Belgian ISPs should pay compensation for breakdowns, says minister

Telecoms operators in Belgium could be legally required to pay out compensation to customers if their service is down for more than 12 hours.

Federal telecommunications minister Alexander De Croo will table the bill in parliament next month and if approved at first reading, a consultation with the industry will follow.

The law is inspired by the Netherlands, which last summer introduced a legal framework setting out customers' rights when the network is down. Scandinavian operators are also required to pay out pro-rata refunds in case of breakdown.

The announcement coincides with a difficult week for Proximus customers, many of whom lost access to their internet, telephone and television on Monday night because of a widespread failure at one of the group's data centres.

VRT reports that some customers still had no access on Wednesday and the phone operator's call centre was extremely busy. Proximus said restarting the router and TV decoder box should solve any remaining problems.

Affected customers have been offered two weeks of free access to any of Proximus's paid-for television subscription packages.