5G regulation and law in Belgium

There were delays in adopting 5G regulations due to political disagreement between the federal authority and the regional authorities on how to distribute the revenues generated by a 5G auction.

As a result, 5G deployment was also delayed.

Operators have, however, been able to provide 5G services on the basis of temporary licences or through frequency bands allocated to them under previous regulations.

5G regulations were finally adopted on 28 November 2021.

The national regulatory authority (the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications or BIPT) then adopted a series of individual decisions on 23 August 2022 and 16 November 2022 granting 5G user rights to the following operators:

• Proximus (in the 700 MHz, 1400 MHz and 3600 MHz bands);
• Orange Belgium (in the 700 MHz, 1400 MHz and 3600 MHz bands);
• Telenet (in the 700 MHz, 1400 MHz and 3600 MHz bands);
• Citymesh Mobile (in the 700 MHz and 3600 MHz bands);
• Network Research Belgium (in the 3600 MHz band) (NRB’s 5G user rights were transferred to Proximus in 2024).

The 5G network coverage can be viewed here.

Overall, the 5G network appears to be better developed in the northern area of Belgium, in particular in Antwerp, Ghent and coastal cities, as well as in the periphery of Brussels. This is partially due to higher population density in these areas.

In terms of B2C territorial coverage, Telenet has the greatest 5G outdoor coverage with 85% of the Belgian territory, followed by Proximus with 75% and Orange Belgium with 63%. Telenet has the broadest B2C 5G indoor coverage with 57% of the territory, followed by Proximus with 43% and Orange with 40%.

In terms of B2C outdoor coverage per operator taking into account population density, Telenet currently covers 95% of households, followed by Proximus with 92% and Orange Belgium with 83%. In terms of B2C indoor coverage, Proximus provides 76% of households with 5G indoor coverage, followed by Orange Belgium and Telenet, both with 67%.

Given that DIGI has only recently become active in the B2C mobile market (through Citymesh Mobile), it has not yet been added to these statistics.

The federal government also issued subsidies to operators wanting to upgrade network infrastructure surrounding railway infrastructure to support the provision of 5G.

There is little public information available on the current status of SA 5G implementation by the providers referred to above. Orange Belgium launched a pilot project together with Ericsson, Nokia and Oracle in 2022, but no news regarding this project has followed since.

Initially, aside from some test licences assigned on a provisional and non-commercial basis, the industrial 5G projects were led by telecom operators with 5G licences. Some of the 5G operators, such as Citymesh Mobile, are primarily active in the B2B segment.

Since then, a Royal Decree of 4 June 2023 has allowed the establishment and operation of a private broadband radio local area network using 5G technology, subject to prior authorisation by the BIPT and to the regime set out by the 2023 Decree.  The BIPT’s Decision of 19 December 2023 concerning local private networks in the 3800-4200 MHz band and the assignment of E.212 mobile network codes provide further detail on the regime.

For instance, based on these measures, Roularta and Duracell have obtained their own spectrum (without using a telecom operator’s spectrum) for the deployment of local private 5G networks.

The conditions for obtaining and exercising use rights for the frequency bands dedicated to 5G are laid out in the 5G regulations adopted on 28 November 2021 (i.e. the 700 MHz Royal Decree, the 1400 MHz Royal Decree and the 3600 MHz Royal Decree), together with the information memorandum published by the BIPT.

Based on the 5G regulations, the BIPT organised three autonomous processes in 2022 for granting 5G use rights:

• Proximus (10 MHz duplex), Telenet (5 MHz duplex), Orange (10 MHz duplex) and Citymesh Mobile (5 MHz duplex) obtained spectrum in this frequency band.

