Cheaper Belgian phone bills promised

30 April 2004

BRUSSELS – Belgium’s state-backed telephone company Belgacom is planning to reduce the cost of renting a telephone line by almost two thirds in a bid to win back clients lost to mobile phone operators, it was reported on Friday.

On Monday 3 May, Belgacom will launch a new service it calls ‘Discovery’, which will see the monthly rental cost of a fixed telephone line fall from EUR 16.80 to EUR 6.50, La Derniere Heure said.

The service will also see the cost of a domestic call from one fixed line to another fall to EUR 0.15 a minute, which Belgacom insists is cheaper than a call from a mobile telephone to a fixed line.

Customers will also be able to use their new cheap phone lines for high-speed ‘ADSL’ internet access, Belgacom says.

Analysts say Belgacom is aiming its new service at young people, many of whom do not have a fixed telephone line.

Instead, more and more young people are using mobile telephones for making voice calls and are hooking up to the internet via cable television operators.

Subject: Belgian news