Editing Telecommunications in Belgium (section)

===Telephone===
{{See also|Telephone numbers in Belgium|International Bell Telephone Company}}

The telephone system itself is highly developed and technologically advanced, with full automation in facilities that handle domestic and international telecom. Domestically speaking, the county has a nationwide [[mobile phone|cellular telephone system]] and an extensive network of [[coaxial cable|telephone cables]]. Telephone regulation is a national competency.

The [[country code]] for Belgium is '''32''' and the [[List of international call prefixes|international call prefix]] is '''00'''.

A [[telephone number]] in [[Belgium]] is a sequence of nine or ten numbers dialled on a telephone to make a call on the telephone network in Belgium. Belgium is under a [[telephone numbering plan|closed]] [[Telephone numbering plan#Closed dialing plans|telephone numbering plan]], but retains the trunk code, "0", for all national dialling.

====Fixed telephones====
There were 4.668 million land [[telephone]] lines in use in [[Belgium]] in 2007, a slight decrease on the 4.769 million in use in 1997.

The majority state-owned public [[telephone company]] of Belgium is [[Proximus Group|Proximus]]. Some other or private operators exist, as [[Scarlet (telco)|Scarlet]] ([[Proximus Group|Proximus]]) and [[Base (mobile telephony provider)|Base]] ([[Telenet]]).

====Mobile telephones====
[[Mobile phone|Mobile telephone]] ownership has increased by nearly one thousand percent in the period 1997–2007, from 974,494 to 10.23 million.

There are three licensed [[mobile network operator]]s (MNO) in Belgium, [[Proximus]] ([[Belgacom]]), [[Orange Belgium]] ([[Orange S.A.]]) and [[Telenet (Belgium)|Telenet]]/[[Base (mobile telephony provider)|Base]] and numerous [[mobile virtual network operator]]s (MVNO).

A fourth license will be auctioned off by the government in January 2010.