choosing your Internet service in Belgium

I have been asked to blog about options in Internet in Belgium. This is according to my experience. Please contribute if your experience is different.

In lieu of proactive government, Belgium appears to be run by two monopolies. In a sci-fi twist, these monopolies happen to be the owners of the Belgian information service infrastructure.

This does not mean that you must purchase Internet directly from one of these Belgian monopolies. My understanding is that additional companies are permitted to sell information services in Belgium. However, these interlopers must provide their services via the Belgian technical infrastructure that is owned by the Belgian monopolies. The Belgian monopolies lease their own infrastructure to their competitors, making their competitors also their customers.

Thus, the customers of the Belgian monopolies’ competitors are “third tier” customers of the Belgian monopolies themselves. These Belgian monopolies know exactly what the word “monopoly” means. They generally use their monopoly position to limit bandwidth--for computers and phones.


the Internet “options”

1. Ozone Belgium http://ozonebe.net/home_en.html

I would really like to try this option. As far as I can tell, Ozone.be eludes the Belgian monopolies. But I can’t get a signal in my area (Place Flagey).
This is a wi-fi option that subscribers can access anywhere there is an Ozone signal. All you need is a password. Here’s how I understand it:
Antennae are positioned strategically throughout Brussels and other Belgian cities. These antennae make up a wi-fi “web”. To purchase the Internet, go to the ozone.be web site. Try to visit a different site (e.g. “Google”). If you are immediately re-directed to a hotspot web site, you can access the “Ozone”. Then you can choose one of a series of payment options, from a one-time payment for a single session to a series of sessions to an online subscription. If you own the building, or you can get your landlord to agree to host an antenna, you might be able to receive free access.

Subscription options include:

The short-term pass:

• Pass-1: 4 mega download, 1 mega upload, IP dynamic for 2 euros an hour
• Pass-24: 4 mega download, 1 mega upload, IP dynamic for 10 euros a day

Monthly packages

• Oxygen: 1 mega download, 256k upload, IP dynamic, for 10 euros a month
• Electric: 1 mega download, 1 mega upload, IP dynamic, for 20 euros a month
• Lightning: 5 mega download, 4 mega upload, IP fixed, for 30 euros a month

2. Belgacom http://www.belgacom.be/

There is the mother of all Belgian Internet, the aptly named “Belgacom”. Belgacom regularly runs specials on its web site. Many of these specials offer cheap internet for about 6 months and far more expensive internet for the next six months. All contracts are valid for at least a year. This means that if you sign, you use Belgacom Internet for the year or you pay a “quit fee” that will probably be the equivalent of using Belgacom for the year.

There a myriad of Belgacom Internet options, most available in ADSL. You are supposed to be able to negotiate an option that fits your needs. Ironically, Belgacom owns the telephone and television lines (or its sister-monopoly, Telenet does). Thus, you can get a TV-phone-Internet deal. Recently, Belgacom had some alleged security problems with hackers.

Like a cult, Belgacom is easy to join and impossible to escape without drinking a lot of bitter Kool aid. Some ground rules:

• Print the web page advertising any special rate that you purchase. I had a friend that was overcharged and needed a print screen to prove she'd purchased a special rate.
• Save every receipt, every contract, and every email.
• Sign up to receive your bill by snail mail and pay by bank transfer. That way you can dispute incorrect charges rather than have the charges automatically siphoned from your bank account. If Belgacom takes your money, it is near impossible to get it back.
• Understand that the different parts of Belgacom, such as the billing, the sales and the technical support sections, have little or no communication between them. Cancel your subscription in one department, and you are almost guaranteed to continue to hear from the other.
• Sometimes, they cancel for you, and you just stop receiving Internet. Keep all relevant phone numbers and be prepared to spend hours online if this happens to you.

3. Telenet http://telenet.be/219/0/1/en/residential/internet.html

This is the "other" Belgian monopoly, best known for television versus Internet. Once again, not a lot of download for the cheaper price. The best deals through Telenet include television-Internet combinations. Service can still be a problem. Telenet provides the Internet via cable.

I've never used Telenet. I looked it up on blogs and have tried to integrate these into the post.

A good comparison of the options available between the Belgian duopoly can also be found here.

