Orange declares itself the gigabit market leader in the Belgian telecommunications market, Proximus and Telenet see themselves as such. Who has the best qualifications to win the race for 10 Gbit/s Internet?

The bright orange of the Orange logo stands out against the white carpet of snow. Our reporter makes his way through the snow to the telecommunications provider’s headquarters in Evere. The striking color contrast serves as a useful directional indicator. Orange invited the press to explain its future plans for 2024 and beyond.

Xavier Pichon and Philippe Toussaint await guests in a small but cozy meeting room. Both men take a seat on, how could it be otherwise, an orange sofa. As CTO, Toussaint is responsible for everything related to mobile and fixed internet at Orange and its subsidiary Voo, while Pichon is CEO of the telecommunications company for the Belgian market. Pichon almost immediately makes a bold statement: “We are the first provider in Belgium to have a nationwide gigabit network, six months ahead of schedule.”

Orange above

Orange has made great strides in the fixed-line internet market in recent years. Thanks to the takeover of the Walloon Voo, stolen under the nose of Telenet, Team Orange has gained a more than solid base in the south of our country. Orange now benefits fully from this. “We are the only ones in the market that can offer Gigabit Internet to all our customers,” Pichon repeats his earlier statement.

The CEO backs up his claim with a slide showing that Orange today has 95 percent coverage with its so-called Gigabit network, which can (theoretically) achieve download speeds of up to 1Gbps. The operator achieves this high coverage rate due to Voo’s monopoly position in Wallonia and good relations with Telenet in Flanders. But for Orange and Pichon it can’t stay that way: “We want to reach another 100,000 households by 2025.”

Reaching those final percentage points is easier said than done. Toussaint: “The majority of the customers we serve today live within a kilometer radius of our fiber infrastructure. The challenge is to make gigabit Internet available to customers who do not fall within the scope.” Orange is looking for original solutions for this: Pichon even speaks of a “next-gen offer” with satellite Internet. These plans are not yet very concrete, but it is not a mere fantasy either: the French parent company has been offering it on the home front since November 2023.

We are the first provider in Belgium to have a nationwide gigabit network six months ahead of schedule.”

Xavier Pichon, CEO Orange Belgium

Fiber in brackets

For now, Orange is still dependent on the available resources. Fiber plays an important role in Orange’s fixed-line internet offering. When Orange talks about fiber, we have to add a comment. Orange’s fiber optic network is actually made of stretched HFC Hybrid fiber coaxial cable. The underlying infrastructure is fiber, but Orange still uses cheaper coaxial cable for the last few meters to your home or office router. As a result, upload speeds are still far behind download speeds.

This is a completely different approach to fiber optic internet than, for example, its major competitor Proximus. Team Lila consistently relies on FTTP, so fiber to people: a fiber optic network, also made entirely of fiberglass. Proximus has been investing in its fiber optic infrastructure for years and would like to have its entire customer base connected to it in about ten years.

In the long term, Orange is also planning to switch to FTTP, although with less strict deadlines than the competition. “At the moment HFC still has a bright future. That’s why we’re in no hurry to make the complete change. “We want to connect at least 66 percent to FTTP by 2040,” says Toussaint, explaining the plans. It largely wants to do that itself, although Toussaint is also eyeing Wyre, the collaboration between Telenet and Fluvius. Does this mean Orange will be tearing up your road again in a few years to lay their own fiber optic cables? Pichon would like to avoid this if possible, but there must be clear rules on how the existing infrastructure should be distributed.

To 10 Gbit/s

The expansion of the fiber optic network should help Orange realize its next big goal: becoming the market leader in 10 Gbit/s Internet. Orange will lay the foundation for the 10 Gbit/s network in and around Liège and in the Brussels municipality of Ixelles. We want to hop on the next tram to go treasure hunting in Ixelles, but the pilot project has yet to start. To compensate, Orange can hold a demonstration at the Evere office.

An employee leads us to Orange’s “test laboratory”. The telecommunications provider is originally a French company, but has delved well into Belgian sports history. The meeting rooms are named after Belgian sports icons such as Kevin De Bruyne and Justine Henin.

Orange’s testing lab is more like the hobby room of an out-of-control collector. The room is full of routers and cables. This is a unique opportunity for those who want to see the cross-section of a network router without having to torture their own router, although Orange doesn’t open its lab to everyone. It takes a bit of cramming to get everyone in the room, but luckily we have a good view of what’s about to happen on the screen in front of us.

The employee starts the demonstration in a good mood. First and foremost is a modern 1Gbps router. To test the thing’s speed, Orange uses the world-famous Speed ​​test from Ookla, but has also developed its own speedometer. The first test is already going as planned: the end result shows a download speed close enough to 1 Gbit/s. The next test is just around the corner for the “Internet of the future”: Gigabits are shooting at breakneck speed to over 4 Gbit/s and beyond, but the magical 10 Gbit/s has not yet been reached. Orange is still taking its time getting there.

The battle for the fastest internet begins

After the demonstration, it’s time to trudge through the snow again. The winter sun is already gently melting things in some places. This is certainly not a metaphor for Orange’s ambitions: the telecommunications provider is entering the new year with confidence. In the presence of the press, the telecommunications provider declared itself the country’s gigabit king without batting an eyelid. However, competition will challenge the throne.

Proximus in particular states that it has also made great progress in the introduction of gigabit internet. Figures shared with our editors suggest that every home with a fiber connection already has access to 10 Gbit/s internet: a total of 1.5 million households. Orange doesn’t dare claim this, although the Proximus offer also comes with a small caveat. To reach 10 Gbit/s, Proximus adds the download and upload speeds (8.5 Gbit/s + 1.5 Gbit/s).

Telenet also has gigabit ambitions. The provider says it offers 1 Gbit/s across its entire coverage area, which, in Telenet’s words, is “enough to meet today’s needs.” In the long term, Telenet also wants to offer internet speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s. Wyre plays a central role in these plans: the project had a slow start, but Telenet wants to intensify it from this year.

One thing is certain: the battle in the Belgian telecommunications market seems tougher than ever. In a world where everything needs to get faster and faster, fast internet is almost as important as stable internet.