Lead the Future: Orange Belgium's long-term industrial project creating value for its customers, employees, and society

Benefiting from the strength of the Orange Group and the joining of forces with telecom operator VOO, Orange Belgium now envisions to take a genuine leader’s position in the Belgian telecom market. An outstanding multi-gigabit networks leadership, a unique customer experience excellence, and a future proof ESG enterprise model, are the three pillars of Orange Belgium, ready to ‘Lead the Future’.

The multi-gigabit networks leader, in fixed and mobile

By mid-2024 Orange Belgium will become the Gigabit networks leader for the B2C, B2B and wholesale market, allowing 95% of Belgian inhabitants to access 1 Gbps speeds.

In the mobile segment, extended 5G frequencies will reach 40% of the population by end of 2023 and 90% by end of 2025, with the fastest mobile network. 5G core SA (Stand Alone) roll-out will result in the most reliable mobile network and enable customized B2B servicing by end of 2023. Thanks to the Radio Access Network (RAN) sharing agreement with Proximus, Orange Belgium will also offer the largest mobile coverage and, together with Proximus, the highest number of radio sites in Belgium.

In broadband, the acceleration of the ‘GigaBoost’ program will modernize VOO's powerful HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) network and allow 100% of our customers in Brussels and Wallonia to enjoy gigabit speeds. In Brussels and Flanders, customers will enjoy the full capabilities of a gigabit network thanks to the wholesale HFC and FTTP (Fiber to the Premises) agreement with Telenet.

To maintain its networks leadership over time, Orange Belgium will level up the ‘GigaBoost’ VOO program to the ‘GigaFiber’ level, embarking on a new cycle of long-term investments to ensure that the HFC network remains at the forefront by using both coaxial and fiber technologies to eventually offer customers speeds of 10 Gbps. Orange Belgium aims to cover at least 2/3 of its network in FTTP by 2040, by combining own build network and potential collaborations with external partners in Brussels and Wallonia.

The operator of choice, driven by a unique customer experience excellence

Customer experience excellence remains a major positioning driver for Orange Belgium to ‘Lead the Future’. The company will continue to develop and nourish its three complementary retail segments:

• Consumer premium segment: benefiting from a full range premium servicing through physical and digital customer touchpoints, focusing on multi-gigabit convergent connectivity and value-added services propositions. Orange Belgium will expand its TV content value propositions, leveraging on the VOO/BeTV distribution contracts and platforms.
• Consumer access segment: efficient digital servicing with appealing and evolutive multi-product value propositions.
• Business segment: tailor-made B2B value propositions through Orange Belgium’s best of breed strategy, putting cyber security and ICT expertise at the heart and enriched with multi-gigabit network speeds and 5G enabled servicing. VOO’s expertise in the SoHo (Small Office Home Office) segment will also be nurtured to develop more business opportunities in all Belgian regions.

In order to provide Orange Belgium with an end-to-end mastering of the entire customer journey and experience, two major servicing assets in Belgium will move from an outsourced to a local model:

• By the end of 2024, every residential convergent call and every high & low market business call will be handled locally to the benefit of our customer experience and local employment sustainability. By capitalizing on the excellence of award-winning contact center WBCC, Orange and partners, customer relations will be fully managed in Belgium.
• To ensure state-of-the-art IT tools and operations, Orange Belgium’s and VOO’s IT skills will pivot from an external towards an internalized model.

The preferred tech & telco employer: resilient, modern and responsible

Orange Belgium was already carbon neutral certified and recognized as a top employer in the past. Today, Orange Belgium and VOO level up and embrace the Orange Group standards in terms of ESG and HR.

In terms of the environment, Orange Belgium and VOO have a long-term objective of reducing net carbon emissions to zero by 2040. To achieve this goal, the companies will accelerate the reduction of their CO2 emissions (-22% in scopes 1 and 2 and -14% in scope 3) by 2025. The successful RE program, refurbishing consumers' mobile devices, is set to reach 10% of sales by 2025. On the social dimension, Orange Belgium continues to focus on bridging the digital divide, celebrating the first anniversary of the Orange Digital Center at the end of June. Since its creation, 1,410 people have been trained in digital technology and prepared for the job market. This social commitment also includes young people and women: the Orange Belgium Fund has supported 1,400 disadvantaged young people to date, thereby contributing to greater digital inclusion in Belgian society.

Orange Belgium aims to be the preferred tech and telco employer in Belgium, characterized by a caring diversity and inclusion policy, developing tech talents through internal learning programs and external partnerships such as the Giga Academy.

Xavier Pichon, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Belgium: “We will be the leader in gigabit networks as from 2024 and will secure this position in the long term on multigigabit networks thanks to the fiber mastery of the Orange Group. Our Belgian operated customer experience excellence and our ability to propose multi-segmented retail services in a differentiated way will bring state-of-the-art connectivity and value-added services to premium and access customers. We are committed to achieve a Net Zero Carbon status by 2040, to foster digital inclusion within Belgian society and regions and to become Belgium’s preferred tech and telco employer.”

Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, Chief Executive Officer Orange Europe, comments: “The joining of forces with VOO marks an important milestone - emboldening our convergence ambitions in Belgium. Convergence in Europe has proven to be key to our leadership in Europe and demonstrates how Orange’s new strategy, Lead the Future, will continue to meet the digital needs that our customers in Europe demand.”

Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of the Orange Group, adds: “I am extremely proud of the strategic plan presented by Orange Belgium, addressing tomorrow’s structural and economic challenges. By adding the strengths of VOO and introducing a new enterprise model, the company is in an excellent position to take the lead in Belgium, combining the industrial power, technological means, and commercial scale. This addition to our overall Lead the Future-plan will play a key role in the Group’s European and global success story.”