Brussels residents reportedly concerned about aesthetic impact of Romanian DIGI cable network

Residents in some neighborhoods of Brussels reportedly signed a petition against Romanian telecom operator DIGI Communications, claiming that its fiber network would damage the aesthetic of their facades, according to Economica.net.

The Romanian telecom group should reach a deal and share the networks already installed by the other three operators, the residents claim.

In response, the Romanian company said that all the aesthetic inconveniences will be overseen by the residents of Brussels when the fees charged for DIGI internet and TV services are made public.

"The only way to reduce our costs and offer very affordable prices to the Belgian public is to install our own fiber network ourselves. We understand that building such a network creates inconvenience, but we are ready to debate," said the director of DIGI Belgium, Jeroen Degadt.

"When they find out how low our rates are, we think residents will ultimately be very happy that we've installed fiber in their street," he pointed out.

From a legal perspective, the Belgian Institute for Postal and Telecommunications Services (IBPT) points out that Belgian law does not allow property owners to prevent service providers from installing cables on their facades.

Also, the law (which dates back to 1991) does not allow a property owner to deny access to their frontage just because another supplier has already laid their cables on the frontage. Only when the building is an architectural monument, alternative arrangements must be made, the cited source writes.

Romanian telecom operator DIGI Communications (BVB: DIGI) is launching operations in Belgium in partnership with Citymesh (part of IT group Cegeka), the mobile services being, for the beginning, provided partly through the network of the local operator Proximus.

(Photo source: the company)