Brussels, 20 October 2006 - Last night the Mobistar Board validated the outsourcing of some of its network activities. This decision was presented this morning to the works council and the Mobistar employees were informed in all transparency. There will not be any redundancies.
The telco market is moving fast. Technological complexity is growing because of the convergence of different technologies. Besides, mobile telephony is reaching a mature phase, and the price decrease in roaming and mobile termination is putting a high pressure on revenues. Mobistar is evolving from a technological company towards a customer-oriented services company, and it needs to prepare for this new reality.The outsourcing project ought to be considered in this perspective. This project aims to secure Mobistar's future as a services company.
Mobistar will outsource activities such as network connection, field interventions, technical network management and network supervision. After a thorough market research, which included the important social implications, Alcatel and Ericsson were chosen as potential partners. More specifically, this means that the selected partner will take over 174 Mobistar employees.
There will be no redundancies. The employment contracts of the concerned employees will be transferred in accordance with the TUPE regulations. This implies a transfer of seniority, guaranteed employment in Brussels or surroundings, and equal employment conditions as applicable within Mobistar. Moreover, there is an employment guarantee of 18 months.