Telenet offers internetabo for five euros per month for vulnerable groups – IT Pro – News

The Belgian provider Telenet is introducing a basic internet subscription in December, whereby vulnerable families receive a fixed internet connection for five euros per month. The connection is via a 4G modem that converts the signal into a WiFi connection.

Telenet mentions the subscription Telenet Essential Internet and says that its offer is aimed at vulnerable groups who have no or very limited internet access at home. The provider calls the connection ‘basic internet’, with which users can do homework, look for work or look up information online. It is not clear what speeds and what kind of data bundle the Essential Internet customers will receive. Tweakers has asked Telenet questions about this.

The subscription will start in December with a test, when the company wants to connect seven hundred families in Brussels and in two Flemish cities. These subscribers cannot, as with a traditional subscription, take out a subscription via a Telenet store or website, instead the connection is via social organizations such as the Public Center for Social Welfare. According to Telenet, the OCMW and other associations know best who needs internet access the most. An evaluation will follow in the spring of 2021, after which the company wants to launch the subscription on a larger scale in Flanders and Brussels. Ten thousand vulnerable families must be connected by the end of 2021, with possible further upscaling thereafter.

According to Telenet, the corona virus has widened the digital divide in Belgian society. Certain groups became cut off from society, according to the company, when many people worked more from home and had to do more via the internet. The company also points to the Digital Inclusion Barometer of the King Baudouin Foundation last August. According to this survey, in 2019, ten percent of Belgian households had no access to the internet at home. This amounts to 650,000 Belgian households. Thirty percent of households with a low income have no internet access at home.

In addition to the Telenet Essential Internet subscription, the provider has announced that it will give away free Telenet Wi-Free codes for longer. Since March, more than six thousand vulnerable families have been using these codes, with which school-going children and young students can connect to Telenet’s 1.5 million public Wi-Free points. This program will be extended until June 30, 2021.

Update, 10:35 am: According to a Telenet spokesperson, the subscription will have a monthly limit of 20GB per month and the speed will be 2 to 5Mbit / s. The subscription will start at the end of this year in Mechelen, Brussels and a second Flemish city, later the subscription should also become available in Wallonia. According to the spokesperson, there are no connection costs and the MiFi router is included in the subscription.

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