Belgian businesses have access to faster broadband Internet than the European average, although fiber connectivity in our country lags behind.
86.6 percent of Belgian SMEs have access to a broadband connection of at least 30 Mbps. For 63.9 percent of companies, this is even 100 Mbps or more. With that, Belgian companies with 10 to 249 employees are doing slightly better than the European average. That is at 84.9 percent and 59.5 percent, respectively.
Belgian SMEs also keep their edge when looking at faster Internet. 32.7 percent have a connection of between 100 Mbps and 500 Mbps and 20.1 percent even above 500 Mbps, up to 1 Gbps. In the EU, those percentages average 21.2 percent and 16 percent.
Only when it comes to superfast Internet with a speed of more than 1 Gbps does the European average do better: 11.1 percent of SMEs have such a connection in our country, compared to an average of 12.3 percent.
The figures show that Belgian companies are connected to the Internet above average. The majority of companies have a connection of 100 Mbps or more, which is sufficient for efficient work in the cloud.
Little fiber and 5G
That our country does not score as well in terms of connections above 1 Gbps should not be so surprising. For years, Belgium has had a strong infrastructure built on coax. Such lines are sufficient for relatively fast connections, but fiber optics are needed for 1 Gbps or more. Belgium is very much behind in this regard.
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Our country ranks last in terms of fiber coverage to the establishment or household. Only 25 percent of households in our country can subscribe to fiber, while the European average, meanwhile, is 63.99 percent.
We also lag behind in terms of mobile connectivity. We are the second worst student in the class; with 5G coverage for 40 percent of households. On average in Europe, 90 percent of households have access to a 5G network.
Although Belgium’s connectivity infrastructure is not yet state-of-the-art, our country still benefits from the lead taken with previous generations of solutions. As a result, even today Belgian companies can surf faster than the average. When it comes to AI, our country is also doing better than average.