Cancelling Proximus: in writing, never by phone

In writing, and nothing else. A call to customer service does not end a Belgian telecom contract: the law requires operators to accept cancellation by any written means, with no reason to be given. Past the sixth month, the early termination fee drops to zero. Before it, the fee is a calculation.

Cancelling, under the Belgian Electronic Communications Act of 13 June 2005, means ending the contract that binds you to your operator, service by service or all at once. It is neither Easy Switch, the Belgian procedure that moves a fixed contract to a competitor, nor the 14-day cooling-off right.

Which channels actually count as cancellation?

Every channel that leaves a written trace. The FPS Economy is blunt about the trap that catches most people: cancelling by telephone is not sufficient.

Table assembled on 18 September 2026 from article 111/3 of the Belgian Electronic Communications Act and the consumer pages of the FPS Economy and BIPT (IBPT, the Belgian telecom regulator).

Proximus, which runs its own copper, fibre and mobile networks, pushes its freephone number as hard as its portal on its cancellation page. Telenet, which owns its cable network in Flanders and Brussels, and Orange, which owns its mobile network plus the Walloon cable taken over from VOO, both route you through the portal as well. Scarlet and Mobile Vikings, both inside the Proximus group and riding its network, work the same way. The channel changes, the rule does not.

The procedure in six steps

1. Decide what leaves: the whole contract, or a single service.
2. Take your customer number and your Easy Switch ID off the first page of any invoice.
3. Find the contract start date and the amortisation schedule attached to it.
4. Send the cancellation in writing, naming the services precisely.
5. Return the loaned equipment within the stated window, with a photo and a drop-off receipt.
6. Check the closing invoice line by line, pro rata included.

Step three is the one everyone skips, and the only one that puts a figure on the exit bill.

What does leaving before month six cost?

The subscription fees still running up to the end of that sixth month, and nothing more. The rule applies to every Belgian operator whatever term was signed, and it is far gentler than the fear of a 24-month commitment suggests.

Take a bundle at 75 euros a month, a common order of magnitude for a household with internet, television and a landline.

Calculated on 18 September 2026 by applying article 111/3 of the Belgian Electronic Communications Act to a monthly fee of 75 euros. No Belgian source publishes this month-by-month breakdown.

Waiting two months, from the third to the fifth, therefore saves 150 euros. That is the only calendar that matters, and it appears on no commercial page.

How much is still owed on a financed handset?

Its residual value, and it runs on its own clock. Where a device was supplied free or at a reduced price because you subscribed, the operator may claim an extra amount, capped by BIPT at the residual value in the amortisation schedule attached to the contract, or at the remaining subscription fees if that figure is lower. The schedule must be straight-line and may not run beyond 24 months.

Straight-line amortisation of 30 euros a month over 24 months, calculated on 18 September 2026 for a device priced at 720 euros in the schedule, with the termination fee based on the same 75 euro bundle.

Look at the second and third columns for month seven. The law lets you walk away without a euro of termination fee, while the handset still asks for 510. The exit lock on a Belgian contract stopped being the commitment a long time ago: it is the phone sitting on the living room table.

The set-top box and modem stay the operator's property

They go back to a shop or travel back with the return label provided, within the window the operator states in its closing letter. A missing item lands on the final statement at its residual value.

Five items survive cancellation, and none of them disappear because the contract ends:

• The balance on a financed device, owed until its amortisation runs out.
• Loaned equipment, modem, set-top box, wifi booster, invoiced if it is not returned.
• Open invoices, including the last month's out-of-bundle usage and the pro rata.
• An e-mail address carrying the operator's domain, lost with the contract, to be migrated before the closing date.
• The convergence discount on the services you keep, which goes the moment one line leaves the bundle.

That last point deserves a calculation before anything is signed. Pulling a mobile line out of a 4play often pushes up the price of the three remaining services, and the honest comparison is the household total, not the line that leaves. Our article on no-commitment internet and TV bundles covers the other locks, and the one on cutting your telecom bill sets out what to do when the goal is paying less rather than leaving.

Should you cancel yourself before switching?

No. Definitely not.

Cancelling before the new service works is manufacturing your own outage. Let Easy Switch handle it, since it hands the exit to the new operator and triggers automatic compensation when the migration drags.

Does a price rise open an exit window?

Yes, though not every rise does. The operator must notify you individually at least one month before any change to the contract, and you then have three months from that notice to leave without penalty.

The exception is a large one and nobody highlights it: an increase flowing from the price indexation already written into the contract opens no penalty-free exit at all. The annual rise that lands every winter falls squarely in that category. A changed channel package, an option that becomes chargeable or a change of conditions, on the other hand, leave you free for three months. The rules on price changes apply to incumbents and alternative operators alike.