Mamma mia, what a high-speed network can do!

Today, I started my morning on the right note. The DAB radio in our kitchen aired a song that sounded both new and familiar to me. And since music is the answer to a lot, I shazamed the song to get confirmation of what felt obvious to me when hearing the intro chords ... ABBA is back, after forty years!

Yes, I might be a little nostalgic about the music I listened to in my teens. But while the tunes themselves may bring back fond memories of my youth, I’m happy to leave the accompanying walkman or record player where it belongs: in the past.

Music may be timeless, technology certainly isn't. And the story of the most amazing comeback in music history would be a lot less interesting without the current hi-tech possibilities. If you ever wondered what it would have been like to attend an ABBA concert at the height of the band’s success: now you can. Their rejuvenated digital avatars, enabled by technology, will perform in a very real concert venue in London for a live audience.

And this makes me rejoice, since it adds that little extra purpose to the massive ‘fiber for Belgium’ project my many colleagues at Proximus and I are occupied with for the next decade. Too often, we look at connectivity as a commodity … Until we realise that the giga-fast network of the future we’re building is the backbone of experiences we cannot yet fully imagine.

These never before seen concerts are truly revolutionary in that they show us what AI can accomplish on an emotional level. The hi-tech arena will offer millions of fans a trip down memory lane, all while propelling them towards a future where real-time immersive experiences become possible. If, of course, you’ve got the network to back it up.

Making sure such experiences become real possibilities for all of our customers is our number one priority. And installing fiber is just one of the ways of achieving it. Unlike most other operators that stop at the street, Proximus brings fiber right into the heart of homes, to guarantee the best possible performance. We’ve already connected more than half a million homes to fiber, and it’s our ambition to reach a total of 4.2 million by 2028. Mamma Mia, here we go!