Belgacom’s outage on October 11

Due to the lack of transparency on Belgacom’s part, I wish to share my experience of the outage they’ve had from October 11 to October 12.

Time zone is UTC.

• 2013-10-11, 11:34: DSL desynchronisation, phone line is disconnected.
• 2013-10-11, 13:40: I call my landline, no tone.
• 2013-10-11, 14:01: I call +32 800 33 800 with my mobile phone and I hear: “En raison de circonstances exceptionnelles, Belgacom ne peut répondre à votre appel pour l’instant. Nous vous prions de bien vouloir nous en excuser et nous vous invitons à nous rappeler plus tard.” (“Due to exceptional circumstances, Belgacom cannot answer your call at the moment. We are sorry and invite you to call us back later.”)
• 2013-10-11, 14:19: I call +32 800 33 800 again and I hear the same recorded message.
• 2013-10-11, 14:39: same thing.
• 2013-10-11, 15:00: same thing.
• 2013-10-11, 17:32 to 17:53: I call +32 800 33 800, an answering machine picks up and gives me a few menus, I manage to get the right one and have to wait for a human to pick up with terrible music, the call ended after >20 minutes of music, for no apparent reason.
• 2013-10-11, 17:50: I call my landline, there’s a tone but the phone doesn’t ring.
• 2013-10-11, 18:15: back to the recorded message.
• 2013-10-11, 18:50: same thing.
• 2013-10-11, 19:17: same thing.
• 2013-10-11, 19:23: same thing.
• 2013-10-12, 09:00: phone line reconnected and DSL synchronisation.

The wait time to reach them this morning was 1 hour and 52 minutes.

All recorded shows on the IPTV set-top box have been erased and recovery isn’t possible according to them.