Proximus launches "Fiber for Namur"

• A few weeks ago, Proximus announced a 3 thousand million euro investment to be made over the next 10 years with the aim of speeding up the rolling out of Fiber in Belgium. Proximus will be bringing Fiber to more than 85% of businesses and over 50% of homes in Belgium.
• Today, Proximus and the city of Namur are announcing "Fiber in Namur", a project which is the first Walloon step in a programme which has the aim of fully equipping six towns and cities in Belgium with Fiber.
• In spring 2017 the rolling out of Fiber to existing buildings will get underway simultaneously in Namur city center and in all of the areas on the outskirts of the city.
• Fiber is the fixed network of the future: it offers unprecedented speeds, which can be the same for both upload and download, it opens up the prospect of new ways of living and working, and the key is a very high level of customer satisfaction.

As announced in December, Proximus launches the roll-out of Fiber in a number of dense city areas, including Namur. In the coming weeks and months, a large number of businesses and homes in Namur will be connected to Fiber. These last years Proximus has already rolled out Fiber to more than thirty industrial sites and twelve new residential areas in Namur. With the launch of the "Fiber in Namur" project Proximus now becomes the first operator in Belgium to also bring Fiber inside existing homes.

Proximus brings Fiber to homes and businesses

Why is Fiber necessary? In the coming years, data traffic and digital services will continue to grow exponentially, mainly driven by cloud and video applications and by the Internet of Things. As a pioneer in network technologies, Proximus wants to anticipate the needs of its customers and prepare its infrastructure for the future.

That’s why Proximus, which has been a pioneer in Fiber for years, launched the ‘Fiber for Belgium’ investment plan in December 2016, with the objective to accelerate the roll-out of Fiber in Belgium and reach more than 85% of businesses and more than 50% of households.

Fiber is the ultimate broadband network of the future, both for residential and for business customers. With Fiber, everyone at home can enjoy surfing, streaming and gaming instantly at the same time, without any latency or loss of quality and with the sharpest images on all family screens. Fiber is also the best solution for corporate customers, as it enables more efficient collaboration, greater operating reliability and better data security.

From a financial and operational point of view, it clearly makes sense to combine the deployment of Fiber to both businesses and existing homes in dense city areas. That’s what will be done in Namur, where Proximus will roll out Fiber for enterprise and residential customers at the same time.

This is an essential step in Namur’s Smart City ambitions

The deployment of Fiber will make the city of Namur even more attractive than today. Firstly, because it will give its inhabitants and companies access to the most advanced digital services, which will lead to more growth and employment for the city and for its region. And secondly, because Fiber opens infinite new possibilities for the digitalization of the city.

Thanks to the roll out of Fiber, Namur will be able to continue to invest in technological innovations designed to benefit its citizens and become established as Wallonia’s first Smart City. Namur has already invested in free Wi-Fi in public places and in co-working spaces for start-ups over the last few years, and can be proud of the fact that it is home to dynamic digital cafés for its citizens and businesses. The city also hopes to improve the way it will manage mobility and air quality in the future by rolling out smart cameras and sensors which will be connected to Fiber. The Fiber network will become one of the centerpieces of the infrastructure of every town and city, just like water and electricity.

Dominique Leroy, CEO of Proximus:

I’m delighted that Namur will soon be the first city in Wallonia to benefit from our investment plan for Fiber. Namur was a totally logical choice given that the city has been one of the pioneering Smart Cities in Belgium for a number of years. Over the next few months, the extraordinary power of Fiber will allow Namur to move up a gear in terms of digital services for both its citizens and its businesses. With “Fiber in Namur", Proximus wants to help Namur in building its digital infrastructure for the future.

An extensive information campaign towards the citizens

Proximus will communicate in an open and transparent way towards all residents and businesses of the neighborhoods where Fiber will be deployed. In spring 2017 the roll-out of Fiber to existing buildings will get underway simultaneously in Namur city center and in all of the areas on the outskirts of the city.

Thanks to a dedicated communication plan towards the citizens of Namur, including - amongst other things - a 0800 number, info in shops and local information sessions, citizens will be kept well-informed about both the roll-out schedule and the advantages of Fiber.

It is also important to underline that the impact of the works related to the Fiber roll out will be limited thanks to an analysis done before starting the works to optimize the deployment and to the use of wall deployment instead of underground deployment whenever it’s possible.