Before you start

Passport or eID for SIM registration
A Belgian address for fixed broadband
A Belgian bank account for direct debit on most postpaid plans
An unlocked or eSIM-capable handset

Step-by-step

1
Buy a prepaid SIM on arrival and register it
Sold in supermarkets and phone shops and usable immediately, but identification is legally required and an unregistered card is deactivated. You can register with a passport before you have an eID, so this is not blocked by the commune queue.
In personWho: YouDay 1
2
Compare the resellers before signing with the big three
Mobile Vikings, hey!, Scarlet and others run on the Proximus, Orange and Telenet networks at much lower prices. Coverage is identical because the towers are the same. The flagship bundles earn their premium mainly when you want mobile and fixed together.
OnlineWho: You
3
Use the BIPT comparison tool
The federal regulator publishes an independent comparison of mobile and fixed offers. It is the only neutral one — commercial comparison sites take commission — and it exists precisely because Belgian bundle pricing is deliberately hard to read.
OnlineWho: You
4
Ask what a protected building is physically connected to
The centre is a World Heritage site and much of it is listed, which constrains what can be run into and up a façade. Coax and copper are the norm; fibre arrives street by street and a listed building on a fibred street may still be on cable internally. If your income depends on the connection, ask what is installed and whether there is a live termination point in the flat, before the lease rather than after.
OnlineWho: You
5
Switch operators with Easy Switch
Belgium's Easy Switch process makes the incoming operator handle the migration and keeps your number with no gap in service. Cancelling the old contract first is the standard mistake and leaves you offline for a week.
OnlineWho: You
6
Book the installation slot early
Fixed-line activation runs one to three weeks out and often needs someone at home, and engineer coverage in a smaller city is thinner than in a metropolitan one. Arrange a mobile data fallback rather than assuming the line will be live on move-in day.
OnlineWho: You1–3 weeks

Documents you’ll need

Passport or eID for SIM registration
Proof of address for fixed-line installation
Belgian bank account details for direct debit
Landlord permission where cabling work is needed — and, in a listed building, possibly more than that

Things most newcomers don’t know

Anonymous prepaid SIMs were abolished in 2017 and an unregistered card stops working.

Belgian law requires every prepaid card to be tied to an identified holder. You can register with a passport before you have an eID, so this does not block you on arrival — but skipping it does. People who buy a SIM for a partner or a visiting relative and never register it lose both the number and the credit, with no retrospective reactivation.

Source: BIPT

You can walk away from a Belgian telecom contract after six months, penalty-free.

Consumer rules let residential customers end mobile and internet contracts at any point once six months have elapsed, with no early-termination charge. That changes the calculus entirely at signing: there is little reason to trade a long commitment for a discount, and trying an operator carries almost no risk. Providers do not volunteer this, and most customers stay put assuming they are locked in.

Source: BIPT

A listed façade is a broadband constraint, and nobody mentions it in the listing.

Much of the centre is protected fabric, which limits what can be drilled, clipped or run up a wall. In practice that means the historic core is coax-and-copper territory for longer than the surrounding districts, and 'fibre available in your street' can be true while your specific building is not connectable without permissions nobody wants to seek. Ask what is physically terminated inside the flat, and get the answer before you sign.

Source: community-reported

Coax means your upload is far slower than your download, which the advertised speed hides.

Bruges households are largely served by the Flemish cable network alongside Proximus copper. Cable advertises a big download figure and a much smaller upload one, and the upload is what matters for video calls, cloud backups and pushing large files. For anyone working remotely for a Brussels or foreign employer — a common pattern here, given how small the local English-language job market is — that is the specification to check.

Source: community-reported; BIPT

Common mistakes to avoid

Buying a prepaid SIM and never completing the mandatory registration.
Signing a flagship bundle without checking the resellers on the same network.
Cancelling the old contract yourself instead of using Easy Switch, and losing the number.
Assuming a listed building in the centre can take whatever the street can.
Assuming symmetric speeds on a coax connection.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.