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    Home5G & BeyondOrange Belgium clashes with rival Proximus over customer expectations

    Orange Belgium clashes with rival Proximus over customer expectations

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    One plan bundles data and SIMs, the other says pack your bags

    Two Belgian mobile operators have launched price plans based on markedly different predictions about customer behaviour in the coming year. Encumbent mobile operator Proximus, has launched a roaming deal, based on the premise that their customers are about to go global. By contrast, Orange Belgium (OB) has announced a raft of data plans that seems to assume Belgians will spend more time a home with their handset. 

    OB has announced that it will ‘adapt several prices’ on the first of June. “We [will] increase some tariffs, mostly on mobile services,” explained an Orange Belgium spokesperson, “but we also [will] increase the data volume of these offers and extend the reductions for multi-card customers.”

    However, the Belgian mobile operator has promised to improve the content of its offerings and has raised the data cap of all its Go mobile subscriptions, with increases ranging from 0.5 to 10 GB. It is also ‘extending its multi card reductions’ (cutting the price of its multi card bundles).

    The cost concessions are OB’s reaction t the ‘economic context, marked by unseen levels of inflation’. “With energy, tech equipment prices and salary costs rapidly growing and impacting the cost structure of Orange Belgium and its suppliers and partners, the operator has to adapt several prices, in order to maintain Orange’s quality of services and level of investment,” said Orange in a translated statement. 

    However, these adaptations will concur with a significant improvement in Orange’s Go portfolio, so although tariffs may be up, customers are getting “more for more,” said the OB statement. “Orange Belgium is offering its customers an increasingly large scope of services and content, while building its multi-gigabit networks” it said.

    The data cap of every tariff plan will also be increased. The Go Extreme app will be offering 10 extra gigabytes of additional data, raising the cap to 70 GB in total per month.

    Orange’s ‘all-in-1’ bundles for their telecom products will not come at higher price however.  Multiple SIM card buyers, choosing from bundles such as 2 Go Intense and Go Extreme and fixed Internet subscribers on the Love package will receive an additional €1 discount on their mobile subscriptions. This saves them €10 per card per month, on a permanent basis, said Orange. Those who buy packages will get more for the same price.

    Digitally savvy customers are catered for with a new service, branded hey! which promises ‘simple, sharp-priced mobile subscriptions with data abundance’ where prices do not change. OB said its loyalty programme had created a steady increase in the volume of data to its customers, with a rise of 25 per cent every 3 months. Customers pay 25 euros for unlimited calls, SMS and 80 GB per month.  

    Meanwhile, Proximus is urging customers to broaden their minds through real life experiences. “We can finally travel again! But when you leave the European Union, you might have some questions regarding roaming rates and how they work. To travel more relaxed, Proximus decided to redefine its roaming rates by choosing simplicity and transparency,” said a Proximus release.