Traditionally telecommunications continue to be distinguished from radio communications depending on the transmission of the signal either by wire or radio waves.
The more recent expression of « electronic communications» covers however both ways of information transmission.
Numerous services depend on it:
- telephony (fixed or mobile line)
- fax or facsimile
- Internet access…etc.
In the electronic communications field technological innovation continues to have a strong impact on the evolution of the regulatory system.
Digitisation actually makes it possible to offer several types of content through networks of different kinds, such as the telephone line, the (cable) broadcasting cable, the optical fibre, radio waves (radio frequencies, satellit links,…), …etc.
Simultaneously Internet has become a global platform for a range of electronic communications services.
Thanks to their convergence, the information and communications technologies have opened up many new possibilities.
In the Belgian federal context however, due to its cultural character (radio and television) broadcasting falls within the competence of the three communities: the French, Flemish and German-speaking community.