Telenet Group
| File:Telenet.PNG | |
| Company type | Naamloze vennootschap (Euronext: TNET) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Mechelen, Belgium |
Key people | Duco Sickinghe (CEO), Frank Donck (Chairman) |
| Products | Cable television, fixed line and mobile telephony, internet services |
| Revenue | €1.197 billion (2009)[1] |
| €298.5 million (2009)[1] | |
| €233.1 million (2009)[1] | |
Number of employees | 1,820 (2009)[1] |
| Website | www.telenet.be |
Telenet Group is the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium. Its business comprises the provision of analog and digital cable television, high speed internet and fixed and mobile telephony services, primarily to residential customers in Flanders and Brussels. In addition, Telenet offers services to business customers all across Belgium and in Luxembourg under its brand Telenet Solutions.
Since 11 October 2005, Telenet is listed on the Euronext stock exchange under the ticker TNET.
Internet
Telenet offers its residential service' since 1997 under the brand name Telenet Internet through the combination of its broadband cable network, which passes some 2.4 million homes in Flanders and a part of the Brussels region. All the networks through which Telenet offers residential services in Flanders have been upgraded to a two way digital HFC (hybrid fiber coaxial) standard, and Telenet has direct relationships with all of its internet and telephony customers.
Telenet acquired a large network of Wi-Fi hotspots in addition to its cable internet service through acquisition of Sinfilo.
Its main competitors on the cable broadband internet market are Numericable and VOO in the Brussels region. Its other main competitor is Belgacom, leader of the Belgian xDSL market, in the Flanders and Brussels regions.
Telenet also offers voice, data and internet services to its business customers under the brand name Telenet Solutions through its fiber backbone, by acquisition of Codenet, which covers all Belgium and Luxembourg.
Hosting services
In January 2008 Telenet acquired Hostbasket, Belgium's largest hosting company, to offer a more complete solutions portfolio to organisations and companies. Hostbasket offers "Classic Hosting" (domain names, shared webhosting, online backup, antivirus,...), infrastructure solutions (dedicated servers, co-location) and applications (hosted Exchange, hosted SharePoint, hosted CRM, ...).
Telephony
Fixed telephony
Telenet offers fixed telephony using its cable network, currently under the brand name Telenet Freephone, as of 1998. Today, it has more than 600,000 costumers.
Its main competitors on the Belgian fixed telephone market are Numericable and VOO in Brussels, using optic fibre. Its other main competitor is Belgacom, leader of the Belgian xDSL market.
Mobile telephony
Since July 2006, Telenet Mobile offers mobile telephony services as a full MVNO, using the Mobistar MNO-network (Orange). Today it has more than 80.000 customers. It competes with mobile network operators Proximus, owned by Belgian state owned telco Belgacom, and Base, a subsidiary of Dutch KPN.
In 2009, Telenet acquires the Belgian retail store network of BelCompany from Dutch Macintosh Retail Group.
Telenet is considering to participate in the public auction of a fourth nationwide GSM-license in 2010.
Television
Telenet launched Telenet Digital TV, interactive digital television on its cable network, as of September 3, 2005.
Current cable customers need not pay an extra subscription to receive digital signals, but they must purchase or rent a set top box in order to be able to view the digital channels and use the interactive services based on Multimedia Home Platform.
Telenet also rolled out HDTV set-top-boxes during 2008.
In July 2008 Telenet reached an agreement with Interkabel's INDI regarding the acquisition of its 800.000 cable TV customers.
Its main competitors on the Belgian digital television market (DVB-C) are Numericable and VOO in the Brussels region. Other competitors are Belgacom TV (xDSL) and TV Vlaanderen Digitaal (DVB-S), owned by Belgacom and an Airbridge Investments-Providence Equity Partners consortium, in the Flanders and Brussels regions.
Set-top-boxes
The Digital, HD, Hubstation & Hubstation HD set-top boxes are made by Advanced Digital Broadcast.
Pay TV
Telenet offers multiple pay TV formulas, of which Prime TV (Dutch) and BeTV (French) are owned by its parent company Liberty Global. Prime TV has currently over 180.000 subscribers. The companies were previously owned by Canal+
Ownership
Telenet is majority owned by Liberty Global.
Sponsorship
Telenet is principal sponsor of Belgian football club KV Mechelen and secondary sponsor of Club Brugge KV, another Belgian football club, and the Belgian Fidea Cycling Team. Both football clubs are active in the Belgian First Division.
References
- ^ a b c d "Annual Report 2009" (PDF). Telenet Group. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
