Next-generation access country overview: Belgium

Next-generation access country overview: Belgium published by Ovum, Ltd. in July, 2008. This report consists of 10 pages and the price starts from US $ 1100.

Introduction

The incumbent operator, Belgacom, still dominates Belgium' s national DSL market. Its main competition comes from the cable TV operators, the largest of which is Telenet. The cable competition is strong, however, and continually pushes Belgacom in terms of its broadband service evolution. To protect its fixed voice and broadband business, Belgacom launched IPTV to defend against the cable operators' triple-play packages. In this Belgacom has become relatively successful, but recognises that if it is to continue to compete long term, it must continue to innovate and evolve. In order to launch advanced services such as multi-room and HDTV, therefore, Belgacom is moving to a next-generation access (NGA) network.

Technology and network

• Belgacom, cable operators driving NGA evolution
• Legacy network technology and service types
• Proposed FTTN technology and approach
• Belgacom' s Broadway network

NGN rollout

• FTTCab seen as laying the groundwork for FTTH

Wholesale services

• Bitstream
• xDSL wholesale
• Local loop unbundling (LLU)
• VDSL

Competition

Belgacom dominates broadband; cable operators are biggest threat

Government involvement in FTTx

• IBPT is Belgium' s telecom regulatory authority
• Regulatory situation

• Figure 1. Belgium: network coverage (December 2007)
• Figure 2. Belgium: next-generation access network coverage by 2012
• Figure 3. Belgian broadband market share breakdown, December 2007

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