Orange Belgium CEO may take on Egypt role

Orange Belgium, which until recently traded under the Mobistar brand, said its chief executive Jean Marc Harion is to leave the company on August 31 and could become the next CEO of Orange Egypt.

The Belgian company’s management board said it would shortly start the process to appoint a new CEO, although it did not provide any details of prospective candidates.

Orange Egypt, which also recently changed its name from Mobinil, has already announced that its CEO, Yves Gauthier, is to leave the company at the end of August. In a stock market statement, the operator had said the name of the new CEO would be revealed by mid-June.

The CEO reshuffles come at a time of considerable change at both companies as well as within the Orange Group as a whole.

Orange Belgium has recently relaunched its convergence strategy with the offer of new fixed broadband and TV services alongside its traditional mobile offerings.

The former Mobistar finally unveiled its Internet and digital TV offering on Mar. 1 and has since said that the service is now available nationwide. The launch of the company’s consumer convergence offering had been long delayed as Mobistar waited for regulators to set wholesale prices for cable resale.

The cable offering places the company in a better position to compete with rival players: Proximus already sells ‘Packs’ that combine fixed and mobile offerings, while Base Belgium will be able to exploit Telenet’s existing triple-play offerings now the two companies have completed their merger.

Indeed, Liberty Global-owned Telenet has already started marketing “quad-play” plans for families and businesses under the Wigo brand as the first stage in the commercial merger of Telenet and Base.

Orange Egypt, meanwhile, could be on the verge of gaining a new 4G licence as well as the ability to offer fixed services. The company recently said it has been asked to pay 3.54 billion Egyptian pounds (€352 million/$400 million) for a 4G licence.

Reuters also reported previously that the operator had received a letter from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) that requested 100 million pounds for a fixed-line licence and 1.8 billion pounds to offer international calls. Orange Egypt said it has yet to make a decision on the licences.

Source: Fierce Wireless Europe