The New Information and Communication Technologies sector in Brussels accounts for 50% of all technological activities in the capital.

One third of all NICT activity in Belgium is run out of Brussels. Brussels is positioned among the 10 most important hinge cities for Internet activity and among the 20 main telecom hubs. 

» What are the main characteristics of the Brussels NICT sector?

• Telecommunications account for 40% of the turnover in the NICT sector in Brussels, as well as a similar percentage of employment.  Belgacom, the former national phone company, as well as Base (subsidiary of the Dutch group KPN) Mobistar (subsidiary of the French group Orange), France Telecom and BT are all big players in the sector in Brussels.
  
• Second in order of importance come the wholesale of business/office machines and all related supplies. Renowned multinationals such as Ascom, Alstom, Bull, Ericsson, Futjitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Philips, Siemens, Sony, Lucent Technologies, Unisys etc., are only a sample of the many important names that thrive in Brussels.
  
• IT services & software design constitute the third group of importance among ICT in Brussels. The sector is made up mainly of national enterprises, even if Siemens, SAP or Microsoft did set up their IT services division in the place.

Brussels has a clear lead over other cities as regards e-banking and e-Business. While it has been a tradition that compensation systems such as Euroclear establisged themselves in Brussels, 1994 was the year when 3 Belgian banks joined up and decided to form "ISABEL". This platform in secured telecommunications was designed to become a standard in simplified banking operations and other commercial transactions.

By the end of 1996, "ISABEL" has become the e-highway that links organisations with banks, public administrations or information services as well as with tens of thousands of enterprises, national and international.

After a long growing process, the turnover generated by ICT in Brussels has reached the figure of 4.5 billion euro (source: ABE 2008).

The sector accounts for 2.446 enterprises and 30.000 employments in Brussels (source: BEA 2008).
The majority of employees in the ICT sector are hired by SME's. The field of activity of these enterprises is composed as following :

31%	Communication
28%	IT services
11%	Printing/publishing
10%	Telecom
8%	Internet
7%	Audiovisual
5%	Multimedia

The ICT sector in Brussels is particularly dynamic:

• 1 out of 4 enterprises created after 1995
• 160 new enterprises and 2.000 jobs created since 1996
• 26 new telecom enterprises and 1.430 jobs created

ICT has become a mature sector. Uncontrolled growth in a number of new technologies (mobile phone sector, classic internet connection) is history and so is the financial crisis affecting the telecommunications sector which, by now, is mostly assimilated.

In the years to come, following trends will take a lead role: greater convergence, an evolution towards interconnectivity and the relating applicable standards, wireless applications (Wi-Fi, WLAN, GPRS, UMTS, ...), mobility (home working, remote monitoring, RFID labelling, ...), telematics, VoIP (= Voice over IP), transition to digital TV and electronic identification and authentication. Last but not least, one has to expect that new development applications in the field of broadband will bring about a breakthrough in other domains such as education, healthcare and security.