Digi Group has launched in Belgium, offering super cheap mobile and broadband services for consumers. Digi Group has headquarters in Romania and has more than 26 million customers across its home market, Spain, Italy and most recently (November), Portugal. The group announced it had doubled its profits in Q1 of this year.
Mobile from €5 a month
Digi Belgium is the country’s fourth national operator providing 5G services. It signed a national roaming agreement with Belgium’s national operator, Proximus, in August 2023 (the map above shows Proximus’ 5G coverage map for Brussels in July 2023).
The DIGI Mobile entry-level offer is 15 GB of data for €5 month for (known as DIGI Mobile Light). BIPT’s figures from December 2023 indicate this should meets the needs of 75% of the country’s mobile users. BIPT is the country’s telecoms regulator.
Digi Belgium formerly operated under the Citymesh Mobile brand. The new 5G player is 51% owned by Citymesh (which in turn is part of the IT services group Cegeka) and 49% by a Digi Group subsidiary, RCS & RDS.
Fibre from €10 a month
DIGI Fiber broadband will cost: €10 for 500Mbps service known as DIGI Fiber Essentials, €15 a month for 1Gbps known as DIGI 2 Fiber Max; and €20 for 10Gbps with its DIGI Fiber Ultimate, which will be installed free of charge and include Wi-Fi.
DIGI Fiber supports Wi-Fi 6 technology in the home, but plans to introduce with Wi-Fi 7 soon for the 10Gbps service. There is also the option of the DIGI WiFi Booster.
DIGI Fiber is available first in the Cureghem or Kuregem district of Brussels and will gradually be activated in other areas of the country’s capital and simultaneously expand also to other Belgian cities. The target is to pass 2 million households within five years.
Belgium is a laggard
Belgium has some catching up to do. Its FTTH/B penetration rate was as of September 2023 was 7% compared with the European average of 34.7% for European Union member countries plus the UK, according to the FTTH Council Europe. It found at the same date, Belgium’s coverage rate was 28% compared with 64.5% average for the EU member states plus the UK.
Mitch De Geest, CEO of Citymesh, commented, “This partnership combines the scale and international experience of DIGI Group with Citymesh’s local expertise, enabling us to offer unparalleled connectivity solutions for both businesses and consumers alike.”
Jeroen Degadt, GM of Digi Belgium, said, “We are on a mission to make telecom affordable for all Belgians”.
“By designing, testing and building our own networks, we ensure maximum efficiency and pass those savings on to our customers. This launch is a first step in delivering top-quality services at a fair price.” Valentin Popoviciu, Executive Director at Digi Communications, added.
“Today, we are thrilled to inaugurate Digi in Belgium, the fifth country in which the Digi Group is present. By leveraging our international scale and expertise, we are committed to developing a cutting-edge fibre and mobile network in Belgium and investing in the country for the long term.”
Shaking up the Belgian market
The launch is already stirring up the Belgian market and the three establish national operators, Proximus, Orange and Telenet.
In September, Proximus cut its dividend and took on more debt as it braced itself for the arrival of Digi. In July, the former incumbent signed a deal with three altnets to build fibre out faster in Flanders.
Telenet has the unwanted distinction of being the most complained about operator in Belgium, overtaking Proximus, and earlier this month announced it is to outsource its customer service department to Teleperformance with Infosys and Accenture assuming responsibility for its IT department. It reshuffled its leadership team in September.
Orange group did not break out information about Belgium specifically in its Q3 2024 results, it is part of Orange Europe but today it announced a new set of tariffs for mobile services for consumers under its Hey brand
Source: https://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/digi-launches-low-cost-consumer-services-in-belgium/