4. Clearwire

Already got a comment (within 12 hours) about this service. They need to be in a place where wi-fi reception is easy (e.g. high up and with lots of buildings to rebound the wi-fi service). Best part is you can hook up immediately.

Belgacom babies

Belgacom babies are businesses that may have been independent initially. However, now they have been absorbed into the Belgacom infrastructure. They sell the same product, just under a different brand name. The babies are also more into wi-fi, in my limited experience.

1. Mobistar

Mobistar uses, from what I can tell, the Belgacom infrastructure to sell IT services. Individual users like Mobistar because it offers simple mobile Internet in its USB “Internet Everywhere” hook-up. Mobistar is also the source for the Belgian iPhone. Then again, the price is high for the megabytes provided and service is reportedly suggish. Go over your allotted megabytes and you get an inflated bill at the end of the month. You can download a programme to track the megabytes used. This programme has nothing to do with Mobistar itself. I assume a frustrated and sympathetic customer developed it.

3. Base

Base is an alternative to Mobistar and a subsidiary provider of Belgacom services. They were offering unlimited download 30 euros a month. With Base, it’s easiest to buy their modem already configured for Internet access. This modem is delivered by TaxiPost within 3 weeks of ordering Internet services.

You can technically use your own modem to access your Internet. To do so does require you to phone the Base Internet services, open Monday through Saturday, 9.00 to 18.00 hours. You must then negotiate a machine in either French or Dutch to reach a human being capable of guiding you through the modem set-up.

3. Proximus

Also used for mobile Internet. I have no personal experience here either. Some blog research reveals pretty standard Belgian pricing and service. Any input would be much appreciated.

General guidelines for expats

All Belgian Internet contracts are a minimum of one year. Leave your contract early and you must pay an exorbitant “quit fee”.

Essential to remember, from an American standpoint, is that the IT salespeople in Brussels do not understand what they are selling and are under no obligation to understand what they are selling. In my own country, a good salesman with poor information can tie a service provider into a contract that helps the customer and hurts the provider. In the USA, for better or worse, a salesman is a legal representative of the company, and the customer is always right. That’s why American customers are generally regarded as arrogant assholes—it’s our system. In Belgium, this is not the case. In Belgium, a salesman is a magician who will disappear as soon as he’s tricked you into signing on to a service.

The best way to approach a Belgian salesperson is to secure the person’s business card and then over-react, rather than simply react, to Belgian customer service:

• If the salesperson is helpful, don’t simply be grateful, be extremely grateful. I have had good customer service from Belgian ISP providers. I want it to happen again. I sent complimentary emails.
• If the service is horrible, don’t be irritated. Anger is not effective, and asserting yourself in person can be counter-productive. Instead, be cold and logical to the salesperson’s face. Mention the Belgian Ombudsmen for the Internet and the consumer advocate group Test Achats. Promise and then remember to send a registered letter to customer service offices. Write the name of the salesperson, the address of the store, and mention Test Achats and the Belgian Ombudsmen.

USA and Europe: a theory on diversity and unity

A theory: The USA has diversity and unity. Europe has diversity but lacks unity. The American approach works in America. The European approach works in Europe.


The USA:

In the USA, national unity and national diversity are possible because Americans are goal-oriented.

Americans pick a goal to achieve as a group. For example, Americans choose to have one country of an immense size and population with no official language or recognizable culture. But the USA is a country nonetheless. That is the agreed-upon goal. Whatever the individual citizens involved in that goal (national unity) do to achieve and maintain that goal is up to them. Americans are of course interested in how each individual citizen achieves the goal of “nation”. But in America the result, rather than the method, is of primary importance.

This emphasis on achievement rather than how-to-achieve is why Americans argue all the time. A group of Americans can usually agree on an end product, the group’s “goal”. This goal might be, for example, winning an election or making a profit or providing health care, or eliminating racism or saving the environment or cheaper oil or winning a war or fighting a disease or a new software, etc.

What Americans can’t agree on—what is the subject of endless debate, discussion and subjective and objective evaluation and reevaluation—what Americans will never agree on is the best way to achieve the pre-defined goal. Because in the USA, once a goal is defined, the methods for achieving that goal are as diverse as the individuals interested in the achievement. In the USA, often two parties or three coalitions or a million different groups are dedicated to the same goal. This situation can result in dividing (or hiding or stealing or inventing) the resources needed to achieve the goal. This American “goal orientation” means that competition can pre-empt collaboration.

