Traded as Euronext: OBEL Revenue €1.235 billion (2015) Headquarters Evere, Belgium | Industry Telecommunications Customer service 00 32 2 745 95 00 Founded 27 August 1996 | |
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Type Naamloze vennootschap / Société anonyme Key people Michaël Trabbia (CEO), Jan Steyaert (Chairman) Services Mobile and fixed-line telephony, ADSL, Cable TV CEO Michael Trabbia (1 Sep 2016–) Stock price OBEL (EBR) € 20.52 -0.27 (-1.30%)24 Mar, 5:35 PM GMT+1 - Disclaimer Profiles | ||
Orange Belgium (known as Orange) is a leader of Belgium's telecoms market. It competes with Proximus, VOO and Telenet.
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Created by France Télécom 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 between Telinfo and France Télécom (now Orange S.A.), 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 & Talkline, Cellway, a subsidiary of Martin Dawes Telecommunications and Debitel Belgium, the latter two which it would take over respectively in 1997 and 2000.
Mobistar claims to have been the first GPRS operator in Belgium.
In May 2007 Mobistar bought 90% of the shares of VOXmobile, a mobile phone company of Luxembourg.
In October 2010 Mobistar launched a €55/month hybrid satellite/internet TV package, Starpack to provide phone customers with multi-channel TV. Mobistar TV combines DTH satellite TV with ADSL Internet to provide over 500 satellite TV and radio channels, along with interactive services, catch-up TV and content-on-demand via the Internet, and programme recording management via a smart phone. The satellite TV package includes Flemish national channels, HD and 3D channels, and a range of European free-to-air 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 thanks to the launch of its TV and internet offer based on the cable technology.
Company
Orange Belgium is majority-owned by the Orange S.A. holding company Atlas Services Belgium (ASB), which holds a 52.91% stake. It is a member of the FreeMove alliance.
Mobile virtual network operator
The Orange Belgium network is used by a number of mobile virtual network operators.
Technical information
Orange Belgium offers 2G, 3G, 4G and 4G+ mobile technologies.