Recently Telenet increased its prices by an average of 6% this month and the other major player Proximus will soon follow suit. This will be the second price increase this year for Proximus customers. Of course, inflation plays a role, but the rate of inflation has been falling for several months now. VRT News’ consumer affair programme ‘De Inspecteur’ examined whether the price increases are justified.
Are telecom operators passing on the cost of fiber optic network rollout?
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The Ghent University professor of communication sciences Tom Evens told VRT News that “In itself, the price increases are perfectly normal. Telecom prices are adjusted every year to take into account inflation. In previous year this was 2% to 3%, but now it’s 6% to 7% because inflation was a lot higher”
Expensive in Belgium
Compared with other countries telecom prices in Belgium are already high. If already high prices increase by a certain percentage, the gap between prices here in Belgium and those in counties become even greater.
Lack of cooperation
“For historical reasons, we live in a very complex country with 2 very strong networks that coexist,” Professor Evens said. In the past you only had a (state-owned) RTT network. This later became Belgacom and is now Proximus. In the 1990s, Telenet launched in from Flanders, with a completely new network. Another network was also added in Wallonia”.
“I always make this comparison. There is currently one Ghent-Brussels railway line. Then a competitor enters the market and lays a completely new track next to it. This is the mistake that is being made with the fiber optic rollout. The old cables are being replaced by fiber optic cables, but Proximus and Telenet are each building their own network. Why don't they work together? Construction of the networks is very expensive and is passed on to consumers."
More expensive, but is it better?
According to Professor Evens the answer is “Yes, and there are studies on this. Are we comparing like with like? If you say that cable television is cheaper in France, then you should know that we can choose from about 200 channels and in France there are only 50.
"Our network is faster, in France it is a lot slower. We also have good reception in the countryside, but that is not the case in France. For example, there you have better coverage in Paris than at the sea.”
Compare prices
It pays to compare prices. You can do so by clicking on this link . Changing operator is always free-of-charge.