According to the Belgian Institute of Postal Services and Telecommunications (IBPT), the Belgian mobile customer consumed on average 7.5 GB (gigabytes) of data per month in 2023, compared to 4.9 GB in 2021 and 1.9 GB in 2019 This formula at €5 per month, immediately copied by Orange via its hey! brand, “it can hurt us”, believes Laurent Bataille, regardless of the atypical positioning. by Undo. “It’s a potential threat.”
+ Video: Orange had directly copied Digi’s subscription via its hey! brand.
“We don’t know how to keep up without constantly renegotiating wholesale prices”
Customer of the Orange network, Undo injects ecology and sustainability into its mobile subscriptions: trees planted in a reforestation project in Africa, kilos of CO2 to be compensated via credits to be allocated through the Undo app, etc. Number of subscribers: just under 3000.
“Climately committed, concerned about sustainability, our target is young and therefore very sensitive to the price of the service,” continues Laurent Bataille. “Their portfolio remains a priority. However, the wholesale prices negotiated with Orange are the basis of our subscriptions. In these conditions, it is very complicated to align with an offer at a very low price and generous in content. If we had to to do so, we would be selling at a loss.”
“We don’t know how to keep up, unfortunately, without constantly renegotiating wholesale prices with Orange, as long as Orange wants to enter into this dynamic. They, in any case, reacted quickly with their brand hey!, while they have not proactively turned to MVNOs. However, a customer who leaves us is indirectly lost income for them.
“No massive movements among our subscribers”
Renegotiate or change partner, there are not a thousand solutions for virtual operators. “Yes, we can discuss, but without any certainty of achieving anything,” notes Quentin Verstappen, founder and CEO of the Neibo cooperative, whose mobile subscriptions use the Orange network. Number of subscribers: 5000.
“I am not particularly worried, because we have never positioned ourselves on the price,” puts Quentin Verstappen into perspective. “That has never been one of our arguments. We are clearly proposing something else, another model for the economy. We will have to see how it evolves in six months to a year, but we have not seen any massive movements among our subscribers following the launch of Digi We are still in positive balance at the end of December 2024 between entries and exits.
“If the majority of Belgian operators ever change their prices, we will react, because our goal is not to be out of the market, but to remain within market prices. In the meantime, now that we have reached balance operationally, we are not going to put ourselves in danger by lowering our profitability.”
