BIPT reports sharp increase in mobile data consumption in Belgium ⋆ Alertify

BIPT reports sharp increase in mobile data consumption in Belgium

Belgian regulator BIPT has published the fourth report on the supervision of net neutrality, for 2019-2020, noting that the coronavirus pandemic had an impact of its net neutrality supervision at the end of the period. mobile data consumption in Belgium

Before the start of lockdown measures, the regulator had been organising discussions with the country’s main operators, and receiving periodic reports.

This helped ensure continued internet access, even amid the crisis. In any case, the regulator said it recorded no cases where services or applications were blocked.

Based on its annual economic statistical report on the electronic communications sector, BIPT notes that mobile data consumption experienced once against enormous growth in 2019.

The average monthly data consumption per SIM card rose up to near 3 GB, i.e. a 56% increase over one year, or over 1 GB per month. In 5 years, we notice a tenfold increase of data traffic. More than 3 million machine-to-machine (MSM) SIM cards are active in our country, the mobile operators’ networks also being increasingly used for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The exponential growth of mobile data consumption spurs BIPT to provide additional radio spectrum. Despite the very strong increase in mobile data consumption, the mobile service retail turnover, with 2.170 billion euros, remained comparable to the 2018 turnover.

In the IoT market, a record number of 637,106 additional M2M cards were activated by
mobile network operators, which gives a total of 3.104 million at the end of 2019. M2M cards are especially used for the control of truck tolls, the industrial track & trace of containers
and to connect the water meters. According to a recent study by Cap Gemini on behalf
of BIPT, this IoT market will experience spectacular growth in the coming years, especially in
part of 5G.

The convergence between landline and mobile continues in 2019. Thus, the number of associated SIM cards to a fixed service increased by 20% to just over 3 million. In relation to the total number of postpaid SIM cards, their share increased from 28.1% to 32.3%.

The decline in the use of prepaid or prepaid cards continues in 2019, decreasing by 357,234
units (-12.5%) to 2.491 million, in one year. The prepaid / postpaid ratio thus amounts to 20.8% –
79.2%, compared to 23.9% -76.1% in 2018. The decrease in the number of prepaid users is linked to their compulsory registration since the end of 2016 and the success of convergent group offers offering postpaid SIM cards with a fixed service.