The securing of the 5G spectrum in Belgium was quite late. Nevertheless, our country does not seem to have any significant catching up to do. In fact, the rollout of 5G in the B2B context is going very well.

Belgium is on the right track with the 5G transformation. These are not our words: At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we hear positive tones from all sides. Providers, infrastructure partners and even private 5G specialists are praising our country’s efforts and strategy.

Political sabotage

That’s a little surprising. After all, our country was late in allocating radio frequencies for the rollout of 5G. This was the direct result of the political tussle over how the money the auction would raise was shared. Both the federal and state governments wanted a sufficiently large share of the cake. Although there was no reason not to organize the auction and distribute the money afterwards, in 2019 politicians decided to block the issue. Only in the middle of last year, three years after the failed agreement on the safe, was the Belgian spectrum finally split up.

The political delay could potentially have a significant impact. After all, operators cannot build a network without radio frequencies. The fear was that postponing the auction would result in our country building a huge gap compared to the rest of Europe and the world. In the end it didn’t go so smoothly. A few smart decisions on the sidelines, together with a funding program, ensure that Belgium is pretty well positioned when it comes to 5G.

Relaxed standards and subsidies

This is partly due to the fact that operators were already able to work with 5G to a limited extent before the frequency auction. “Flanders was quick to relax spectrum standards,” says Werner De Laet, CTO at Orange Belgium. The relaxed rules allowed various parties, including Orange, to start testnets. Such a project was already started in 2019 in the port of Antwerp. Providers, but also companies, have already been able to gain experience with 5G via test networks.

De Laet believes this is one of the reasons why our country is not lagging behind other European countries. In addition, Belgium is about to pay out subsidies for various 5G pilot projects. De Laet: “If there is a need to catch up, this will certainly be reduced with the support program.”

If there is a backlog, it will certainly be cleared with the funding program.

Werner De Laet, CTO of Orange Belgium

In total, our government wants to invest 24 million euros in projects that rely on innovation with the help of 5G, AI and edge computing. The scholarships were originally supposed to be awarded at the end of last year, but only now. In the aisles of the MWC we heard in advance that the ceremony was imminent, but Minister De Sutter’s cabinet responsible could not be reached for comment.

De Laet expects the support program to be sufficient to trigger a local innovation boost. This will ensure that our country can play well on par with the rest of Europe when it comes to 5G.

B2B competition

The results of last year’s 5G auction give Belgium another trump card. After all, with Citymesh and NRB we get two national operators who will focus on the B2B market. “The fact that Belgium has two B2B players is quite unique,” says Fabrice Sancho, General Manager at Ericsson BeLux. He expects that NRB and Citymesh together with Digi will have a strong focus on 5G in our country.

The fact that the business 5G market has been fiercely competitive from the start keeps everyone on their toes. In fact, in addition to Orange, Proximus and Telenet, five network operators are active in our area who want to support companies in introducing digital innovations with the help of 5G.

private spectrum

And if that’s not enough, businesses can consider a private 5G network. Belgium also has an advantage here, notes Parm Sandhu, vice president of enterprise 5G products & services at NTT. “Belgium thought about providing spectrum for private 5G networks from the start,” he says.

NTT is positioning itself as a global partner for the rollout of private 5G networks for companies and gives Sandhu a good overview of the availability of frequencies in other countries. “By no means everywhere did the government immediately think of reserving frequencies,” he notes.

The government has by no means immediately thought of reserving frequencies everywhere.

Parm Sandhu, NTT’s Vice President of Enterprise 5G Products and Services

The company has quite high expectations of our country in terms of private 5G. We understand that there is already a lot of interest, although specific customer names are not yet known. In any case, a few years ago, NTT chose Belgium to set up its European innovation hub.

healthy foundation

Orange as a provider, Ericsson as an infrastructure specialist and NTT as a private 5G player: With their expertise, all three confirm that Belgium is in a good and competitive position when it comes to 5G. The impact of the political failure surrounding the auction appears to be very limited for the industry. In some areas, our suppliers and companies even seem to be ahead of the curve. The current situation is stable on four pillars:

• Sufficient opportunity for providers to start with 5G before the auction,
• A funding program that accelerates innovations,
• Broad competition in the business 5G market,
• Spectrum reserved for private 5G rollout.

In addition, there is strong innovative power on site. At the MWC, the Belgian pavilion caught the eye again, and not just because of the bar with Belgian beers in the middle. The pavilion was again packed with Belgian companies with innovative solutions that are relevant locally and internationally. We think, for example, of Inmanta, which unpacks the solution for annoying complexity when rolling out private 5G from a small stand.

It looks like Belgium has crawled through the eye of the needle. The saga surrounding the auction isn’t worth repeating, but fortunately it didn’t leave too much of a mark. The cards are actually well mixed: time to take advantage of that.