Diversity, and with it disagreement, debate and competition, play an important part in American unity. To an American, the best way to prove that your method is worthwhile is to achieve the method’s pre-defined goal. Achieve the goal first, and your method must be the best. For now.



In Europe:

The “European” approach welcomes diversity. However, “European” diversity is cautious and systematic. In Europe, diversity is preserved at the expense of European unity. At the same time, without this preservation of diversity, any unity in Europe would be impossible.

Europe catalogues culture and diversity. The final decision in European politics, while important, is not as important as the agreement that a “final” decision implies. In European politics, agreement is the purpose of a political discussion. A debate is meant to avoid dissension rather than result in a conclusion. Most European decisions are qualified. They are not settled. They are agreements. They are not endings.

All the most important EU documents are translated into the 23 official European languages (including Gaelic). This is not because the documents are actually requested by the different linguistic communities. This is because to reach an agreement, everyone must be involved or capable of involvement. These documents do not usually have an immense impact on the European population. That is not the point of the publication of the documents. The point of publication is inclusion and eventual accord. The documents reinforce the diversity of European culture and language. Yet the documents also permit all Europeans to access a unified European thought process.

This does not mean that there is unified European community. This does not mean that there is a uniform European legislation. Most European nations do not implement European legislation in a consistent way. For example, a person can legally smoke in a bar in Belgium if a certain amount of alcohol versus food is served. This is not true in Sweden, where European smoking regulation is stricter. The European rules banning smoking in public places are thus shared. But these rules are shared diversely

In Europe, if an action occurs, it occurs unilaterally but is not uniform. That is, the diverse nation-states make the same agreement in the same way but do not expect the same result. The agreement is what is important, not the decision. The unity of Europe is expressed in the agreement between diverse European communities.

Rather than pick a goal, divide up into teams, and hurtle towards the goal as the Americans do, the European approach is carefully concerted. The goal of the EU, if there is a goal, seems to be coordinated movement rather than movement itself. In the USA, movement is where difference is best expressed. The country’s unified destination is where the American states express unity.

Packages in Belgium

Community is expressed in many ways.

In the USA, community could be found in collected groups. The individuals that “collected” these groups made camps, towns, or villages. They depended upon their community colleagues to ensure these camps, towns or villages. A fantastic example of this trust is the Pony Express. The Pony Express was the origin of the modern American postal system. Begun 1860, the Pony Express delivered the mail—throughout the rural USA. The Pony Express was made up of mailmen on horseback. These riders carried the mail across the American midWest, starting in the state of Missouri ( 180,516 sq km) and ending in the state of California ( 423,970 sq km). That is more than 2,437 kilometers-if you are flying. It's farther if you are on horseback and crossing the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon.

The Pony Express worked like this:
A family member in St. Louis sent a letter or a package to a beloved in Portland, Oregon, 3,322 kilometers away (this is a big, rocky country). This family member hoped, had faith—trusted that this package or letter would reach its destination. (Oregon the state, by the way is 251,419 sq km.)

Mailmen in the USA were revered. They held a sacred trust with their national community. They delivered, or they died. Many died. More delivered. They still do, though not on horseback (most of them).

Ah, but that their creed had spread to the Old Countries.

In Belgium (30,510 sq km), packages depend upon the person that delivers. This person does not necessarily depend upon a creed.

True stories, told first-hand to me:
A lost 100 pound suit supposedly delivered to the door of the Scottish owner who was not home. The suit was never seen again—at least, not by any Scotsman (Scotland is 78,772 sq km). A female from Florida (170,304 sq km) received a new camera from her father two weeks after the camera had entered Brussels. The new camera was in a plastic bag, not its original box. The camera was coated in chocolate. The father of the new camera’s owner had not sent her any chocolates (Coals to Newcastle, you know…). Lastly there is the tale of a young woman who received a card listing all her gifts. Half of these gifts were not in the box. After several letters of complaint, the gifts remain at large in (presumably) the country of Belgium….

So how to deliver packages in whole in Belgium?

There are three choices of delivery: one public, two private, and all subject to Belgian Customs.

