Belgium has around 9,400 towers, a big part of which are held in a joint venture by two of the country’s MNOs – Orange Belgium and Proximus. The Brussels-based MWingz was set up in April 2020 as a joint venture to share active and passive infrastructure. It builds operates and manages all sites on behalf of the two MNOs. It has announced goals is to expand the network and make 5G available in 99% of the country by 2025.

Belgium Tower Partners, the country’s first independent towerco was created in March 2022 when DigitalBridge acquired 3,322 sites from the third MNO Telenet for EUR745mn. The towerco has a nation-wide footprint and a build-to-suit (BTS) commitment to deploy a minimum of 475 additional new sites, with Telenet acting as a subcontractor taking the lead on construction.

The Belgian regulation on the level of emitting power allowed for antennas is one of the most restrictive in the world, several dozen times more restrictive than the recommendations of the World Health Organization, which has led to the country getting behind on 5G auctions and roll-out compared to its western neighbours. The latter presents opportunities for tower build and small cell deployment in the next few years. Major fibre network roll-outs are planned across the country through 2027 as well.

Belgium’s fourth MNO, a JV between Romania-based multi-play service provider Digiand B2B telecom player Citymesh, is expected to launch in 2025. A major nationwide network deployment programme has started including macro infrastructure and small cells.