• Proximus (100 MHz), Telenet (100 MHz), Orange Belgium (100 MHz), Citymesh Mobile (50 MHz) and NRB (20 MHz) obtained spectrum in this frequency band. A block of 20 MHz (3410-3430 MHz) remained unsold during the 2022 auction;
• In 2023, a first call for candidates for the unsold block of 20 MHz (3410-3430 MHz) was published in the Belgian Official Gazette. Given the 100 MHz spectrum cap applicable pursuant to the regulations, Orange Belgium, Proximus and Telenet were unable to participate. The BIPT did not receive any applications during this first call for candidates;
• In 2024, NRB asked the BIPT for authorisation to transfer its 20 MHz block (3580-3600 MHz) to Proximus. The BIPT approved this transfer in a Decision of 16 April 2024;
• In 2024, a second call for candidates for the unsold block of 20 MHz (3410-3430 MHz) was published in the Belgian Official Gazette. The spectrum cap was increased to 120 MHz through an amending Royal Decree, in order to allow Orange Belgium and Telenet to apply for this second call for candidates. Proximus was unable to apply given that, following the acquisition of NRB’s block of 20 MHz, it already held 120 MHz. The BIPT did not receive any applications following this second call for candidates.

• Proximus (45 MHz), Telenet (15 MHz) and Orange Belgium (30 MHz) obtained spectrum in this frequency band.

Telenet lodged an appeal in February 2022 before the Council of State (Belgian Administrative Supreme Court) challenging the legality of 5G regulations to the extent that these provided reservations in the spectrum for new players in the sector. However, this appeal was rejected.[JS1] 

Applications for 5G rights of use must have:

• Been submitted by 16 February 2022, as indicated in the call for applications published by the BIPT in the Belgian Official Gazette;[JS2] 
• Been submitted to the BIPT against delivery of a receipt, in two copies, with indication of an original copy signed by the candidate’s competent representatives;
• Included the required deposit, paid unconditionally and irrevocably in cleared funds in euros;
• Been complete, providing all requested information in the correct form according to Article 19 of the 700 MHz Royal Decree, Article 13 of the 1400 MHz Royal Decree and Article 15 of the 3600 MHz Royal Decree;
• Been submitted by a corporate body, which must not be in a state of liquidation, bankruptcy or a similar situation, has not filed for bankruptcy and is not involved in a liquidation procedure or judicial concordat, or a similar situation or process.

For the financial conditions regarding the obtention of the licences, see section 3.3 below.

The conditions for the exercise of 5G rights of use were:

• The initial validity period is 20 years for use rights in the 700 MHz and 1400 MHz frequency bands, and until 6 May 2040 for the use rights in the 3600 MHz frequency band. Use rights may be extended by the BIPT for supplementary periods of five years maximum;
• Use of compliant radio equipment and prevention of radio frequency interference; payment of the unique fee and the annual fees (see section 5.3 below);
• Only operators holding use rights in the 700 MHz frequency band are subject to coverage obligations.

Population coverage obligations:

• For existing operators: 70% after one year, 99.5% after two years, and 99.8% after six years.
• For other operators: 30% after three years, 70% after six years and 99.8% after eight years.
• In addition, the operators are also subject to an obligation to cover certain railway lines.
• The BIPT may require existing operators with spectrum in the 700 MHz band to offer new entrants, which also have spectrum in the 700 MHz band, national roaming on the existing operator networks, for a limited period (under the conditions set out in Article 13 of the 700 MHz Royal Decree);
• All operators holding use rights in the 700 MHz frequency band have an obligation to offer, at their own expense, national roaming to the ASTRID radio communications network (which is used by Belgian rescue and security services to transmit voice and data.

In addition, the Ministers of Telecommunications and the Interior may, after consulting the BIPT regarding the technical feasibility and operational requirements, mandate that one or several 700 MHz operators provide ASTRID with additional minimum specific public protection and disaster relief measures to support the rescue and security services.

Operators were/are required to pay a onetime fee, as well as annual fees.

The minimum bid for the lots in the 5G frequency bands (reserve price) has been set based on Article 30 of the Electronic Communications Act of 13 June 2005, which sets an amount per allocated MHz and per month of use rights validity.

For the auction processes in the 700 MHz and 1400 MHz frequency bands, the reserve price has been calculated for a period of 240 months (20 years).

For the auction procedure in the 3600 MHz frequency band, the reserve price has been calculated on the basis of the number of months between 7 May 2025 and 6 May 2040 (as the onetime fee did not have to be paid for the period until 6 May 2025).

