Orange to Offer Satellite Internet and Expand 1Gbit/s Network Coverage in Belgium

The Belgian provider Orange wants to offer satellite internet connections later this year to customers who cannot be reached with the 1Gbit/s network. The provider now says it can offer a 1Gbit/s subscription in 95 percent of Belgium.

Orange is introducing satellite internet this year ‘for the remaining population’ that cannot be connected to 1Gbit/s cable or fiber optic in the short term. Orange does not provide details, but says it uses the ‘power of the Orange Group’. The French branch of Orange announced a satellite internet subscription in November last year. This service costs fifty euros per month and offers a download speed of 200Mbit/s and an upload of 15Mbit/s. This includes a satellite dish of 299 euros, or 8 euros per month, excluding optional installation costs of 299 euros. For this subscription, Orange collaborates with the French company Nordnet and the internet connection is via the Eutelsat Konnect VHTS satellite, designed by Thales Alenia Space.

In Flanders, Orange offers 1Gbit/s services via Telenet’s cable subscription. In Wallonia, Orange has its own cable network, through the acquisition of VOO. The Walloon network has now been upgraded to Docsis 3.1, making 1Gbit/s download speeds achievable on this network as well. Orange says now to be the first Belgian telecom provider to offer 1Gbit/s services to 95 percent of Belgian households.

Rural areas in particular do not yet have access to Docsis 3.1. Orange says it will also modernize the cable network in rural areas with subsidies from the federal government and the Walloon Region. By the end of 2025, one hundred thousand additional households should have access to 1Gbit/s services.

In addition to satellite and cable, Orange wants to expand the use of ftth fiber within VOO, to be able to offer ftth to 66 percent of VOO customers by 2040. Together with the Wyre fiber optic network of Telenet and Fluvius, Orange wants to offer ftth fiber to 75 percent of Belgium by 2040. To this end, Orange will start an ftth pilot in Liège and Brussels for approximately 12,000 households in the first quarter of this year. Orange talks about XGS-PON, which enables internet speeds of up to 8Gbit/s. In addition, Orange is also looking at new Docsis standards in order to offer higher internet speeds to cable customers.

2024-01-18 19:23:31
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