PROXIMUS FIBER FOR BELGIUM

The project relates to the design, building, operation and commercialisation of an ultra-high speed fixed broadband telecommunications' network, mainly relying on the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-Business (FTTB) technology, starting from 2018 up until the end of 2020. The goal is to reach an additional coverage of 10% in residential areas and 38% of the enterprise addressable units in Belgium, leading to an increase of 487 000 homes and 57 810 businesses. In addition, the project includes fibre deployment to street cabinets in rural zones, necessary IT development, a backbone upgrade to sustain the increasing bandwidth usage, fibre customer premise equipment (CPE's) and Cybersecurity enhancements to secure the infrastructure.

The proposed investments are expected to increase broadband penetration rates, including in convergence areas with lower access ratios as well as result in significant improvements in service quality.

Investments in fixed telecommunications projects (mainly civil works for fibre rollout) do not fall under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive 2011/92/EC as amended. The related works have limited environmental effects, apart from disturbances during civil work constructions, which can be mitigated by appropriate measures.

The promoter has been assessed by the EIB as a company neither operating in the utilities sector nor having the status of a contracting entity, thus not subject to EU rules on public procurement. However, if after the project appraisal, the EIB were to conclude that the promoter is after all subject to EU public procurement legislation (i.e. Directive 2014/25/EU), then the Bank would require the promoter to ensure that contracts for the implementation of the project have been/will be tendered in accordance with the relevant applicable EU procurement legislation (Directive 2014/25/EU and Directive 92/13/EEC), with the publication of tender notices in the Official Journal of the European Union, as and where required.