Apart from a joint offer of a service and a device (see below) is a “bundled offer” or a “bundle” is a commercial offer including at least two separate telecommunications services. It can include two, three, four or even five different telecommunications services: fixed telephony, Internet, analogue television, digital television or television via an app, mobile telephony or just some of these services. It is also possible to add several mobile subscriptions.
There is no single answer to “Is a bundle more advantageous?”
Here are the points you should focus on when checking if the chosen bundle suits you:
Included services
- Does the bundle suit your needs: number and type of services included?
- Do you need all the components of that bundle? Is a lower price a sufficient argument to subscribe to a quadruple play bundle instead of a triple play bundle?
- Does the type of included communications, the type of television, the type of Internet connection, the included speed, the included volume... suit your telecommunications consumption profile?
- Do the bundle specifications suit the needs of your family: number of mobile subscriptions? Characteristics of these subscriptions?
Financially
- You must weigh your desire to have only one bill against the amount of that bill;
- If you can benefit from a discount during a number of months, be sure to check the amount that will be due each month after this discount period;
- Be also sure to check if you can benefit from a discount on the installation, activation, rental or purchase of the hardware.
It should be noted that the operator must specify the duration of the contract you must take out to benefit from the discount (the duration cannot exceed 24 months).
If a promotion includes a free device or device at a reduced price, bought from the operator and if you have taken out a fixed-term contract, the operator must annex the repayment table to the contract. In this table the operator has to state for each month of the duration of the contract an amount that you have to pay when you cancel your contract.The table must show the residual value of the device for each month of the term of the fixed-term contract. The residual value of the device must decrease by the same amount each month.
It is rather difficult for an average user to compare the various bundles on the residential market due to their characteristics.
Because of this, the BIPT launched a tool enabling you to compare them based on objective criteria, i.e. the tariff simulator.