Proximus (stylised as pro⌘imus; formerly known as Belgacom Mobile) is the largest of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

's three mobile

telecommunications companies A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...

and is a part of

Proximus Group The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication in Belgium and the international markets. In Belgium, its main products and services are offered under the Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings brands. The Group is also ac ...

(previously Belgacom Group). It competes with

Orange Belgium Orange Belgium (known as Orange) is a Belgian telecommunications company. It competes with Proximus and Base. It was incorporated by France Télécom in 1996 under the name of Mobistar. The company re-branded as Orange on 9 May 2016 (following ...

and Base.

History

Proximus was founded in 1994 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

Belgacom The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication in Belgium and the international markets. In Belgium, its main products and services are offered under the Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings brands. The Group is also ac ...

, 75%, and

AirTouch AirTouch Communications was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off on Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were in One California in the Financial District, San Francisco, California. After a series ...

, 25%, respectively. AirTouch was later merged with

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

. In 2006, Belgacom bought the remaining Vodafone shares. Starting January 1994, Proximus took over the operatorship of the old MOB2 analogue network, as well as the new second generation GSM network, originally only in the GSM 900 range. The obsolete MOB2 network was retired in 1999. When necessary, Proximus can also use GSM 1800 to complement its network. It was originally a de facto monopoly, but after deregulation Mobistar (now

), a second GSM 900 operator soon joined the game in 1998, followed by BASE - then known as

KPN KPN (in full Koninklijke KPN N.V., also Royal KPN N.V.) is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. History Un ...

Orange UK Orange mobile UK was a mobile network operator and internet service provider in the United Kingdom, launched in 1994. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was purchased by France Télécom (now Orange S.A.) in 2000, which then ...

- in 1999. Proximus has just a little over 45% of the market, which is now considered as saturated. In 2014 Belgacom included its Pay-TV business under the Proximus brand name which then would include its landline and mobile telephone services as well as all of its broadband services.

Company

Proximus mobile was a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

, which had an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in 2004 but remains more than 50% state owned. A 25% share was owned by the

Vodafone Group Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vodafon ...

until 2006, when Vodafone agreed to sell its stake to Belgacom. In 2004, it had a revenue of €2,239 million and an

EBITDA A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced , , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, stat ...

of €1,135 million. In 2014, Belgacom was rebranded to Proximus, under the leadership of

Dominique Leroy Dominique Leroy (born 8 November 1964, Ixelles) is a Belgian businesswoman who has been serving as member of the board of Deutsche Telekom since 2020. She was previously the CEO of telecommunications company Proximus Group from 2014 until 2019. ...

. As of January 2015, Belgacom continued partnership with Vodafone, even after sold to Belgacom. Proximus mobile is now fully integrated in the Proximus Group and is no longer a subsidiary. Proximus uses the brand name Tango in Luxembourg.

Technical information

The operator's display logo is PROXIMUS (sometimes displayed as BEL PROXIMUS or Proximus), the net code is 206 01 and operates under

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

900/1800 MHz,

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

900/2100 MHz and LTE 1800 MHz frequencies. Its prepaid service is called Pay&Go.

Mobile virtual network operator

The Proximus 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 ...

s such as TMF Mobile ( MTV Networks Benelux), Mobisud, RSCA Mobile, Dommel and PostMobile (

bpost Bpost (stylised ''bpost'') also known as the Belgian Post Group, is the Belgian company responsible for the delivery of national and international mail. The Belgian Post Group is one of the largest civilian employers in Belgium. It provides a r ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Internet service providers of Belgium Mobile phone companies of Belgium Proximus Group Belgian brands Telecommunications companies established in 1994