Belgians pay well over €3 billion to their mobile providers per year, and more often than not refuse to change providers when prices are raised.
According to a study by the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT), users can save well over €400 by changing providers. But only a small minority does so.
The study states that only one in a hundred consumers changes their provider when prices are increased to save money. Over half of Belgians don't even consider searching for cheaper options.
One in three people indicated that their plans had either been changed or prices had been increased in the past twelve months. BIPT points towards status quo bias as the main reason people do not change providers, as consumers are scared of change.
Even cheaper subscriptions have a high savings potential. According to BIPT, a low-volume subscription of 10 GB of data with limited calls and texts has a maximum saving capacity of over €200.
The discrepancy in prices has increased in recent years, as new, low-cost telecom providers have entered the Belgian market.
Brands like Digi, Undo and Mega use the infrastructure of bigger, legacy brands to provide cheap subscriptions. But their market share is still limited. Digi, the largest low-cost provider, owns less than five per cent of the market.
