telecommunications Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

and Debitel Belgium, the latter two which it would take over respectively in 1997 and 2000. Mobistar claims to have been the first

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

operator in Belgium. In May 2007 Mobistar bought 90% of the shares of VOXmobile (today: Orange Communications Luxembourg S.A.), a mobile phone company of

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. VOXmobile was rebranded as Orange on 28 October 2009. In October 2010 Mobistar launched a €55/month hybrid satellite/internet TV package, Starpack to provide phone customers with multichannel TV. Mobistar TV combines DTH

satellite TV Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...

with

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

Internet to provide over 500 satellite TV and radio channels, along with interactive services,

catch-up The idea of convergence in economics (also sometimes known as the catch-up effect) is the hypothesis that poorer economies' per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies, and in the Solow-Swan growth model, economic g ...

TV and content-on-demand via the Internet, and programme recording management via a smartphone. The satellite TV package includes Flemish national channels, HD and 3D channels, and a range of European

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

channels, all transmitted from Astra satellites. Mobistar has announced that this service will end on September 15, 2013. In May 2016 Mobistar was rebranded in Orange Belgium and the company became a convergent operator with the launch of its TV and internet offer based on the cable technology.

Company

Orange Belgium is majority-owned by the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Atlas Services Belgium (ASB), which holds a 76.97% stake. It is a member of the

FreeMove The FreeMove alliance is a business alliance of mobile telecommunications companies based in Europe. History The FreeMove alliance was established in 2003, combining the national network capabilities of four of Europe's largest national mobile ...

alliance.

Mobile virtual network operator

The Orange Belgium network is used by a number of

mobile virtual network operator A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...

Technical information

Orange Belgium offers 2G, 3G, 4G, 4G+ and 5G mobile technologies. Orange proposes Internet, mobile, TV and triple-play offers via co-axial cable.

References

External links

* {{Orange S.A. Internet service providers of Belgium Mobile phone companies of Belgium Orange S.A. Belgian brands Companies listed on Euronext Brussels