verything about mobile Internet and communications in Belgium: SIM cards, operators, tariffs. How to save on negotiations and mobile traffic.
This small country, which can be crossed in 4 hours, has about 40 cellular operators. And most of them are virtual. And only three actually developed a network of towers – Base , Proximus and Orange . It is the latter that makes sense to consider in order to use the Internet and mobile communications in Brussels and other cities of Belgium without any problems.
The fact is that tourists will not be able to use the services of virtual operators. Since 2016, anonymous SIM cards have been banned in Belgium . Now all mobile users must be registered. This is done quite simply: you need to leave a copy of your passport or international passport at the office. It is possible to do this over the Internet. But for this you will already need a Belgian id.
Almost all MVNOs register exclusively online and only for residents. A guest of the country simply will not be able to activate the card, because they do not have a local id. At the same time, sellers often forget to warn about this nuance.
Residents with a valid bank account can also become a contract subscriber. Therefore, tourists are left with a fairly small list of options.
Mobile operators in Belgium
Orange
The operator offers only two tariffs for prepayment. But they differ radically, although they cost the same – 15 €. Tempo Easy allows you to choose a small bonus – 150 MB, 150 SMS or 150 minutes. And the money in the account can be spent at your discretion. At the same time, the tariffs are quite low: everything (a minute of conversation, 1 SMS, 1 MB of traffic) costs only 10 euro cents.
In addition, users receive a small reward after each replenishment. For example, for 10 € – 100 minutes or 100 SMS to choose from.
The Tempo Giga package has more bonuses. It includes 4 GB of Internet, 4,000 SMS and 50 minutes of calls. But when they run out, services are priced more expensive. Although SMS remains at the level of 10 eurocents, a minute of conversation will cost 30 eurocents, and a MB of traffic will cost 50 eurocents.
There are also “buns” with each replenishment. For example, having deposited 15 € into the account, the subscriber will find another 4 GB and 4 thousand SMS.
The operator offers Fun Pass Social Media and Fun Pass Video as additional options . For 5 and 10 € it gives you another 10 GB and 16 GB for social networks and video hosting. But international calls from Orange are quite expensive. The basic rate is 1.8 € per minute. However, there is an opportunity to save significantly. For 3 € per month you can choose one country, calls to which will be made at a discount.
To Russia, for example, 53 euro cents per minute.
Proximus
The operator offers customers Pay&Go+ tariffs for prepayment. For quite a long time, such SIM cards cost him 10 €. Now he has reduced the price to 1 €, the rest of the money immediately falls into the account. In addition, it has significantly increased the amount of traffic that is provided as part of the package. There are three plans in total for 10, 15 and 25 €.
The most affordable one gives you 10 minutes of calls, 500 text messages and 500 MB as a bonus. Cost 15 € – 20 minutes, 3 GB and unlimited SMS. The last one is 50 minutes and 5 GB. In this case, the money remains in the account for a month and can be spent based on your needs. They are enough for 33, 50 and 83 minutes of conversation, respectively. Prices for standard services from Proximus: 30 eurocents per minute of calls, 12 eurocents per SMS and 50 eurocents per MB of traffic.
Base
This operator also recently removed SIM card fees. But for the first time you need to top it up by at least 15 €. It offers three tariffs for 10, 15 and 20 €. They differ in the number of services they provide. With the minimum, a subscriber can count on 30 minutes of calls to phone numbers of all operators in the country (or 60 within the Base network), 250 text messages and only 500 MB of traffic.
The package, which costs 15 €, already makes available 60 minutes on all phones (120 within the network), 1000 SMS and 1 GB. The most expensive one, first of all, will please those who love correspondence via SMS – they have unlimited limits.
In addition, the user receives 120 minutes for calls (and twice as much for operator numbers) and 2 GB. At the same time, the money remains in the account and can be spent on other services. In particular, for 10 € you can buy another 2 GB.
International calls are also not cheap. The standard price per minute of conversation with the Russian Federation is 2.25 €. However, for those who often have to contact their homeland, there is a special offer. For 10 € you can add 40 minutes. And for 30 € – already 150 minutes.