The Belgian mobile operator Mobistar is seeing slow growth for its hybrid TV product and is eagerly awaiting the opening up of cable.
Mobistar, a subsidiary of France Telecom, has launched its TV product on October 8, 2010 It now has 30,554 customers, compared with 26,643 a year earlier, representing an increase of 14.7%. However, the number was down 418 subs during the third quarter from 30,972.
The company is now looking forward to the opening up of the Belgian cable market. Following the decision of the Court of Appeal dismissing the suspension request submitted by Telenet, the file on the opening up of cable has begun to move more quickly.
On September 4, 2012, the Court of Appeal rejected the suspension requested by Telenet. A decision on the suspension of the regulation imposed upon them requested by other cable operators (the Walloon cablenets of Tecteo, Numéricable and AIESH) is expected in the coming weeks. A decision on the merits of these appeals is not expected before end 2013.
The telecom regulator IBPT confirmed the opening of Belgacom´s multicast offer to alternative operators. Belgacom is the incumbent telecom operator and is also subject to opening up its network.
Mobistar said it awaits with great interest the publication of regulated offers in the coming weeks and is already preparing itself to offer its services on other fixed accesses.
Since then, Mobistar has revised its internal line activation processes and its new “à la carte“ offers of fixed services will form the object of new commercial actions in the fixed lines segment during the course of the fourth quarter of 2012.
