BELGACOM LAUNCHES MOBILE DIRECTORY SOLUTION

Belgian provider of telecommunications services Belgacom has launched a new “mailbox” service that allows callers to leave voice mail on nearly 2 million of the estimated 10.6 million Belgian mobile phones. Belgacom says that the service is being offered by Proximus, the brand under which Belgacom's wholly-owned mobile subsidiary Belgacom Mobile markets mobile services, and Belgacom brands 1307, 1207, 1405, and 1407, the dialing codes under which Belgacom offers French, Dutch, English, and German directory assistance (DA). Belgacom reports that Belgacom Mobile served 4.6 million customers and 43.8% of the market of active customers as of the end of 2007. Belgacom, which has maintained its dominant market share in the DA market in part because of the fact that the regulator did not adopt a 118xxx dialing code, receives 140,000 calls each work day and 42 million calls annually. Belgacom sees that its DA volume is decreasing approximately 5% annually, considers the Internet to be its biggest competitor, and hopes that its new mailbox service will help reduce the decline in its DA volume.

Until the launch of this mailbox service, callers to Belgacom’s DA service could obtain numbers for 95% of the fixed lines that were listed but only approximately 4% of the mobile numbers for those mobile customers who chose to opt-in to the DA service. An estimated 30% of subscribers are mobile-only customers, and 95% of Belgian mobile subscribers have voice mail. With the launch of the new mailbox service, when callers ask for a listing of a mobile subscriber who has not opted-in to the directory database, the caller is given the opportunity to be connected to the voice mailbox of the “called” party. The called party is notified of the voice message and may do with it what they wish.

Belgacom’s DA service is available to every Belgian subscriber. DA charges are approximately 1.25 EUR from fixed lines and 1.40 EUR from mobile phones. There is no charge to retrieve voice messages. Mobile customers were notified in advance of the launch that this service was going to be implemented, they were given the option to opt-out of the service, and may opt-out of the service at any time. Approximately 100 customers have opted-out so far. There is no charge to opt-out.

While Belgacom Mobile reports 4.6 million mobile customers, less than 2 million listings are initially available because approximately half of Belgian Mobile subscribers are prepaid, about whom Belgacom does not have listing information, and because Belgacom chose to initially include residential listings only. Belgacom hopes that other Belgian mobile carriers decide to participate and make their listings available. Prior to this launch, Belgacom had approximately 4 million fixed and 400 thousand mobile listings. Belgacom has 480 operators in 10 call centers in Brussels, Antwerp, Roeselare, Aalst, Hasselt, Mons, Charleroi, Namur, Liège and Eupen.

Many carriers and DA service providers throughout Europe and elsewhere in the world have been looking for ways to better serve mobile customers, and will be looking to see whether Belgacom’s offering will be a success. -Stuart Whitaker