Search Q&A
Belgacom vs Telenet
Having been a Telenet customer for over 5 yrs, I'm wondering whether it would time to either change to Belgacom, since they seem to be offering slightly better deal (in any case my landline phone is with Belgacom anyway so wondered if better to have the same provider for everything.
I would be looking for some kind of package covering internet and cable TV and possibly some kind of smartphone subscription.
Has anyone had good vs bad experience of either? I mean in terms of reliability of the Internet supply and cable TV.
Thanks in advance :)
I'm in the same situation as you and with Belgacom for over 20 years.
I've never had a problem with either company and the staff in the local Belgacom shop have always been helpful when I've asked for advice.
I'm a great believer in 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' so I've decided that I'll leave things as they are - the savings if I went down the 'all Belgacom' route aren't going to change my lifestyle and I don't see any benefit in changing what I've always been perfectly happy with for something that might give problems in the future.
I've had Belgacom phone service from the late 1980's, internet from practically the point when it became available to retail in the early 1990's and converted to their triple play, phone, internet & TV almost as soon as it was launched back in 2005 or 2006.
Although I'm not a internet junkie, the family and I are relatively advanced and heavy users of data. Me for work, and the kids for multiplay games, downloads, movies etc.
Honestly, I've hardly ever had a problem. And when I have, they've tended to deal with it reasonably well.
Not sure where you are located, but I live in a rural area South of Brussels.
Clearly by the other comments that regularly appear on this site, service levels and customer service generally in the Brussels area can't be as good as I have.
Just my personal experience: I had Belgacom for many years and moved to Telenet a couple of years ago for TV, phone and internet.
I had quite a few problems with Belgacom on internet, which was often slow and sometimes failed completely. They could never be bothered to find a solution and in the end I moved supplier. Phone was fine with them.
I now have 120 Mb/s, day after day with Telenet, with total reliability. The one time I did have a problem they were round the next day and found a solution (cable problem) straight away.
We use the internet a lot and watch a lot of HD TV from Netflix and iTunes, so I would not consider ever moving back to Belgacom.
Belgacom's service will depend on how your building is wired.
We switched to them from numericable because like you, we saw that they had a better deal.
Biggest mistake ever.
First thing, the internet was as slow as a turtle. I was getting maximum speed of 3Mbps. That speed was as fast as the speed I used to have back in 2003 when I first got my first fast cable connection.
Then they sent a technician out and his assessment was that we didn't have the latest wiring that belgacom needed to offer their fast internet speed but they said that area would be wired in about 6 months.
6 months later we got a letter saying that we now had access to faster internet, but my tests showed we didn't.
They said that they needed to send a technician but we needed to pay 50 euros. We made a fuss, but nope, they wouldn't budge so we paid the 50 euros. They sent a technician out and he didn't know what the problem was, but while he was trying to figure out the problem, he managed to cut the wiring and we were without internet for 5 days.
Once they figured out the problem and 50 euros down the toilet, we finally got faster speeds of 20Mbps.
As soon as the year was over with them, we got rid of their sorry buts and went back to numericable.
Thus, moral of the story, before you switch, if internet speed is important to you, make sure that wherever you are, your area has the right wiring for Belgacom's fast internet service. They have a specific name for it but I have forgotten it.
Also, if you decide to switch, as soon as your internet is up and running and the technician is there, do an internet speed test to make sure you have a fast connection. Otherwise, they will charge you for sending out a technician.
And that reminded me, those bastards wouldn't let us do our own connection so we go the equipment straight away, but we had to schedule the technician to come out and install the equipment and that was a 4 week wait. With numericable, you can do your own installation. So yea, I would get back to Belgacom when hell freezes over.
With that said, we only got them, because at the time our neighbor said they had them for years and they never had a problem. And that might be true. Once the service is up and running and the speed is ok, then we didn't have an issue. Of course, 20Mbps is kind of lame compare to what we now get with numericable.
