The BIPT is requiring operators to set higher data limits as part of their fair-use policies, in a market that could benefit from more competition
Consumers misled by operators ‘unlimited’ offers: The BIPT has published guidelines on how operators should use the term ‘unlimited’ when marketing fixed and mobile broadband. The BIPT intervened following complaints to the Telecommunications Ombudsman Service by customers who assumed that there was no limit to how much data they could use each month. The regulator found some customers’ browsing speeds were throttled once a fair-use policy (FUP) had been reached, even for packages marketed as unlimited. By intervening, the BIPT aims to ensure that operators refer to tariffs as unlimited only where the vast majority of customers can access the internet without any restrictions.
The BIPT wants to see significantly higher thresholds: In practice, a FUP applies to most fixed and mobile plans, varying between 500GB and 3TB for fixed broadband and between 20GB and 40GB for mobile. While only 2% of fixed broadband customers typically exceed the FUP, the problem is significantly more common in mobile, with 10% of customers going beyond the limit. As a result, the BIPT’s guidelines recommend significantly higher limits than those currently set by operators. For mobile broadband, the limit should be at least 300GB per month, whereas for fixed it should be at least 3 TBs per month. The BIPT also made recommendations on what operators should do once customers reach their limit, recommending that they avoid automatically applying additional costs or blocking access, but instead throttle the browsing speed. The BIPT is giving operators six months to comply with the guidelines, and pledged to keep them under review as data consumption continues to grow.
Could more competition address the problem? Belgian regulators and policymakers have recently attempted to make the market more competitive since they believe prices for communications services are comparatively high by international standards. The Government has looked at the case for a fourth MNO for some time, although it is not clear whether reserving spectrum for a new entrant in the next 5G auction will be sufficient to achieve that. At present, no new players appear to be lined up to enter a market where customers have a low propensity to switch. This lack of competition could go some way to explaining why Belgian consumers face FUPs of 20GBs while in other European markets (where similar policies apply), unlimited is usually taken to mean hundreds of GBs per month.
Source: https://www.bipt.be/consumers/publication/more-clarity-on-unlimited-surfing