Belgian customs:
Belgian customs taxes are extortion, more or less. Anything over 20 euros delivered to an individual (not a business, mind you) merits a tax if it is new. If it is marked “used” on the box, the box will be opened, and the “used” status verified by a Belgian customs official. If the official agrees that the objects within the box are new, there is no tax. If the objects have a tag, or appear not-so-used, a customs tax is levied.

On a delivery worth a declared 300 euros, a tax of 120 euros is levied. On a delivery worth a declared 20, about 15 to 20 euros is levied (in my experience).

A used package can be modified in delivery, though no one knows how (or by whom). Just check with recipients to ensure all items are received.


Belgian delivery:
Taxipost provides public Belgian delivery. In Brussels, Taxipost delivers between 8 and 17.00 hours. If the recipient of the package is not at home, Taxipost leaves a calling card. The recipient is then able to schedule a day (but not an hour) for delivery. The recipient should choose a day when s/he will not leave home between the hours of 8 and 17.00, Monday through Friday. Or the recipient should have Taxipost deliver to his or her office, should the recipient actually work between those hours—surprisingly, many people do.

If the recipient is not at home (or at work) upon the time of Taxipost delivery twice—TWICE—the recipient must visit the official Taxipost office outside of Brussels. To reach the Taxipost office, a person needs either a car or a taxi. With any available public transportation, the recipient will still have to walk quite a bit.

Taxipost employees are public. They are secure in their job, if crap at it.

There are web sites and blogs dedicated to the destruction of Taxipost—Belgian web sites.

Private delivery:
Two private delivery options in Belgium include FedEx and DHL. Both are subject to Belgian customs laws. Both are somewhat more expensive than Taxipost—but both have a good, strong business in Brussels.

Both FedEx and DHL are also subject to Belgian customer therapy, er, service. I remember speaking with a FedEx employee one Thursday…

Me: “So, we are agreed, you will not deliver the package until next week? I won’t be in town this week. As I told you, I will be out of town this week. ”

“Yes, okay,” the FedEx employee replied. “But could you call my colleague tomorrow? I am not responsible for my colleague, you see.”

Thus the whole point of an organisation is lost upon this young Belgian man. When one realizes what the Belgians get from their service providers, one begins to understand why their politicians are so lax.

Yet FedEx will at least do its best to get a recipient a package in tact and untouched by sticky fingers. DHL is equally skilled. However, a recipient will still have to transfer the customs taxes to an unnamed numbered account. In Belgium, the government is skilled at extortion. Also, these taxes must be paid prior to package delivery and the package will be delivered during working hours (between 8 and 17.00). If a package is delivered to the work place, a recipient must pray that his or her colleagues like the recipient enough to sign in the recipient’s absence.

Legal co-habitation in Brussels

From a very helpful reader:

The path to residency by way of legal cohabitation is the following (at least for us and our commune!).

Register as a legally cohabitating couple

Submit the following paperwork for each person to the local commune:

- birth certificate *
- certificate of cellibacy * #
- photocopy of passport or EU identity card
- certificate of nationality (photocopy of passport for Americans)
- six passport photos

* Documents have to be "legalized," and if in a language other than French or Dutch, you must provide a "certified translation" by a "sworn translator." For Americans, a "legalized" document is one that is notarized, and to which the notary's state has applied an "apostille" that certifies that the notary is registered in the state. A "sworn translator" is a translator who is registered with a court in Belgium as a sworn translator. A "certified translation" is a translation that has been certified as having been translated by a sworn translator. The court at which the translator is registered applies this certification to the translation itself.

# For Americans, this is an affidavit that you write and sign that simply swears that you are "never married." Not sure what the process is if you are divorced. There is no official version of this affidavit, but there are examples on the web. Search for "affidavit of celibacy." This document also must be legalized.

You submit the paperwork and then wait. The police come around to verify you are in fact living together (they check to see that both names are on the doorbell, or in our case, leave a summons and ask you to come by the station). Then you get summoned to the commune to sign the contract acknowledging that you are a registered legally cohabitating couple. They give you a document acknowledging your status. The result was rather anticlimactic, considering the effort involved. The least they could have done is offered champagne.

