The ongoing political turmoil in the linguistically divided Belgium has failed to dent the Belgian volume of communication and the market being still confined largely to the local telco Belgacom, is drawing ire of the European Union executive. In an effort to somewhat cushion the EU discontent on competition ground, the Belgium government last week announced a new plan to redesign the country’s telecommunications scenario.

Belgium‘s Business minister Vincent Van Quickenborne last week said that the fresh governmental plan would shake up the telecoms regulatory regime in the country - as well as awarding new telecoms licenses. The minister straightway revealed that the current regime would give way to the open market policy, a condition that EU has been seeking in its member states since long. The local market is largely dominated by Belgacom - which is also majority owned by the State.

The European Commission had previously criticised the lack of competition in the country and called for the regulator, BIPT to be granted additional powers to intervene in the market. In a letter made public earlier in November, the European Commission invited BIPT to ensure that wholesale remedies are properly enforced and had asked for a new market analysis to be carried out within one year.