Telegrams to become extinct in Belgium. Stop.

After 170 years of loyal service, the telegram is being scrapped in Belgium later this month.

Proximus will stop delivering telegrams from 29 December, after it was ruled in 2013 that there was no longer a public interest in keeping the service alive.

In the early 1980s, more than 1.5 million telegrams were sent or received in Belgium each year. So far in 2017, that number stands at 8,000. Today's customers include the Royal Palace and some companies which require legal proof that a message was delivered, such as debt collection firms and lawyers.

The first telegraph service in Belgium dates back to 1846, along the Brussels-Antwerp railway line, about 30 years before the arrival of telephony.

If you would like to send a telegram before 29 December, the service costs €16.25 for up to 20 words and is provided by call centre staff at the directory enquiries hotline by calling 1307.