Belgium has two major internet providers: Belgacom and Telenet (my current provider). As their mid-range internet packages are quite expensive I went looking for something else.
Dommel has been a hosting provider for a long time and now they offer internet as well. They were disruptive as they were the first (as far as I know) to offer unlimited data traffic in Belgium for reasonable prices. Let's compare the “Cityconnect Lite” package from Dommel with the “Internet Go” from Belgacom and “ExpressNet” from Telenet. These packages are chosen for their data limit: somewhere between 20 and 30 GB will do for me. You may want to compare different packages.
Belgacom | Telenet | Dommel | |
---|---|---|---|
Type | ADSL | Cable | ADSL |
Downstream | 12 Mbps | 15 Mbps | 24 Mbps |
Upstream | 1 Mbps | ? | 3 Mbps |
Data limit | 25 GB | 25 GB | 30 GB |
Price / month | € 41,75 | € 42,91 | € 14,99 + € 9,95 |
Dommel needs a fixed line which you'll have to rent from Belgacom if you don't have one. The cheapest line Belgacom offers is the Discovery line for € 9,95 a month.
After one year (promotions and installation costs not included) Belgacom would cost me € 501, Telenet € 514,92 and Dommel € 299,28. Moving to Dommel would save me € 215 / year.
So where is the catch? The catch is the support desk. Dommel is infamous for its lack of support: e-mails stay unanswered, the helpdesk is understaffed, administration is a disaster, etc. In short: if you don't know how to configure a modem and have no idea what an IP address is, stay away from Dommel and go to one of the big players. There is no one to install your modem and you can only call the helpdesk during office hours (= when you connection goes down on Friday evening you'll have to wait till Monday to call someone).
Not scared yet? Here is what you need to do to move to Dommel.
It will take a month or so to cancel your Telenet subscription so you could do that in advance but make sure to have a short overlap if you don’t want to loose your internet connection before the Dommel one is activated.
Some things to try when it isn’t working as it should.
This article was based on an article (in Dutch) by Karl Leenknegt. Check out the comments to get some reactions of happy and angry customers with their stories.
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