Fluvius inaugurates first fibre optic local exchange in Genk

On Wednesday 22 May, Fluvius and participating providers Orange and FASTfiber will inaugurate the first fibre optic local exchange. A local exchange brings together all the fibre optic cables from homes in the area, in this case the Central North district of Genk. A local exchange acts as a kind of ‘wall outlet’ that all the providers can connect to. The installation and configuration of this ‘wall outlet’ is the final preparatory step before the services can be provided to customers.

Interested providers can now use the Fluvius open fibre optic network to provide their services to various participating individuals in Genk. Fluvius has worked with Glasvezel Voor Vlaanderen for its infrastructure works.

New fibre optic milestone

Ever since the start of the pilot, more than 1700 people in Genk have signed up for a connection to the Fluvius fibre optic network. Work is currently underway in parts of the Central North, Central and Termien districts of Genk. The districts of Molenblook, Vlakveld and Boxbergheide will be next. By the end of this year, all planned district areas should be connected to our network. 4500 Genk homes are eligible for a connection.

“We are planning another information session in Boxbergheide shortly and in the fall Vlakveld and Kolderbos will follow. To date 1700 families from Genk have subscribed to our offer, testifying of the importance of what we are offering them. We are therefore more than satisfied. Superfast internet is the future and should be accessible to everyone. That’s our ambition”, says Mayor Wim Dries.

Participating providers announce their range

At the moment, two providers have committed to services using Fluvius Fibre Optic: Orange and FASTfiber. The latter offers its services via the VxFiber platform.

Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Belgium: “As a Bold Challenger, Orange likes to put the market under pressure with simple, super fast offers and attractive prices. That is exactly what we are doing here with fibre optic. Fluvius' open model accelerates investment and pushes down prices for consumers. It also encourages competition, because each operator can use its own active network equipment to offer distinctive services and technological network innovations.”

Jelle Bal, FASTfiber Managing Director: “FASTfiber provides unlimited, symmetrical internet (with equally fast upload and download times) for landlines that offer extremely cheap phone calls. FASTfiber is expecting 3 plans, ranging from 250 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. These are unprecedented speeds for Belgian internet users. This summer we are also hoping to add television.”

Fibre optic at home

Fibre optic at home allows much faster internet speeds. This results in new applications for consumers, educational organisations and businesses in areas such as healthcare, distance learning, video conferencing for people working from home, 8K video quality and virtual reality applications. The technology also allows everyone in the home to use those applications simultaneously. 

The current street network infrastructure will reach its limits in the coming decade, as demand for more and faster internet continues to grow. In recent months, several fibre optics initiatives in Belgium have already been announced, but they focus deliberately on urban areas. Public utility company Fluvius is concerned that in the coming decade a new digital divide may appear in Flanders, in which cities have faster data connections than rural areas.

Frank Vanbrabant, CEO Fluvius: “We believe it is important to make sure that everyone has access to the internet of the future. Our open model enables current and new players to offer their services to customers in both urban and rural areas. We are pleased with the interest expressed by the providers and the people of Genk, and we look forward to seeing our pilot projects develop further.”

The residents of Genk can visit the website glasvezel.fluvius.be to find out whether their street will be included and whether they will qualify for an exclusive connection to the Fluvius fibre optic network. Residents who register on time can save 450 euros on their installation.

For more information, visit glasvezel.fluvius.be.

Press contact David Callens, Regional Spokesperson david.callens@fluvius.be - 0474 62 49 66 pers@fluvius.be

About Fluvius

New utility company Fluvius was established on 1 July 2018 following the merger of Eandis and Infrax. Fluvius is responsible for the construction, management and maintenance of distribution networks for electricity, natural gas, sewage, cable distribution and heating, and manages municipal public lighting. The company manages a total of 230,000 kilometres of utility lines and 7 million connections. Fluvius is active in all 300 Flemish municipalities.

About Orange With more than 3 million customers, Orange Belgium is one of the leading telecommunications operators in Belgium and Luxembourg. Luxembourg is served by its subsidiary Orange Communications Luxembourg. As a convergent player, Orange offers mobile telecommunication services, internet and television to private individuals and innovative mobile and fixed services to businesses. Its high-performance mobile network uses 2G, 3G, 4G and 4G+ technology, in which it continues to invest. As a provider, Orange Belgium is also active in wholesale and gives its partners access to its infrastructure and network capabilities. Orange Belgium is a subsidiary of the Orange Group, one of the leading operators in Europe and Africa in mobile and broadband Internet services and one of the global leaders in business telecommunication services. Orange Belgium is listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange (OBEL).

For more information, visit corporate.orange.be, www.orange.be or follow us on Twitter: @pressOrangeBe. Press contact Isabelle Vanden Eede – isabelle.vandeneede@orange.com +32 (0) 474 77 77 28  Contact for investors Anna Castano Lopez +32(0)2 745 80 92 – ir@orange.be

About FASTfiber FASTfiber is a new service provided by Centrea CV. Centrea CV has been active on the Belgian and European telecoms market for businesses and private individuals since 2002. Other Centrea brand names are mobile phone exchange Flexphon.com, free VOIP phone exchange for businesses Voiptiger.com and VDSL wholesale provider Belgian Telecom.

For more information, visit https://www.fastfiber.be

About GVV Glasvezel Voor Vlaanderen (GVV) is a temporary trade agreement represented by ENGIE Fabricom and JACOPS. ENGIE Fabricom is part of the ENGIE group and designs, builds and maintains multi-technical installations for businesses and governments. Its solutions improve transportation, safety, renewable energy levels, distribution networks and the operational and energy performance of industry. ENGIE Fabricom and its subsidiaries operate in Belgium and internationally. www.engie-fabricom.com

The JACOPS group is a multi-utility contractor and installation company. JACOPS is a solid, dynamic family business with a wide range of operations in Belgium. The company takes an integrated Design, Build, Finance & Maintain (DBFM) approach to focus on telecom networks, distribution, electromechanical installations, railway technology, traffic engineering solutions, IoT and supporting software. http://jacops-jobs.be/