It was incorporated by France Télécom in 1996 under the name of Mobistar. The company re-branded as Orange on 9 May 2016 (following its parent company's own change of name in 2013).[3]
History
Mobistar, today Orange Belgium, was founded in 1996 as a joint venture between Telinfo and France Télécom (now Orange S.A.), building a GSM 900 network and then founding a complementary DCS 1800 network.
Mobistar claims to have been the first GPRS operator in Belgium.
In May 2007 Mobistar bought 90% of the shares of VOXmobile (today: Orange Communications Luxembourg S.A.), a mobile phone company of Luxembourg. VOXmobile was rebranded as Orange on 28 October 2009.[4]
In October 2010 Mobistar launched a €55/month hybrid satellite/internet TV package, Starpack[5] to provide phone customers with multichannel TV. Mobistar TV combines DTHsatellite TV with ADSL Internet to provide over 500 satellite TV and radio channels, along with interactive services, catch-up TV and content-on-demand via the Internet, and programme recording management via a smartphone. The satellite TV package includes Flemish national channels, HD and 3D channels, and a range of European free-to-air channels, all transmitted from Astra satellites.[6] Mobistar has announced that this service will end on September 15, 2013.
In May 2016 Mobistar was rebranded in Orange Belgium. The company became a convergent operator with the launch of its TV and internet offer based on the cable technology a few months earlier.[3]
Company
Orange Belgium is majority-owned by the Orange S.A.holding company Atlas Services Belgium (ASB), which holds a 76.97% stake. It is a member of the FreeMove alliance.
