ADSL/VDSL Internet Providers

ADSL first appeared in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 in 1999, named Turboline. The first network was set up by the incumbent Belgian telecom operator Belgacom

Belgacom

The Belgacom Group is the largest telecommunications company in Belgium, headquartered in Brussels. Belgacom Group is primarily state owned, with the Belgian state holding 53.3% + 1 share...

 and has been expanding ever since. In 2004 nearly 90% of the entire territory has access to ADSL from Belgacom. Belgacom's daughter company Skynet

Skynet (ISP)

-External links:* *...

 was the first officially supported ADSL provider, but now many more have gained popularity and almost all provide full triple play services (Television/Internet/Telephone).

Alongside the Belgacom ADSL network, several operators like Scarlet

Scarlet (telco)

Scarlet is a telecommunications company active in The Netherlands and Belgium as an Internet Service Provider and provider of fixed and mobile telephony. It has minor operations in Luxembourg, Curaçao and Sint-Maarten....

, Mobistar

Mobistar

Mobistar is the second largest of Belgium's three mobile telecommunications operators. It competes with Proximus, owned by Belgian state owned telco Belgacom, and Base, a subsidiary of Dutch KPN.-History:...

 and Versatel

Versatel

Tele2 Netherlands Holding N.V. is a listed telecommunications company operating on the Dutch and Belgian market. It has more than 1,900 employees and over 1 million customers...

 have created a secondary network, based on local loop unbundling

Local loop unbundling

Local loop unbundling is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises...

.

On 2009 the competitors of Belgacom started to offer VDSL2 connections instead of ADSL2+ ones.

DSL Internet providers

1. EDPnet offers download speeds up to 30 Mbit/s and upload up to 4.5 Mbit/s via ADSL/ADSL2+ and VDSL2
2. Belgacom offers download speeds up to 30 Mbit/s and upload up to 4.5 Mbit/s in VDSL2
3. Scarlet offers download speeds up to 30 Mbit/s and upload up to 4.5 Mbit/s in VDSL2
4. dommel offers download speeds up to 30 Mbit/s and upload up to 4.5 Mbit/s in VDSL2
5. FullADSL offers download speeds up to 12 Mbit/s and upload up to 512 Kbit/s via ADSL/ADSL2+
6. dxADSL offers download speeds up to 12 Mbit/s and upload up to 512 Kbit/s via ADSL/ADSL2+
7. Billi offers download speeds up to 28 Mbit/s and upload up to 3 Mbit/s via ADSL2+ (Annex M)
8. Base offers download speeds up to 12 Mbit/s via ADSL/ADSL2+
9. Mobistar offers download speeds up to 16 Mbit/s and upload up to 384 Kbit/s via ADSL/ADSL2+

Cable Internet Providers

Belgium also has cable networks. The biggest one, started by Telenet

Telenet (Belgium)

Telenet Group is the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium. Its business comprises the provision of analog and digital cable television, high speed internet and fixed and mobile telephony services, primarily to residential customers in Flanders and Brussels...

 in 1997, covers almost all of Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

. Speeds vary from 100 Mbit/s to 512 kbit/s down.

Cablenet Internet providers

1. Numéricable (Brussels) offers download speeds up to 100 Mbit/s and upload up to 5 Mbit/s
2. VOO (Wallonia and partly Brussels) offers download speeds up to 50 Mbit/s and upload up to 2.5 Mbit/s
3. Telenet (Flanders and partly Brussels) offers download speeds up to 100 Mbit/s and upload up to 5 Mbit/s

Internet bandwidth and transfer limits in Belgium

Download speeds in Brussels are now reaching a good level, however, the majority of Belgians have bandwidth caps in place to limit the amount of data users can transfer through their connection. Typically these are between 5GB/month up to 500GB/month and truly show that the competition in this market has not been strong enough to drive out these practices which have vanished in other western and eastern European countries. Moreover, Belgian internet charges belong to the highest and least flexible in Europe.

In June 2008 some Belgian internet providers announce (Dommel (Dutch article), Yabu ADSL) to offer nationwide available ADSL subscriptions without the datalimits.

In February 2010 the major operators of Belgium, such as Telenet and Belgacom announced tarifs with unlimited caps, but still with FUP formulas (fair usage policy).