Cancelling your internet contract and switching provider in Belgium: the Easy Switch procedure step by step (2026)

Switching internet provider in Belgium scares people for the wrong reasons. They picture a registered letter, a month without a connection and an invoice that keeps arriving from the old provider. The reality is far simpler: since 1 July 2017, the Easy Switch procedure has required the new provider to terminate the old contract on your behalf, and the law lets you leave free of charge once the contract is six months old. What remains is knowing the exact mechanics, the three situations where they do not apply, and the mistakes that turn a two-hour switch into a six-month dispute. Rules verified in August 2026.

Do you have to cancel your internet subscription yourself in Belgium?

No, unless you are leaving without taking out a subscription elsewhere. The Easy Switch procedure, set up by the BIPT, Belgium's postal and telecommunications regulator, rests on a single principle: the new provider terminates the old contract, under a mandate you give it when subscribing. You draft nothing and send nothing.

The scope covers the household's fixed services: fixed internet — ADSL, VDSL, cable or fibre —, television, fixed telephony with number portability, and bundles combining those services, including the mobile line when it is part of the bundle. The procedure is free and its value comes down to three guarantees: no gap between the two contracts, no prolonged double billing, and a switch date agreed in advance rather than a haphazard sequence.

If you are cancelling without switching — moving abroad, moving back in with your parents, the end of a student flat —, you take back control. In that case, cancellation must be made in writing: a letter, an email, or any other written channel the provider has set up for the purpose. A phone call is not legally sufficient, whatever the adviser on the line may say.

How does switching provider with Easy Switch work, step by step?

In seven steps, six of which take you less than ten minutes in total. Here is the full sequence, in order.

1. Check availability at your exact address. Before anything else, test coverage with the providers you are considering: the best offer on the market is worthless if it does not reach your street. Our guide to checking fibre availability at your address sets out the tools to use.
2. Note your Easy Switch ID and customer number from a recent invoice or your current provider's customer area. Allow two minutes.
3. Check how old your contract is. Six full months: you leave free of charge. Less than six months: you will owe the subscription up to the end of the sixth month.
4. Subscribe with the new provider, giving it the Easy Switch ID. That code identifies the contract to be taken over and closed.
5. Choose the switch date. If a physical connection is needed, an engineer appointment is added — our article on fibre installation step by step describes what happens on the day.
6. Let the switch happen. The new provider activates your services and triggers termination of the old contract on the agreed date. Actual interruption: a few hours in a standard scenario.
7. Return the rented equipment and check on the new provider's first invoice, then on the old one's last, that the contract has indeed been closed.

What to have ready: a recent invoice, your ID card, your bank account number. Actual time you spend: twenty to thirty minutes, spread over two to six weeks depending on whether a physical connection is needed. Cost: zero, if the contract is more than six months old and you return the equipment on time.

Where do you find your Easy Switch ID at Proximus, Telenet, Orange or VOO?

On the invoice and in the customer area, without exception. Regulation requires every internet and TV provider to show the Easy Switch ID and the customer number on the invoice — paper and digital alike — as well as in the customer's app or personal web area. No Belgian provider is entitled to refuse it or make you earn it.

Locations vary slightly. At Proximus, the code appears in the invoice header and in MyProximus. At Orange, it appears at the top left of the first invoice page, and is also accessible from the customer area and the MyOrange app, as the operator's official support page explains. At Telenet, it can be viewed in My Telenet; at VOO, in the invoice header and in myVOO. Failing that, a call to the customer service of the provider you are leaving is enough — the only moment in the whole procedure where the phone is still useful.

What does cancelling an internet subscription really cost?

Zero euros once the contract is six months old, and that is a rule of law, not a commercial favour. The FPS Economy is explicit: a telecom contract, fixed-term or open-ended, can be cancelled without reason and free of charge after six months. The contractual notice period must be respected, but it may not exceed two months.

