Easy Switch: will you lose service when you change provider?
Does Easy Switch cut your internet off? The real timings of a Belgian provider change, the compensation amounts, and the things the procedure ignores.
No, not in a switch that goes to plan. Your new provider activates its services only once it is ready, then terminates the old contract on your behalf. The outage is measured in hours. And if it drags on, Belgian law puts an exact figure on what you are owed.
Easy Switch is Belgium's procedure for changing fixed-line provider. Set out in the Royal Decree of 6 September 2016 and applied since 1 July 2017, it kicks in as soon as your contract includes at least a fixed internet or television service. Its principle fits in one sentence: the paperwork moves from the customer to the new provider.
What exactly is Easy Switch?
A mandate, not a button. By giving your Easy Switch ID to the provider you are joining, you authorise it to handle the exit from your old contract for you.
The scope covers fixed internet whatever the technology, television, fixed telephony including portability of your number, and bundles combining those services. A mobile plan included in a fixed bundle travels with the rest. Using the procedure is free. Since 1 October 2023 it has been open to companies and self-employed people holding a business or VAT number, where it was reserved to households until then.
One figure frames the stakes better than any explanation. On the day the overhauling royal decree was published, in October 2022, the telecoms minister noted that 44 % of Belgian subscribers to a bundled internet and television offer had never changed provider, against 19 % in Finland and 33 % in Spain. The regulator put the average gain from switching at €100 a year on mobile and up to €240 a year on fixed internet.
Who cancels the old contract, you or the new provider?
The new provider. It triggers the termination as soon as its own services are working at your address, and the provider you are leaving must stop billing no later than the end of the day following the day it was informed of the transfer.
How long will you be without internet?
A few hours, in the ordinary case. The switch is scheduled for an agreed date, and the old service stops only once the new one is ready to take over. The calendar stretches for another reason: the installation appointment, when a line has to be pulled or a socket fitted.
| Step | Indicative timing | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Signing up with the new provider, ID in hand | day zero | you |
| File passed to the provider being left | around two working days | the new provider |
| Technician appointment if a connection is needed | on the date agreed with you | the new provider |
| Services switched over and activated | on the agreed date | the new provider |
| Fixed number ported | one working day at most | both providers |
| Billing stops at the old provider | end of the day after it learns of the transfer | the provider being left |
Timings reconstructed on 30 August 2026 from the rules in force and the consumer pages of BIPT, the Belgian telecoms regulator. Number porting falls under the Royal Decree of 2 July 2013.
The only genuinely binding deadline is the number: one working day. Everything else depends on a date you choose with the new provider, and that is where you need to be precise when you sign.
The procedure in five steps
- Find your Easy Switch ID and customer number at your current provider.
- Sign up with the new provider and hand over both, cancelling nothing yourself.
- Set the switch date, plus a technician appointment if your home needs connecting.
- Let the new provider activate, port your fixed number and close the old contract.
- Check on the first invoice from both providers that the old contract is really closed, and return the loaned equipment.
The ID sits on the first page of every invoice, in the customer account and in the welcome letter sent at sign-up. At Proximus, which runs its own copper, fibre and mobile networks, and at Telenet, owner of its cable network in Flanders and Brussels, it appears at the top of the document. The same goes for Orange, which owns its mobile network plus the Walloon cable network taken over from VOO, and for Scarlet and edpnet, both inside the Proximus group and riding its fixed network.
The technician does not show up: what does the provider owe you?
Thirty euros. Automatically, with no claim on your part, provided its presence within the agreed time slot is not evidenced by an intervention report. Before 1 October 2023 the same missed appointment was worth €10, and you had to go and get it yourself.
The rest of the scale is less well known, and nobody publishes it on a single Belgian page.
| The situation | Amount | Automatic or on request |
|---|---|---|
| Technician absent from the installation appointment | €30 per missed appointment | automatic |
| Service interrupted for more than one working day during the migration | €10 per calendar day | automatic, on the first invoice or by credit note |
| Activation later than the agreed date | €6 per day of delay | on request, from the new provider |
| Number ported late | €3 per day per number | on request, within six months |
| Late port covering at least two numbers | €5 per day | on request, within six months |
Scale assembled on 30 August 2026 from the consumer pages of BIPT and the summary published by the consumer protection centre in Eupen, updated on 17 February 2025.
The regulator gives its own worked example for the interruption: old service cut on the Thursday, new service live the following Tuesday, €30 owed automatically. Now stack the bad scenario. That same customer waits for a technician who never turns up, then sees activation run five days past the promised date: €30 for the missed appointment, €30 for the outage, €30 for the delay, so €90, of which €60 arrives by itself and €30 has to be asked for.
Even in its worst documented run, then, a provider change stays worthwhile against the €240 a year the regulator reckons is recoverable on fixed internet. Fear of the outage costs more than the outage.
One distinction matters. An ordinary fault on a running subscription falls under a different compensation regime, in force since 1 November 2024, with its own thresholds. The scale above applies only to a change of provider.
Standalone mobile, partial migration and your email address stay outside
Six blind spots, all foreseeable, none covered by the procedure:
- A mobile plan sold on its own. It moves through mobile number portability, a separate process. Our guide to switching mobile operator without losing your number sets out that route.
- Partial migration. Moving the television while leaving the internet where it is does not go through Easy Switch, and the automatic compensation goes with it.
- Your provider email address. Services and numbers follow, mailboxes do not.
- Loaned equipment. Modem, set-top box, wifi booster: the new provider's technician does not return them for you, and an unreturned item lands on the closing statement.
- The balance on a financed device. A smartphone spread over twenty-four months remains due at the end of the contract, switch or no switch.
- An address that is not served. The procedure creates no coverage: if the new provider does not reach your façade, there is nothing to move.
Do you have to wait until your commitment ends?
No, past the sixth month. Belgian law removes any early-termination penalty beyond that point, which makes waiting for the contractual end date pointless in the vast majority of cases. The locks that do remain, chiefly the loaned set-top box and the financed handset, are covered in our article on no-commitment internet and TV bundles.
Moving house follows different rules, because transferring a contract and changing provider are not equivalent once you look at what actually reaches the new address. Our guide to moving house and transferring a contract sets out that trade-off.
Can you move internet and mobile at the same time?
Yes, on one condition: the mobile line has to be part of the fixed bundle you are transferring. If it is, the mobile number travels with the rest and you manage a single date.
If it sits on a separate contract, you run two procedures in parallel: Easy Switch for the fixed side, ordinary portability for the mobile. Nothing stops you starting them on the same day, but they do not synchronise with each other, and the mobile port runs on its own clock. Our internet ranking carries the prices recorded this month if you are still choosing a destination.
Frequently asked questions
Maxime suit le marché télécom belge depuis dix ans. Il épluche les grilles tarifaires de Proximus, Orange, Telenet, VOO, BASE et des MVNO pour traduire le jargon (VDSL, câble, Easy Switch, 4play) en conseils utilisables.