Orange and Mobile Vikings adapt offers in response to arrival of Digi

The arrival of a new telecoms company in Belgium has prompted existing players Orange and Mobile Vikings to cut prices, hoping to compete with the low offerings of Digi.

Hey!, Orange Belgium's low-cost brand, will now offer unlimited calls and text messages and 15GB of mobile data for €5 a month, the Orange group announced.

Mobile Vikings, a subsidiary of Proximus, announced that it was going to double the data available in its mobile subscriptions, without changing the price.

Digi is now the fourth major telecoms operator in the country and is distinguishing itself as a budget carrier, promising "prices never seen before in Belgium".

Specifically, Digi offers unlimited calls and text messages and 15GB of mobile internet for €5 a month, on a 4G network that it leases from Proximus while building out its own 4G/5G mobile network.

Orange Belgium is now matching that with Hey! on a hybrid 4G/5G network, which for the moment sets it apart from the newcomer.

The price change is significant because Hey!'s best offer to date was 5GB of data, 150 minutes of calls and 500 text messages for €7 a month, according to the company's website.

The low-cost brand has also revised its other offers, which all include unlimited calls and text messages: €9 per month for 25 GB, €14 per month for 50 GB and €25 per month for 160 GB.

Mobile Vikings packages will now range from 8GB (€10/month) to 170 GB (€29/month). Existing customers do not need to do anything – the change will be made at the start of the next billing period. Users can also choose to downgrade to a cheaper package if they do not think that they need the extra data allowance.