In respect of the 700 MHz frequency band:

• Proximus paid a onetime fee of EUR 122,870,000 (USD 133.2m)  for a 10 MHz duplex;
• Orange Belgium paid a onetime fee of EUR 122,860,000 (USD 133.2m) for a 10 MHz duplex;
• Telenet paid a onetime fee of EUR 21,340,000 (USD 23m) for a 5 MHz duplex;
• Citymesh Mobile paid a onetime fee of EUR 19,335,000 (USD 21m) for a 5 MHz duplex.

In respect of the 1400 MHz frequency band:

• Proximus paid a onetime fee of EUR 108,890,000 (USD 118m) for 45 MHz;
• Orange Belgium paid a onetime fee of EUR 69,650,000 (USD 75.5m) for 30 MHz;
• Telenet paid a onetime fee of EUR 38,000,000 (USD 41.2m) for 15 MHz.

In respect of the 3600 MHz frequency band:

• Proximus paid a onetime fee of EUR 56,320,000 (USD 61m) for 100 MHz;
• Orange paid a onetime fee of EUR 54,850,000 (USD 59.5m) for 100 MHz;
• Telenet paid a onetime fee of EUR 55,800,000 (USD 60.5m) for 100 MHz;
• Citymesh Mobile paid a onetime fee of EUR 30,990,000 for 50 MHz;
• NRB paid a onetime fee of EUR 10,970,000 (USD 11.9m) for 20 MHz (spectrum transferred to Proximus, as explained above).

The operators must pay the following:

• A fee related to the notification as an operator;
• Annual frequency availability fees;
• Numbering fees (e.g. for mobile phone numbers and/or M2M numbers).[JS3] 

Annual frequency availability fees for the year 2022 were set at EUR 102,000 in the 700 MHz band, EUR 55,900 in the 1400 MHz band, and EUR 11,200 in the 3600 MHz band.

These amounts have been indexed for the year 2025 at 117,700 EUR for the 700 MHz band, 64,500 EUR for the 1400 MHz band and 12,900 EUR for the 3600 MHz band.

Operators must pay annual fees for all the allocated frequencies, whether or not the frequencies are used. When calculating the annual fees, one MHz duplex corresponds to 2 MHz.

For the 700 MHz, 1400 MHz and 3600 MHz bands, the annual fees are reduced by 50% during the first three years of the use rights validity period.

At this stage, we are not aware of any publicly available information that the BIPT would consider adopting a non-compliance decision with respect to a specific operator.

Based on publicly available information, we are not aware of any appeals lodged against the BIPT’s granting of 5G user rights to the operators.

As noted above, Telenet unsuccessfully lodged an appeal in February 2022 against certain provisions of the 5G regulations

The 5G auction completed in July 2022, and the BIPT granted user rights in August and November 2022. To our knowledge, no new auctions are planned in the short term. As indicated above, the BIPT did not receive any applications following the calls for candidates published in 2023 and 2024 for the unsold block of 20 MHz in the 3600 MHz band (3410-3430 MHz).

In the longer term, the BIPT seems to envisage auctioning other frequency bands such as the 26 GHz or the 28 GHz frequency bands. A public consultation took place in this respect in 2019, which concluded that the current operators had no interest regarding this potential new sector of the market. Another public consultation on this topic took place late 2023. Given that the BIPT has not communicated on this topic following the second public consultation, we assume that interest in tenders of this part of the spectrum is probably low.

To date, the specific rules that have been drafted in relation to 5G are in the above-mentioned 5G regulations adopted on 28 November 2021 (i.e. the 700 MHz Royal Decree, the 1400 MHz Royal Decree and the 3600 MHz Royal Decree), as well as Royal Decrees containing 5G security measures referred to in the answer to question 8 below.

Certain rules/guidance relating to 5G deployment also appear in instruments adopted by the BIPT, such as individual decisions granting 5G user rights or a 2018 communication relating to the introduction of 5G (the main objective of which was to discuss the frequency bands available and define a roadmap for the auction).

Yes, there are sharing agreements in place.

Proximus and Orange Belgium signed an active radio access network sharing agreement, which did not involve spectrum sharing, on 22 November 2019. The shared mobile access network will be designed, built and operated by a new Brussels-based joint venture, owned 50/50 by Proximus and Orange Belgium. On 23 December 2022, the National Competition Authority rejected a complaint brought by Telenet against this RAN sharing agreement.

