The optical network, built around the four rings, is extremely stable and reliable. Two glass fibre breaks occurred in the first six months, in each case without impact due to the optical protection.

The largest break occurred on the 9th of September 2008 at the central ring in Brussels. The fibre pair between the BRUSCI PoP and the BRUEVE PoP was down for more than 12 hours.

Glass fibre breaks cannot be prevented. Normally one can expect one glass fibre break per 300 kilometres of glass fibre pair, per year. BELNET has the exclusive right of use of 1651 km of fibre. This means that some five breaks per year are expected.

The IP backbone that is constructed on top of the optical transmission platform is also very stable, is performing well and is reliable. One of the core data centres suffered a power failure on the 12th of July 2008.