The development of 4.5G technology in Belgium has been given a boost as major operators in the country announced roll-outs and trials.
Operator Proximus began deploying a network in Antwerp, Charleroi and Ghent this week.
It said it was the first operator in the country to do so.
Proximus said its move had followed successful 4.5G and 5G speed tests carried out last May and November and is a response to the expected eight-fold increase in average data traffic by 2020 due to the increase in mobile data and more intensive use of video.
It said its customers will enjoy speeds up to 450MBps as a result of the 4.5G network and that it and Samsung were “closely collaborating to launch compatible devices”.
Proximus said 4.5G “opens the door to a bright future for new bandwidth hungry applications” such as 2K/4K video, 360-degree video, virtual and augmented reality.
Mobile World Congress also saw an update from Telenet Belgium and ZTE on their progress in modernising the BASE mobile network, with a 4.5G trial by the partners reaching speeds of 1.3GBps on Telenet’s live mobile network.
According to ZTE’s press release, the trial made Telenet the first operator in Europe to reach the speed under real-world conditions.
The work with ZTE was undertaken as part of a €250 million network modernisation programme aimed at sharpening the network’s 3G, LTE and LTE Advanced infrastructure. This was launched in August 2016 after Telenet acquired the network from KPN for €1.325 billion in 2015.