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 ...

's three mobile telecommunications companies and is a part of Proximus Group (previously Belgacom Group). It competes with Orange Belgium 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, 75%, and AirTouch, 25%, respectively. AirTouch was later merged with

Vodafone 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. , Vod ...

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

of Belgacom, which had an IPO in 2004 but remains more than 50% state owned. A 25% share was owned by the Vodafone Group 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. 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 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 In ...

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).

References

External links

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