Before six months, this is not a penalty but a balance: you pay the full subscription fees due up to the end of the sixth month. Two nuances deserve attention. The first concerns equipment given away or sold at a reduced price — a smartphone in a bundle, for instance: the provider may claim an additional indemnity, but it is capped at the residual value of the product, as set out in an amortisation table annexed to the contract with a maximum duration of twenty-four months. You are entitled to ask for that table. The second: a provider that unilaterally changes the terms of your contract, price increases included, opens a right to cancel free of charge, including within the first six months. That is what our analysis of the price of fibre after the promotion sets out.

When does Easy Switch not apply?

Three situations fall outside the scope, and it is better to know them before subscribing.

A standalone mobile plan, first. Easy Switch covers fixed services. A standalone mobile subscription falls under mobile number portability, a separate but equally simple procedure, also handled by the new provider. If, however, your mobile line is included in a fixed bundle, it does fall within the scope of Easy Switch.

Partial migration, next. This is the most common trap. Do you want to take the internet to a new provider but keep the TV with the current one? Easy Switch does not apply. You will have to deal separately with both providers, with no guaranteed synchronisation and no protection against double billing — and you will usually lose the multi-product discount on the services you leave in place, a point we quantified in our comparison of a bundle versus internet only.

Moving house, finally, which is not a change of provider but a transfer of installation. If you stay with the same provider at a new address, it is an internal procedure, with its own lead times and its own possible fees. Many households do use a move as the moment to switch: in that case you combine both procedures, and checking availability at the new address becomes the first step, not the last.

What equipment must you return, and by when?

All rented equipment, within the deadline set by the provider — in practice, around thirty days after the cancellation takes effect. The list is longer than people expect: the modem and its power cable, the TV set-top box with its remote control and power supply, and any Wi-Fi repeaters or boosters supplied with the subscription. A single missing accessory can be enough to trigger an invoice.

Returns are made in a shop or by post, depending on each provider's arrangements. The reflex that prevents disputes fits in one sentence: insist on written proof of return — a receipt, an acknowledgement, a tracking number — and keep it for three to four months, until the final invoices are settled. It is the document that instantly resolves a disagreement over equipment "never received".

One practical detail is often overlooked: keep your old equipment plugged in and working until the switch is formally confirmed. Returning the modem three days too early means going without a connection in the meantime — and having no fallback if the new provider's connection runs late.

What are the most common mistakes when switching provider?

Five, and they all look alike: they consist of acting yourself where the procedure expects you to wait.

Cancelling yourself before the switch tops the list. That is what takes you outside the scheme and creates the very outage you were trying to avoid. Forgetting to note the Easy Switch ID before cancelling comes next: once the contract is closed, retrieving the code from a provider that is no longer yours becomes a chore. Leaving before six months without doing the maths is the third: saving €8 a month does not offset three months of subscription owed as a balance.

The last two play out after the switch. Not checking the old provider's final invoice lets through direct debits that should have stopped — check that the closing date matches the switch date. And returning incomplete equipment, with no proof of return, opens the door to an equipment charge several weeks later, once memories and receipts have faded.

What should you do if the old provider keeps billing?

A written complaint first, mediation next. The prior approach to the provider is not a courtesy: it is a condition of admissibility for what follows. Write, date, keep a copy.

If the dispute persists, refer the matter to the Ombudsman Service for Telecommunications, an independent body competent for disputes between users and providers. Its intervention is free and aims at an amicable settlement within the period set by law. In parallel, the BIPT handles complaints about breaches of telecom legislation — fees charged outside the legal framework, abusive notice periods, refusal to provide the Easy Switch ID.

Three documents are enough to settle most cases: the written confirmation of the switch date from the new provider, the proof of equipment return, and the disputed invoices. Build that file as you go rather than after the fact.

That leaves the real question, the one that comes before all the mechanics: which offer to switch to. The procedure is identical whichever provider you land with — Proximus, Telenet, Orange, VOO, Digi or Scarlet — but the gain depends entirely on what you sign. Before triggering the switch, compare on the post-promotion price and the real speed, not the headline rate: our ranking of the best fibre internet offers in Belgium is built on exactly those two criteria. Switching provider to save €5 a month for six months, then absorbing an increase in the thirteenth, means going through the whole thing again a year later — without the benefit.