Belgian social telecom tariff: why mobile is left out

Belgium's social telecom tariff does not apply to a mobile plan. It covers fixed internet, it has been called the social internet offer since 1 March 2024, and only three operators are required to provide it. Here is who qualifies, at what price, and what still has to be paid in full on the SIM.

Does the social tariff cover a 5G plan?

No. No Belgian operator applies it to a mobile line.

The scheme targets a fixed internet connection, and before 2024 it targeted fixed telephony. A 5G plan is therefore paid at market price, whether you receive the integration income, the income guarantee for elderly people or an income replacement allowance.

The rest is still worth reading, because the law says something different from the market.

Who is eligible for the social internet offer in Belgium?

Eligibility comes from the situation of a household member, never from age alone. One member has to receive the integration income or equivalent social assistance funded by the federal state, the income guarantee for elderly people, an income replacement allowance based on more than 65% incapacity for work, or an allowance for assistance to the elderly. A household counts one beneficiary only, and the FPS Economy, the federal public service for the economy, rechecks the right every six months.

The government runs an official checker, offreinternetsociale.be, which works with an electronic ID card or itsme. Its answer is indicative and grants no right on its own.

The next figure says almost everything about the scheme. In its first year, more than 52,000 people ran that check, close to 23,000 learned that they qualified, and 20,722 contracts were signed. Against the 600,000 households the legislator had in mind, take-up sits around 3.5%.

Which operators are required to provide it?

Three, and usefully each of them sits on a different network: Proximus on its own network, Telenet on its own, VOO on the Orange network since Orange Belgium bought 75% of the cable operator. Other operators may provide the offer voluntarily. The FPS Economy currently counts none.

Geography therefore decides for you. Proximus sells the offer nationwide, Telenet in Flanders and part of Brussels, VOO in Wallonia and part of Brussels. Depending on your municipality, one candidate remains, sometimes two.

There is a second consequence, and it matters more on this site. No brand that rents a network takes part. Scarlet, Mobile Vikings, hey!, Mega, yoin, BASE and DIGI are mobile virtual network operators or low-cost labels riding on someone else's radio network, and not one of them offers a social tariff, on fixed or on mobile.

What is the real cap on the social internet offer?

Three official Belgian sources give three different answers, and this is the worst documented part of the file. The Telecommunications Ombudsman Service states €19 for internet only and €40 for the bundle, on a page last updated on 5 April 2024. The FPS Economy stated €20 and €41 on 27 February 2025. The BIPT, the Belgian telecoms regulator, quotes no figure at all and refers to the legal text.

The explanation sits in one sentence of the law of 30 August 2023: every year, on 1 February, the maximum prices are adjusted to the smoothed health index. The €19 quoted everywhere is the launch cap of March 2024, not the cap in force, and today's applicable amount is mechanically above the €20 recorded by the administration in February 2025.

The specification itself has not moved: a minimum of 30 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up, 150 GB of monthly volume, and a 50% discount on installation fees. Past 150 GB, Proximus throttles the line until the end of the month unless you buy an extra 20 GB for €5. VOO charges €1 per additional 500 MB. Two ways of handling the same overshoot, and neither appears on the landing page of the offer.

What can be done about the mobile line?

The €41 bundle may legally combine fixed internet with television, fixed telephony or a mobile subscription. Yet the FPS Economy wrote, in February 2025, that for the time being operators only offer television. Mobile is allowed by the text and absent from the market.

Here is the calculation behind this article. The most generous social discount ever granted on a Belgian telecom bill, €11.50 per month, is larger than the full price of several mobile plans checked on 3 September 2026: hey! at €5 on the Orange network, yoin 6 GB at €6.50 on promotion and €8.50 afterwards on the Proximus network, Scarlet Red at €8 on the Proximus network, BASE B-15 at €10.50 instead of €15 on the Telenet network. On mobile, changing label pays better than social support, and it comes with no means test.

On fixed internet the state caps a price. On mobile nobody protects you, and the gap between two brands on the same network already does the job.

Was the old social tariff better?

On flexibility, yes, and the regulator does not hide it.

The old scheme granted 50% off the fixed line connection, 40% off the subscription up to €8.40 per month, and €3.10 off calls, for a total of €11.50. It applied to people over 65, people with a disability, people with a hearing impairment, laryngectomy patients, military blind and recipients of the integration income. The customer picked any subscription and the discount landed on it. Today they pick between two imposed formulas, with 30 Mbps as the legal floor, and they lose the fixed line unless they pay for the bundle.

The new scheme has one advantage the old one lacked: it is a capped price, readable in advance, where a percentage discount depends on the tariff it is applied to. An operator that raises its prices cannot go above the social cap.

Five changes that end the old social tariff

The BIPT checks these conditions every year, and the exit is final: no return to the old scheme has been possible since March 2024.

• A change of tariff plan, even with the same operator, even to a cheaper formula.
• A change of operator, including to another brand of the same group.
• Withdrawal of the tariff plan from the market, a decision that is not yours.
• A move, as soon as fixed internet is no longer supplied at the same address.
• Loss of the legal conditions, established at the annual check.

The FPS Economy adds two cases: the death of the contract holder, and a person who already benefits from the social internet offer joining the household.

We do not subscribe to any of these plans and we measure nothing in the field: this page cross-checks regulatory texts, federal government communications and public price lists, collected on 3 September 2026. The mobile market ranked on the thirteenth-month price sits in our 5G plan ranking, host network shown next to every line, and reorders in the comparison tool. On billing, we have covered how to calculate the real 24-month cost of a plan; on heavy data use, what Belgian unlimited actually means.

Sources: BIPT, "Social tariff" and the FAQ on discounts for applications filed before 01/03/2024, consulted on 3 September 2026; FPS Economy, press release "Social internet offer: nearly 21,000 contracts signed", 27 February 2025; Telecommunications Ombudsman Service, "Information on the social tariff", page updated 5 April 2024; law of 30 August 2023 amending the law of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications, articles 22 and 22/2 of annex 1; L'Avenir, 26 August 2024, on volume overshoot conditions at Proximus and VOO; Selectra Belgium, social tariff page, consulted on 3 September 2026; Mon-Abonnement-Gsm.be, mobile plan prices collected on 3 September 2026. Official operator page: Proximus, social internet offer. No link on this page is monetised.