Telecom operators Proximus and Orange have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand fibre deployment and gigabit network access in less densely populated areas of Wallonia, both companies announced on Friday morning.
The planned collaboration aims to benefit nearly 1.4 million households and businesses in areas with medium to low population density. In large cities and highly populated areas, Orange Belgium and Proximus will continue to independently roll out their respective networks.
In areas with medium population density, Proximus, through its joint venture Unifiber with Eurofiber, will further expand end-to-end fibre (FTTH) to 600,000 homes and businesses, gradually welcoming Orange Belgium customers. In lower population density zones, Orange Belgium and Proximus will collaborate to roll out Fibre-to-the-Home for approximately 200,000 households and businesses.
The proposed collaboration could enable around 70% of Walloon homes to be covered by an FTTH network.
In the least populated areas, Proximus will offer its services to about 600,000 households through Orange Belgium’s Hybrid Fibre Coax network (HFC), thereby expanding its gigabit coverage throughout Wallonia.
Proximus and Orange will not release further details until the official signing of a cooperation agreement, expected at the earliest in the fourth quarter of this year.
Regarding fibre negotiations in Flanders, Proximus reported on Friday that Proximus, Fiberklaar, Telenet, and Wyre are “well advanced” towards a preliminary agreement on the future collaboration terms to accelerate fibre network deployment across Flanders. “The parties are working closely with the BMA and the BIPT to initiate a market test in September,” according to the statement.
