Belgium to offer 8 telecom licences in 2009-minister

BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Belgian government will offer at least eight new mobile telephony licences next year in a bid to increase competition in the sector, a government minister was quoted as saying in a newspaper on Saturday.

Business minister Vincent Van Quickenborne detailed plans to promote competition in the telecoms market, including increasing the powers of the national regulator BIPT.

"The agreement within the government is that we want to break open the market," he said in an interview with Belgian daily De Tijd.

Van Quickenborne said the major licence to be awarded next year will be the country's fourth UMTS or 3G service worth 40 million euros ($50.08 million).

Broadband provider Telenet (TNET.BR) wants to acquire the licence, but the minister said a number of other operators had also expressed an interest.

The Belgian market is dominated by former monopoly Belgacom (BCOM.BR), which is still majority-owned by the government.

Competition is more acute for mobile services in which Mobistar (MSTAR.BR), majoritiy owned by France Telecom (FTE.PA), and Base -- a unit of Dutch KPN (KPN.AS) -- are active.

In fixed line services, Telenet is Belgacom's chief rival but focuses on offfering cable TV, high-speed Internet and telephone services to customers principally in the Flemish part of Belgium.

European Union telecom regulators have repeatedly criticised the lack of competition in the Belgian telecoms market and called for BIPT to be given greater powers. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, writing by Darren Ennis, Editing by Peter Blackburn)