Apply for residency

Now you can apply for residency under the family reunification laws. Fortunately this is much easier. The non-EU national simply has to submit:

- acknowledgement of legal cohabitation provided by commune
- copy of passport
- proof of "durability" of relationship, consisting of letters, photos, plane tickets, testaments, etc. They are looking for evidence that the relationship is durable. The guidelines are that it has lasted at least two years long distance, or that you have lived together at least one year. Having a child together is also good.

They tell you it will take five months for a decision, and give you a temporary card (Attestation d'Immatriculation) authorizing you to remain in Belgium throughout the five month period. The police come around to again verify you are living with your legal cohabitant. Then either the commune summons you or you go to the commune the day after your temporary card expires, whichever comes first.

I have heard that you can work while waiting for the decision, but have not confirmed that. Also, for Americans, once you stay past your initial three month tourist visa, you are kind of in limbo. You are legally allowed to stay within Belgium while waiting for the residency decision, but this limbo status is not recognized at the border. If you were to leave the EU and try to reenter, and if they were to check your passport stamps, you would be required to wait three months before being allowed back in. In extreme circumstances, you can request a re-entry permit from the commune prior to leaving the EU, but in general, they want you to stay in Belgium while your application is being considered.


Question from helpful reader: As far as my question, I am close to the end of my five months of waiting for a residency permit. I expect they will grant me residency, except our relationship falls short of the guidelines in terms of duration. In the case that they don't grant me residency, are there any other avenues along which I could apply for residency from within Belgium? I don't necessarily need a work permit; I simply want to be able to remain in Belgium with my girlfriend, and have the ability to return to the US from time to time without encountering issues when crossing the border.

Linda's response: Enroll in classes in a Belgian university (not so expensive--maybe 500 euros for the year), obtain a letter of enrollment, and apply for a student VISA. Alternatively, apply to take a specific number of language classes, and apply for a student VISA. Do this with your commune, not the country--the Commune is the government office that grants you the right to extend your stay.

Next post: how to get a package delivered in Belgium...trickier than you'd expect....

Japanese Cultural event

Hey Linda,

There is a performance sponsored by the Japanese embassy today.
The location is close to boi de la cambre and Louise.
This performance is called Jyoururi. Watching these performances used to be a luxuary for high ranked people back in 18th century.
It is free.



日時：10月６日（火）　18：30
場所：HEB ISTI（ブリュッセル外国語大学）
　　　Rue J. Hazard 34
　　　1180　Brussles

日本人会事務局

HEB ISTI, RUE J. HAZARD 34, 1180 BRUSSELS 6.30 PM ADMISSION FREE

TUESDAY 6 OCTOBER

This event is organised by HEB ISTI (Institut supérieur de traducteurs et interprètes)and the Embassy of Japan.
Promotion: Mu:arts ltd.　　www.muarts.org.uk
Design: Simon Wright
　　

Belgian appreciation

Brussels business is a European cocktail of both local and international businesses, both large and small, that employ more nationalities, from senior management to the custodial services, than any other European or American city.

Brussels business may not be easily identified as Belgian or Flemish or Wallonian. However, like a glass, these Belgian cultures and communities do contain and help shape the European cocktail. Most obviously, it’s a testament to the Belgian art of negotiation and compromise that these businesses are able to manage their multilingual and multicultural staff.

As a crossroads between Southern Europe, with its Romance languages, Catholicism, and Mediterranean traditions, and Northern Europe, with its more Germanic/Scandinavian tongues and Protestant roots, Belgium by necessity developed a business environment that is both incredibly flexible (for example when it comes to languages) but also very restricted (for example, when it comes to bureaucracy). Belgium permits outside influence while also protecting its own populations. The careful legal, political, and cultural fortification of the three Belgian linguistic communities (Flemish, French, and German) may be frustrating but it also demonstrates the level of respect Belgians have for community identity, whether ethnic, national, or language-based.

Businesses or offices based in Brussels must conform to the Belgian laws in order to be successful, but these laws are not as obscure or inaccessible as many internationals complain. Many are, in fact, reasonable and far from shortsighted.