The 5G rules on network or spectrum sharing are the general ones provided for in the Electronic Communications Act of 13 June 2005, as modified in 2021 following the transposition of the provisions of the European Electronic Communications Code.

While the draft 5G regulations initially contained some specific provisions relating to active infrastructure sharing in the allocated 5G frequency bands, these were removed from the final text of the 5G regulations following comments in the opinions of the Council of State relating to the 700 MHz draft Decree, the 1400 MHz draft Decree and the 3600 MHz draft Decree.

In 2023, the BIPT organized a public consultation with respect to a draft Law and the Royal Decree aimed at creating a legal framework for spectrum sharing, and more specifically by establishing an ex ante control mechanism according to which the BIPT was empowered to verify that any spectrum sharing agreement would not cause harmful interference, harm competition, or breach the conditions attached to spectrum use rights. These draft measures were, however, not enacted following this public consultation.

Belgian legislation provides for the possibility of sharing antenna and other sites, infrastructure and other network elements both passive and active (see Articles 25 to 28/4 of the Electronic Communications Act of 13 June 2005). Some forms of infrastructure sharing are even mandatory by law.

Pursuant to Article 19/1 of the Electronic Communications Act of 13 June 2005, spectrum sharing shall not be prevented under the conditions attached to rights of use. In any case, sharing agreements between operators remain subject to competition law.

Several measures related to the security of 5G networks have been taken, through the adoption of the Law of 17 February 2022 and its implementing decrees.

According to 5G security rules, operators must obtain prior authorisation from ministers before using/deploying active elements of the 5G network produced by manufacturers and before contracting a service provider to install, configure, maintain and/or monitor the active elements of their 5G network. Any operator that has already started 5G deployment or contracted service providers for the installation, configuration, maintenance and/or monitoring of their 5G network elements, will be subject to a regularisation system.

This legislation also imposes restrictions as to the use of high-risk equipment manufacturers and service providers, depending on the part of the network concerned (core network, backbone, backhaul, transport or radio access), whether the active elements are located on/cover a site in a sensitive area and whether the operators have an essential/critical function. These restrictions shall be applicable, in principle, only from 1 January 2028 or 1 January 2031. The criteria and procedures for obtaining ministerial authorization to use network elements and services from these providers have been detailed in the Royal Decree of 16 April 2023. This Royal Decree also specifies geographical restrictions and documentation necessary for obtaining these authorizations.

Any supplier’s high-risk profile is assessed on the basis of three criteria - the likelihood that the supplier will be subject to interference from a non-EU country, the ability of the supplier to guarantee supplies in terms of time and quantity, and the overall quality of the products or services and supplier security practices, including the level of control by the supplier over its own supply chain and whether an appropriate hierarchical classification is subject to security practices.

Although not explicitly stated, these measures appear to target Chinese equipment suppliers in particular.

In October 2020, Proximus and Orange Belgium announced that instead of Huawei, they had chosen Ericsson (for Proximus) and Nokia (for Orange Belgium) as partners to upgrade their existing 2G/3G/4G networks and deploy 5G. In March 2021, Telenet announced that it had selected Ericsson, Nokia, and Google Cloud as partners for its 5G rollout.

5G operator network infrastructure must also be located in EU territory, with the implementing Royal Decree of 18 April 2023 further specifying the modalities of this localisation requirement. According to this Royal Decree, the following elements must be established on EU territory: (i) the persons, equipment, software, and data necessary for real-time monitoring of the 5G network or 5G core network elements, and (ii) the persons, equipment, software and data related to control of physical and logical access to the 5G network or 5G core network elements. The persons, such as experts, who do not supervise the network in real time but who may be asked to carry out a specific action on the network may be located outside EU territory, provided that their interventions are permanently monitored by the above-mentioned persons subject to the localisation requirement. These rules on localisation requirements will only enter into force on 1 January 2028.

Aside from the launch of calls for projects aimed at subsidizing research projects on 6G, there are no concrete projects implementing 6G in Belgium at this stage. The implementation of 6G is expected as of 2030.