France Telecom’s Belgian subsidiary Mobistar is betting on open access to the country’s cable networks to offer TV services.
Until now, the operator offered a hybrid digital TV solution in cooperation with the two Belgian DTH platforms operated by the M7 Group, TV Vlaanderen and TeleSat.
However, the DSL/satellite combination has not been very successful with a total number of 27,846 subscribers at the end of 2012. The number of TV homes decreased from 30,554 at the end of September 2012.
Mobistar is now looking to use access to cable networks to enter the triple and quad play markets. According to CFO Werner De Laet it is much more cost efficient than using VDSL. However, Telenet, the country’s largest cable operator, is opposing the opening up of its network to third parties.
KPN’s Belgian subsidiary Base has just launched its digital TV product called Snow using access to Belgacom’s VDSL network.
