Proximus is taking advantage of infrastructure works in Brussels to deploy FTTH technology.
The City of Brussels is upgrading the Anspach neighborhood, notably the Anspachlaan – a major thoroughfare that will get a new square and pedestrian zone.
Proximus is undertaking a pilot project in which FTTH tech will be rolled out to an unspecified number of premises in the area.
The operator declined to confirm precisely how many homes and businesses will be passed, but said non-Proximus customers would be able to access the new service.
It has 1.7 million broadband customers in total, but does not break out the exact number of FTTH subscribers.
In common with other FTTC-based operators, Proximus mainly deploys FTTH in new build areas.
It is a big proponent of vectoring technology, which now covers 49 percent of Belgium, to boost its copper infrastructure.
By combining Dynamic Line Management and VDSL2, Proximus said more than one-third of the Belgian population can access speeds of 100Mbps on copper lines.
[Read more: Don’t trumpet broadband speed – customers care about reliable Wi-Fi]
It has worked with Alcatel-Lucent, now part of Nokia, on vectoring but declined to confirm which vendor it was working with on the new FTTH project.
The operator saw sales fall three percent to €1.4 billion in the first quarter due to a poor performance at its international wholesale arm BICS.