With a strong accountant and careful planning, a business can just as easily save as lose money under Belgian tax law. A strong illustration of this is the “green business” policy that encourages Belgian businesses to offer to pay for employee transportation with added tax deductions for the percentage of employees who use public transportation. This encourages Belgian-based employees to take the metro, tram, bus and train—a policy that is better for the environment and better for the community as a whole because the country is more motivated to upkeep an affordable public transit system. There’s also an emphasis on cheap-to-free ongoing employee education with university staff offering flexible course schedules in three to four languages, and Belgian government policies that reimburse businesses that spend money to help advance their employees’ education.

There are also the policies that prioritise employee physical and mental health. As a foreign migrant worker, I may complain about customer service and efficiency, but as a migrant employee, I remain consistently surprised and gratified that these policies exist and are enforced—enforced not by conflict or strikes between employees and their supervisor, but by quiet consensus and acceptance. These policies emphasize reasonable hours, vacation time, offer employees generous time off based upon mental, emotional, and physical conditions. Best of all, I’ve yet to come across a Belgian supervisor, who, no matter his or her personal or professional frustration at the inconvenience of these policies, has questioned their validity or legality.

While there are discussions about how many aspects of Belgian influence on Brussels life and culture might be improved by learning from foreign methods of implementation or planning, during our daily life we Brussels expats sometimes forget or just take for granted the benefits of being in Belgium. The policies here may not always be, in our minds, logical, but many are far more well thought-out (and beneficial) than we will ever recognize.

I am reading a book about European business environments called Mind Your Manners by John Mole.

The book dedicates a chapter to describing the business environment that predominates in each EU country, the USA, Japan, and Russia. The author is cautiously objective in his descriptions and explanations, constantly reminding his readers that what he presents is an informal introduction that is filtered by the experience of his own network.

The book is useful to those of us working in Brussels, I think, rather than Belgium. Brussels is in Belgium, but the business environment is more European. I'm writing up my review on goodreads.com, my preferred book-sharing site.

Gyms in Brussels

A post on gyms in Brussels has been requested and I aim to please.

Membership costs
Gym memberships throughout Brussels have a standard membership contract. There is usually an inscription fee, though this fee is waved in some gyms during Le Rentree. Rather like the three-month deposit required by a landlord before renting a Belgian apartment, the gym inscription fee is generally equivalent to three months subscription fee.

After you pay your inscription, you will be charged a monthly subscription fee. The subscription fee for the more middle class gyms in Brussels is usually between 60 to 80 euros. For more upper-class gyms, most notably Aspria on Avenue Louise, subscription and initiation fees can be a bit steeper. (Inscription alone at Aspria costs around 2000 euros. However, if you are a male and looking for networking opportunities, I have heard wonderful things about the Aspria Spa rooms.)

To quit any gym membership in Brussels, there is still the requirement that a subscriber send a registered letter announcing his or her termination of the contract within one month (30 days) of his or her final month of gym membership. Remember that the registered letter announcing your termination of the contract must be sent within 30 days of the day that your initial contract is going to end, NOT within 30 days of the date at which you wish for your contract to end. Contracts in Belgium are non-negotiable—you signed and you will pay.

Terminating a gym membership
If a subscriber fails to send his or her official termination letter within the required time period, fails to save proof of having mailed the registered letter within the time frame, or desires to leave the gym at an earlier date, the subscriber will be forced to pay a termination fee. To terminate a gym contract in Brussels costs, in my limited experience, about half of what you would normally pay to simply finish out the year with the gym. In some countries, this form of consumer contract might be considered entrapment. In Brussels, it’s normal, and your gym manager will be mystified that a customer might find it otherwise.

It is essential, therefore, to choose the gym that you want. When you realize that your decision to terminate your contract early may top the combined cost of your monthly payments and your inscription fee, it’s best to suck it up and stick with the gym—for the “free” showers if nothing else.

Typical gym services
All the middle class gyms offer fully equipped showers and shower gel or shampoo in a dispenser within each shower. Most gyms contain at least two tanning beds (one per gender) and offer a range of aerobics classes in the late afternoons and evenings. Classes offered usually include dance aerobics, body pump, pilates, step, body jam (some sort of Tae Bo type exercise) and spinning. The class teachers are the usual spandexed wonders of overly enthusiastic body builders with an addiction to the American top forty pop music. (What would spinning instructors do without Britney Spears?)

