Telenet’s mobile customers can continue using the premium mobile voice and data network of Orange Belgium until the end of 2018.
Telenet committed to a minimum payment of €150.0 million over the 3-year period 2016-2018.
Through the termination Agreement, all outstanding legal disputes between both companies have now been settled.
Orange Belgium and Telenet have entered into negotiations in order to agree upon the terms and conditions for the termination of their Full MVNO Agreement, which provides Telenet access to Orange Belgium’s network. Both companies have now reached an agreement setting the terms and conditions for the future termination of this Full MVNO Agreement.
Agreed terms and conditions for the Full MVNO Agreement termination
The Full MVNO service provided by Orange Belgium to Telenet will run until the end of the year 2018, implying Telenet’s mobile customers can continue to use Orange Belgium’s network until the end of 2018. Telenet committed to a minimum payment of €150.0 million (excluding VAT) over the 3-year period 2016-2018. The actual amount paid by Telenet could exceed this minimum amount in case of higher network usage. Beyond 2018, an optional 6-month extension period has been agreed upon with a minimum payment of €15.0 million (excluding VAT) if triggered. Through the termination Agreement, all outstanding legal disputes between both companies, including the judicial recovery of invoices under the Full MVNO Agreement, have now been settled.
Background information on the Full MVNO Agreement
By way of background, Mobistar (currently Orange Belgium) announced its first MVNO Agreement with Telenet in February 2006. In 2009, Telenet extended its relationship with Mobistar into a Full MVNO Agreement. In April 2012, both parties decided to extend the Full MVNO Agreement until December 31, 2017. In February 2016, Telenet acquired BASE Company NV. Telenet customers, which are currently hosted on the network of Orange Belgium, will be progressively migrated to the BASE network where and when the coverage extension and capacity upgrades will be regarded as sufficient by Telenet.
Jean Marc Harion, CEO Orange Belgium, said: "Over the past years our MVNO customers have been key business partners. Since 2012 we have fundamentally transformed our organization to become a leaner and more efficient company. Over the next years, we are set to grow our value share, by leveraging both the increasing customer appetite for mobile data and the positioning of Orange as a convergent operator in Belgium and Luxembourg. In the meantime, we are pleased to announce this agreement setting the terms of the termination of our Full MVNO contract with Telenet toward the end of 2018.”
John Porter, CEO Telenet: ‘We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Orange Belgium on the terms and conditions for the termination of the Full MVNO Agreement, including access to their network until the end of 2018 and the settlement of all outstanding legal disputes between both companies. Next to giving us flexibility to ensure a solid customer experience during the migration from Orange Belgium’s network to ours, the agreement also foresees access to the latest technologies rolled out on the Orange Belgium network. In the following years, we will systematically transfer customers to the Telenet network, allowing us to achieve annual run-rate synergies of €220.0 million by 2020, of which the vast majority is MVNO-related.’