“spoofing Royal Decree”

What falls outside the scope of the spoofing Royal Decree?

In the following cases the Royal Decree has no impact, thus making spoofing still possible:

• SMS traffic;
• voice calls made in Belgium;
• all voice calls received with foreign telephone numbers;
• all voice calls you receive when roaming abroad with your smartphone.

For what bona fide applications is calling from abroad using a Belgian geographical number still possible?

In case of the following services it is still possible to receive calls from abroad provided the provider of that service meets a number of conditions and only with Belgian geographical numbers:

• when using the Internet line to make calls through “nomadic numbers” (a telephone number you can use worldwide because it is not linked to a certain termination point but to a specific device – also called “nomadic VoIP services");
• when using cloud-based dial-out conference services;
• when using cloud-based customer support services;
• when using cloud-based telephone direct marketing services.

Companies operating with call centres and customer support services based on cloud applications, will have to register their Belgian telephone numbers with their operators and satisfy some specific conditions in order to exclude spoofing as much as possible (see question “What conditions do companies have to satisfy in order to enjoy the exceptions laid down in the spoofing Royal Decree?”).

For nomadic VoIP calls the nomadic use of telephone numbers is occasional compared to the use of those numbers for calls made from Belgium.

What conditions do companies have to satisfy in order to enjoy the exceptions laid down in the spoofing Royal Decree?

The operators that treat the calls to provide the bona fide services falling under the exceptions described in the question “For what bona fide applications is calling from abroad using a Belgian geographical number still possible?”, must keep those calls fully under their control (e.g. using a VPN or direct connection) and terminate them at the operator who is the first to receive the inbound international phone call. This must be registered in a written agreement between both operators, which expressly contains the telephone numbers falling under this exception.

In addition, upon simple request (by way of the direct or indirect method laid down in Article 127 of the Act of 13 June 2005 on electronic communications) the BIPT can obtain from the operator who receives the inbound international telephone call the name, address and contact data, or any other identification data, of the user who has made a specific type of call. If the answer is not given in time or if the answer is incomplete or incorrect, that operator blocks within 24 hours all inbound calls from that user.

The operators who directly receive inbound international telephone calls through their international network interfaces, can make use of the exceptions only after having complied with all the provisions of the Royal Decree that have been registered in a written agreement with the caller’s operator. 

Moreover, there are additional terms that apply to cloud-based dial-out conference services, cloud-based customer support services and cloud-based telephone direct marketing services.

What additional terms do companies have to meet, in order to enjoy the exception for cloud-based telephone direct marketing and customer support services?

The exception only applies to geographical numbers assigned to companies established in Belgium. Those companies must be able to prove by means of a written agreement that they have been assigned a geographical number which is used for the services that fall under the exception. That telephone number must be under the company’s full control and therefore must not be shared with other companies. 

The agreement concluded between the operators and mentioned in the last but one paragraph of the question “What conditions do companies have to satisfy in order to enjoy the exceptions laid down in the spoofing Royal Decree?” also contains the full list of the geographical telephone numbers which the exception applies to.

What additional terms do companies have to meet, in order to enjoy the exception for cloud-based dial-out conference services?

The agreement concluded between the operators and mentioned in the last but one paragraph of the question “What conditions do companies have to satisfy in order to enjoy the exceptions laid down in the spoofing Royal Decree?” also contains the full list of the geographical telephone numbers which the exception applies to.

What additional terms do companies have to meet, in order to enjoy the exception for nomadic VoIP services?

The nomadic use of telephone numbers must be occasional compared to the use of those numbers for calls made from Belgium. This exception only applies to geographical telephone numbers.