Abstract
The incumbent operator, Belgacom, still dominates Belgium' s national DSL market. Its main competition comes from the cable TV operators, the largest of which is Telenet. The cable competition is strong, however, and continually pushes Belgacom in terms of its broadband service evolution. To protect its fixed voice and broadband business, Belgacom launched IPTV to defend against the cable operators' triple-play packages. In this Belgacom has become relatively successful, but recognises that if it is to continue to compete long term, it must continue to innovate and evolve. In order to launch advanced services such as multi-room and HDTV, therefore, Belgacom is moving to a next-generation access (NGA) network.
Table of Contents
Technology and network
- Belgacom, cable operators driving NGA evolution
- Legacy network technology and service types
- Proposed FTTN technology and approach
- Belgacom' s Broadway network
NGN rollout
- FTTCab seen as laying the groundwork for FTTH
Wholesale services
- Bitstream
- xDSL wholesale
- Local loop unbundling (LLU)
- VDSL
Competition
Belgacom dominates broadband; cable operators are biggest threat
Government involvement in FTTx
- IBPT is Belgium' s telecom regulatory authority
- Regulatory situation
Table of figures
- Figure 1. Belgium: network coverage (December 2007)
- Figure 2. Belgium: next-generation access network coverage by 2012
- Figure 3. Belgian broadband market share breakdown, December 2007
