Belgium’s biggest operator will speed up fibre, and is looking for investment partners, as well as looking to 5G and B2B revenues to return to sustainable profitability.
The CEO of Proximus Group, Guillaume Boutin (pictured), said, "our #inspire2022 plan…crystalises a step change in our vision and ambition. The company plans to build “the best Gigabit network for Belgium, through strong acceleration of fibre and 5G".
It plans to speed up its fibre roll-out programme to connect 800,000 more homes by 2025, and 1 million by 2026. It is looking for investment partners to help with these efforts. In total, it aims to have fibre passing 2.4 million homes by 2025, instead of 2030, as per its original plan.
The Proximus Fiber network will become Giga fast with the launch of a 1Gbps fibre option at €15€ a month.
It launches 5G tomorrow, and claims it will be the first operator in Belgium to have initial coverage in more than 30 communities across the country, using spectrum it has licensed already and on existing antennas.
Consumer services will be offered under the Mobilus 5G unlimited brand, for €49.99 per month, along with enterprise and wholesale offers, and the OPPO Find X2 pro, the first 5G-enabled device in the Belgian market.
Proximus said it is creating an open network of reference that welcomes wholesale partners, whether existing operators or “new types of partners”. To facilitate this, the operator has set up a Network Business Unit, led by Geert Standaert, the CTO of Proximus, to focus on building an ecosystem to bring high-speed internet to all of Belgium.
As part of evolving its operational model to emulate a digital native, Proximus aims at become legacy-free in terms of IT by 2025, and in parallel is transforming the skills of its employees to “make…Proximus a reference employer for digital talents in Belgium”.
It plans to reduce an average indirect net OpEx by between 1% and 2% annually between now and 2020 and further structural efficiency gain after 2023, due to automation, analytics and the simplification of end-to-end processes.
Its IT departments have been structured in line with these ambitions, with three new divisions reporting to the CEO – Digital, IT solutions, and Architecture & Data.
It also intends to become the frontrunner in terms of customer satisfaction and customer recommendation (Net Promoter Score) across all customer segments.
Returning to profitable growth is a priority, partly through faster infrastructure build out as outlined above, and aiming its B2B business, through better ICT and processes, to “become the local partner of choice for global hyperscalers”.
To this end, Proximus and Microsoft have extended their of their strategic partnership with the Belgian company becoming one of the first operators in the world to integrate Microsoft’s Azure Edge computing capabilities directly into its core network. The two plan to bring cloud, security and workplace solutions to the Belgian and Luxembourg markets.
Proximus has concluded a strategic collaboration agreement with Brussels Airport to support its digital transformation, including the provision of IoT solutions to improve passengers’ experience and operational efficiency, security and indoor 5G coverage for passengers.
The operator has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Flemish public broadcaster VRT to test 5G applications in the media sector. The partners will examine how 5G technology can transform the production of live broadcasts at events.
The third pillar of the strategy is to embed sustainability and digital inclusion into all its activities (but not much detail was provided), and the fourth concerns financial strategy and outlook.
Proximus acknowledges that in the short term, it is hard to know what the overall impact from Covid-19 will be, especially as no-one knows how long it will continue for.
It expect a negative impact on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, but will also drop its CapEx investment level, which for 2020 is expected to be between €780 million and €800, excluding spending on spectrum and football rights.
Proximus’ accelerated fibre coverage needs increased investment of a maximum €1.3 billion annually until 2025, hence that is where the lion’s share of the CapEx investment will go, with reduced spending on “non-strategic investments”.
This increased finance will be funded through: increasing its total debt to €600 million “while keeping strong credit ratings”; selling assets such as real estate to generate up €700 million; and from strategic partners to co-invest in the fiber roll-out.
The operator said it intends to return an annual gross dividend of €1.20 per share, to be considered as a floor between 2020 and 2022, which will be confirmed the annual General Shareholders Meetings. For the dividend from the financial performance of 2020, the Board intends to pay out an interim dividend of €0.50 per share in December, and the remaining in €0.70 per share in April of the next year.