General Question regarding commercial customs

[Macs]

Ok, I'm new in the country and I have to get used to a lot of things, but there are some that I don't understand...
Regarding commercial customs with ISP for example... ok I can understand that you can't know in advance what kind of line
you will have when you subscribe for a 50/6 contract. It depends on the distance/quality of you connection to the delivery
box. Some experienced users with tools could try to guess and know what they will get... ok, fine, there are a lot of
good reasons ( Belgacom ownership of the lines, etc ).
BUT could anyone explain me WHY everybody consider normal to pay the full price even if you get lesser? It should be proportionally
adjusted to what you get in my opinion.. I order I 50/6 then get a 20/2, I should pay 1/3 of the price, this will ensure every ISP will do
his best to deliver you the best line, it's in their convenience.
Does this country have an authority of telecommunication that looks after these commercial regulations valid for all the commercial players?

[depeje]

That's the bipt. But they accept that.

[ Post made via mobile device ]

[Ken]

Yes but we shouldn't!

[FlashBlue]

Your question is valid, but the explanation is not very easy, there are several factors involved.

-Technical limitations, it is normal, and accepted that you cannot be sure which profile you will receive on your DSL line, untill the line is activated, despite the available tests. This is influenced by distance to the ROP or switchboard, cable quality, equipment limitations, etc.

-Limited profile availability, traditionally speaking only a limited number of speed profiles where available on the DSL infrastructures, which meant, that if for example a 30/6 profile was not possible, you immediatly dropped to a 20/6 or 16/x profile. In the future this should be improve, with dynamic profiling of the phone lines.

-Commercial and Accounting reasons; i suspect (not sure) that it would cause a serious additional load on the commercial and accounting departments, if a provider would offer customized profiles and prices to their customers, based on the maximum speed their DSL connection can offer.

-Line pricing, I suspect that the alternative providers have to pay the same fee to Belgacom, independent on which profile applies to your DSL line. So it is a fixed cost for them too, and if they gave you a discount because of a lower profile, their profit margins would drop, or disappear completely.

-Last but not least, the regulatory authority, known in dutch as the "BIPT (Belgian institute for post and telecommunication), that (among other things) decides which possibilities the line ower (Belgacom) has to offer to the alternative providers.



I tried to be as thorough as possible, although i am not certain about all reasons, but i suspect that fellow users will correct or amend the information if i was incorrect.

[cptKangaroo]

The number of HD TV decoders you can install, seems to be the best indicator for guessing what speeds you will end up with. You can check on this Belgacom page: http://www.belgacom.be/onetelco/be-en/a ... k_RES.page

The (TV)cable network will open up in October 2012 so that will likely bring a major shift in competition.

[Jan_B]

I would be curious to know if countries exist where the monthly fee is scaled to the actual bandwidth you get.

You seem to come from abroad, maybe you can enlighten me?

[raf1]

Does this country have an authority of telecommunication that looks after these commercial regulations valid for all the commercial players?

Yes, you can contact the Belgian regulator BIPT with your suggestions.

I think you should contact the department "Pool Telecom Market & Media":
http://bipt.be/ShowContent.aspx?levelID ... 77&lang=EN