Proximus reported resilient domestic telecom performance in the second quarter of 2026, supported by growth in fiber, broadband, mobile postpaid and convergent customers. The Belgian telecom group continued to invest heavily in fiber infrastructure while maintaining its full-year Capex outlook of up to €1.3 billion.
Proximus generated underlying revenue of €1.530 billion in Q2 2026, broadly stable year-on-year on a pro forma basis. Domestic revenue increased 1.1 percent to €1.192 billion, while Domestic Services revenue was nearly unchanged at €945 million, down 0.1 percent. Residential revenue increased 2.2 percent to €635 million, supported by customer growth, convergent services and the January 2026 inflation-linked price adjustment.
Business revenue increased 1.8 percent to €484 million on a pro forma basis, helped by a 29.9 percent increase in Product revenue to €88 million. However, Business Services revenue declined 3.0 percent to €388 million. IT Services revenue decreased 1.6 percent to €102 million.
Proximus Global remained the major drag on growth. Q2 revenue declined 3.9 percent to €353 million, although the decline was only 0.6 percent. Communications & Data revenue fell 1.2 percent to €248 million, while P2P Voice & Messaging revenue dropped 9.6 percent to €105 million.
Capex
The company reiterated its expectation for full-year 2026 Capex of up to €1.3 billion. Its network agreements and Unifiber transaction are designed to make future fiber expansion more capital-efficient, particularly as deployment shifts from dense areas toward mid-dense regions.
Fiber expansion
Proximus accelerated its fiber expansion in Belgium during the second quarter of 2026, with its fiber footprint reaching 2.753 million homes and businesses passed at the end of June. This represented 13.9 percent growth, up from 2.416 million premises a year earlier, and expanded fiber coverage to more than 43 percent of Belgium’s population. Proximus added 88,000 homes and businesses passed during Q2 2026 and actively deployed fiber across 179 cities and municipalities.
Customer adoption grew faster than the network footprint. The number of activated Residential and Business fiber lines increased 27.1 percent to 820,000, compared with 646,000 a year earlier. Proximus added 44,000 active fiber lines during Q2 2026, versus 38,000 additions in Q2 2025.
Fiber expansion supported broadband subscriber growth. Proximus’ domestic Internet base increased 1.9 percent to 2.367 million subscriptions, with 8,000 additions during the quarter. Residential Internet connections increased 2.7 percent to 1.876 million, following 9,000 quarterly additions.
Fiber is improving customer value in the business segment. Business broadband ARPU increased 5.2 percent to €53.1, supported by the January 2026 inflation-linked price adjustment and upselling of customers to fiber. The Business Internet base stood at 442,000 lines at the end of June.
Proximus allocated 28 percent of its H1 2026 Capex to fiber construction, two percentage points below the comparable period of 2025. Total Group Capex reached €585 million in H1 2026, an increase of €43 million from a year earlier, while Q2 Capex rose to €325 million from €272 million.
The company is shifting fiber construction from already well-covered dense locations toward mid-dense regions. Its acquisition of full ownership of Unifiber is designed to strengthen ownership of critical fiber infrastructure, generate financial and operational synergies and eliminate Proximus’ network access costs to Unifiber. The transaction also supports the planned network partnership with Orange Belgium aimed at accelerating fiber deployment and expanding gigabit availability across Wallonia.
In Flanders, the network collaboration with Wyre and Telenet is expected to enable a more capital-efficient fiber rollout, while the Unifiber strategy strengthens the economics of expansion in Wallonia. Proximus expects these network initiatives to reduce risks around its medium- and long-term CapEx and free cash flow trajectory as fiber deployment continues.
Mobile postpaid base reaches 5.247 million
Proximus added 25,000 Mobile Postpaid cards excluding M2M during Q2, lifting its domestic postpaid base to 5.247 million, an increase of 2.3 percent.
Residential Mobile Postpaid accounted for 3.150 million cards, up 3.7 percent after 23,000 additions. The Business Mobile Postpaid base remained broadly stable at 1.764 million cards.
Machine-to-machine connectivity delivered stronger volume growth. The Business M2M base increased 5.8 percent to 4.566 million cards, with 104,000 net additions during Q2, compared with only 12,000 additions in the year-earlier quarter.
Mobile monetisation remained under competitive pressure in the enterprise market. Business Mobile Services revenue declined 3.5 percent to €110 million, while Business mobile ARPU dropped 5.2 percent to €17.7.
Convergent subscribers rise to 1.246 million
Proximus’ convergent strategy continued to strengthen its residential customer economics. The convergent subscriber base increased by 12,000 during Q2 to 1.246 million customers, representing 4.4 percent year-on-year growth.
Convergent revenue increased 3.9 percent to €338 million, although convergent ARPC declined 0.4 percent to €90.9. Proximus attributed the pressure partly to changing customer and brand mix and lower sports-content revenue.
Overall Residential ARPC increased 0.8 percent to €59.3, while Residential Customer Services revenue rose 2.1 percent to €514 million.
The Fixed-only customer base declined by 9,600 during the quarter to 755,000, but its ARPC increased 2.1 percent to €50.8. Fixed-only revenue consequently declined 1.7 percent to €116 million.
Mobile-only customers totaled 886,000, with quarterly revenue broadly stable at €60 million. Mobile-only ARPC decreased 1.9 percent to €22.5.
Proximus did not disclose customer churn rate in its Q2 report. Subscriber movements show continued structural erosion in legacy services. TV subscriptions fell by 6,000 to 1.561 million, while Fixed Voice lost 42,000 lines during Q2, reducing the base 12.3 percent to 1.244 million. Residential Fixed Voice fell to 767,000 lines and Business Fixed Voice to 427,000.
Prepaid mobile continued declining, with 16,000 quarterly losses taking the Residential Prepaid base to 376,000, down 12.3 percent.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH
