Justice dept owes phone operators €30m in unpaid bills

Belgium’s justice department owes almost €30m in unpaid bills to the country’s three main telephone operators - Belgacom, Mobistar and Base, reports TelecomPaper. The bills, which relate to the tracing calls and text messages for the government, are unpaid since February , according to L’Echo. While the law states telecom companies have to be compensated at least in part for these type of requests, the operators said they were told government’s coffers were empty. The government, meanwhile has asked telecoms regulator BIPT to open a consultation on these expenses and to see how federal contributions could be adjusted. The government would like to see a 50% reduction in bills. Belgian operators noted that the recent expansion of data storage for emails will only help increase the number of requests and inquiries.