Belgacom Regime

If you thought BELGACOM is the telecom leader in Belgium, you were wrong. They are indeed the "largest", but definitely not the leaders. Leaders lead by giving example to others. They are in fact, the "largest dictators" of telecommunications in Belgium.


According to INTERNET WORLD STATS "The incumbent, Belgacom, is gradually losing market share in the telephone market as cable TV companies and other providers offer VoIP and mobile services to their traditional pay TV and broadband packages."

The fact that they are loosing marketshare is a very positive sign in a small concentrated market dominated by one big operator. But still, there is a long way to go.

Recently a new italian company opened offices in my building, in the heart of the European quartier. The first thing they did, after buying an office in the second flood, they called to BELGACOM (big mistake) and requested a telephone and ADSL internet connection (DAY 1).

On day 30, they knock on the door of my office begging to let them access to our WIRELESS networks so they could have access to the outter world until BELGACOM graced connection to the new established company. I agreed instantly, and without charging any cost to our new neighbours, knowing exactly what was going on with Belgacom.

On day 60, finally, the technician of Belgacom came to connect and activate the phone and internet connection to this new company. Yet, another practice against the competence appeared, the guy from Belgacom did not wanted to activate the phone lines (and therefore the ADSL) because this new company wanted to use an own telephone switchboard that they bought in Italy. The guy from Belgacom said something like....if you do not rent a switchboard from belgacom, I cannot activate the internet. And the guy left, leaving the company, with three employees, without connection to anything.

Let's summarize, they waited 60 days for nothing. A COMPANY OF THREE EMPLOYEES 60 DAYS WITHOUT PHONE AND WITHOUT INTERNET !!!!! IN THE XXI CENTURY!!! IN THE CAPITAL OF EUROPE!!!!!

DAY 65. Finally the new company agreed to rent the belgacom swithboard (with the extra cost this means for the company) because basically they had no options:
-The competence would need 60 days more to install connection
-They lost so much TIME, ENERGY AND MONEY already.

It was not worth it.


This is the game of BELGACOM for proffessional customers.

In the case of my office, we have had the same ADSL connection for more than 4 years. During that time, BELGACOM has never reduced the price, increased the speed of connections, or improved the quality of service. Trying to change operator would mean taking the risk of not having internet for many days. We cannot afford this, so we follow our leader, BELGACOM.