Gym teachers make me nervous, so I prefer to stick to the aerobic machines. Most gyms in Brussels offer television screens actually attached to the different aerobics machines. The aerobic machines include running machines, ellipticals, bike machines, and stair masters. A few older gyms still have large screen TVs arranged across the wall in front of the aerobic machines that gym customers have to share. I suggest that you skip these old gyms and opt instead for the gyms where you can watch the television show of your choice and choose your own channels for the same gym subscription fee.
Television in Brussels gyms is, understandably, more varied if you speak French or Dutch. In the evenings, it is possible to watch some English-language programmes on the Dutch channels, and there is always the BBC or CNN. There are also German, Spanish and Italian channels. In the mornings, I like MCM, the French music video channel.
Bring your own headphones—I have yet to find a Brussels gym that has had the brilliant idea of actually selling headphones at the front desk.

Brussels gyms usually have the free weight room and the machine weights. Most gyms also have several well-informed trainers who will, for a price, set up customers with their own work out routines and goals.
Don’t forget to wipe down the machines after using them—it’s more than polite, it’s sanitary.

If, instead of joining a gym, you just want to take classes, this is usually possible. You can usually buy a punch pass, giving you so many classes for a specific price (usually the cost of a month-long gym subscription). You can also buy a punch pass for a set number of gym visits if you're in town for just a short while and don't want to have to worry about your termination letter.

Swimming
If you’re looking for a swimming pool, I recommend the Health City at the Virje Universiteit Brussels (the VUB, Brussels’ Flemish university). You can find a further list of pools here. Be sure to see what each pool’s different hours include. Certain pools have reserved times for lap swimming and separate times for more recreational swimming / family swimming.
On a side note, as a former YMCA swim instructor, I am not overly impressed with the Belgian swimming instructors that I have met thus far. Among them, I have noticed a lot of focus on form but not a lot of focus on independent swimming. But I’ll be the first to admit that I’m biased towards the YMCA/Red Cross swimming skill levels. They worked well enough for Michael Phelps and the several other successful American swimmers. Let’s leave the Belgians tennis.

What to wear
I wear old sweats and ancient T-shirts to work out. While I am not alone in this at my gym, I suspect that my decision is not the most popular. Many of the women at my gym who are not North American wear more trendy gym clothes made of a stretchable material. However, there are a number who wear the Jennifer Lopez-inspired pants suit, a cross between casual-trendy that makes the North Americans at the gym feel less conspicuous. The men also wear a variety of styles, from huge old sweats to very fitted spandex. No one stares at anyone--Brussels is simply too international to care what you wear to your regular work out, which is nice.

What to bring
While many gyms provide “sweat towels” for a euro a piece, it’s cheaper to bring your own. Bring your own headphones—don’t expect the gyms to sell these.

Hours
Outside of the super-expensive Aspria (open at 5.00), most gyms open at 7.00 weekdays (or just after 7) and close at 22.00. During the weekends or holidays, the hours are usually 10.00 to 17.00, or the gym is closed.

Specific gyms
I choose my gym based upon location, so I've had as many gyms as I've had apartments.

I had an overall pleasant experience with Passage Fitness First. I had some slight trouble terminating my year-long contract when I found a less expensive gym (with personal TVs built into the machines—joy!). Passage Fitness mislaid or never reported my termination letter—but since I still had the original letter's receipt--you have to pay extra to post a registered letter--I avoided a fine. Passage Fitness has locations all over Brussels. The most “ex-pat” Passage Fitness is the gym by the Arts Loi Metro Stop. There is also a "Ladies Only" Passage Fitness on Avenue Louis, just past Avenue Vleurgatse. This Passage Fitness offers classes for children during the classes for their mothers, which is quite nice.

As a student, I joined Health City at the VUB because I got a huge discount.

I also very much like Silhouette at the Metro Louise stop. It’s only 500 euros for the year—Silhouette waves the initiation fee during Le Rentree. Plus, the gym manager there, a Moroccan / Belgian man, is absolutely amazing. He speaks fluent French, English, Arabic, some Spanish, and Dutch. He remembers all his customers’ names, greets you by name in your preferred language as you arrive, and offers free health advice based upon your preferred health regime. He runs a clean, well-stocked gym that only runs out of paper towels or soap when he is not in the building.

For more gyms, you can see this website here.