Mobistar

This article is about the Belgian mobile telephony provider. For the unrelated Telefónica-owned brand, see Movistar.
Mobistar N.V./S.A.
Naamloze vennootschap / Société anonyme
Traded as Euronext: MOBB
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 1996
Headquarters Brussels, Belgium
Key people
 Jean-Marc Harion (CEO), Jan Steyaert (Chairman)
Services Mobile and fixed-line telephony, ADSL, Satellite TV
Revenue €1.665 billion (2010)[1]
€373.5 million (2010)[1]
Profit €263.6 million (2010)[1]
Total assets €1.303 billion (end 2010)[1]
Total equity €431.2 million (end 2010)[1]
Number of employees
 1,804 (2012)[2]
Parent Orange S.A. (52.91%)
Website www.mobistar.be

Mobistar is the second largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications operators. It competes with Proximus, owned by Belgian state owned telco Belgacom, and Base, a subsidiary of Dutch KPN.

History

It 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.

Initially Mobistar added to its network coverage by signing contracts with providers such as Motorola & Talkline, Cellway, a subsidiary of Martin Dawes Telecommunications and Debitel Belgium, the latter two which it would take over respectively in 1997 and 2000.

Mobistar claims to have been the first GPRS operator in Belgium.

In May 2007 Mobistar bought 90% of the shares of VOXmobile, a mobile phone company of Luxembourg.

In October 2010 Mobistar launched a €55/month hybrid satellite/internet TV package, Starpack[3] to provide phone customers with multi-channel TV. Mobistar TV combines DTH satellite 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 smart phone. 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.[4] Mobistar has announced that this service will end on September 15, 2013.

Company

Mobistar is majority-owned by the Orange S.A. holding company Atlas Services Belgium (ASB), which holds a 52.91% stake. It is a member of the FreeMove alliance.

Mobile virtual network operator

The Mobistar network is used by a number of mobile virtual network operators including Simply (Mobistar), Mobistar SOS (Mobistar), Mobile Plus (Delhaize), Colruyt Mobile (Colruyt) and Telenet Mobile (Telenet).

Technical information

The operator's display logo is mobistar, the net code is 206 10 and operates under GSM 900/1800, UMTS 900/2100 and LTE 1800 (Band 3) frequencies. Its prepaid service is called Tempo.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Annual Results 2010". Mobistar. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
  2. ↑ "Our company". Mobistar. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  3. ↑ "Mobistar lance une nouvelle expérience télévisuelle !" (Press release). Mobistar. September 21, 2010.
  4. ↑ "BELGIAN TELECOM PROVIDER MOBISTAR TO RELY ON ASTRA FOR ITS "MOBISTAR TV" OFFER" (Press release). SES Astra. September 21, 2010. Retrieved January 26, 2012.

External links