# Internet & Phones in Spain



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Hello,

Having got an hour to kill I thought I would write some information that may be of use to people. Something I have been asked many times in my line of work is about telephones, internet, and the availability of services in Spain (particularly in rural areas). I have in the last 2 or 3 years tested and tried so many options and after writing a recent blog article on the subject for someone I thought I would post the information here for those considering moving, or not sure about their internet and telephone options in Spain.... Hope it helps someone someday!

*Landlines and internet at home:
*Telefonica (Movistar) is the Spanish equivalent to BT. Until fairly recently they had the monopoly and if you wanted a landline you had to use them. Just like the UK this had now changed and you can contract a number of other companies to supply you with a landline, calls and internet and it is worth shopping around for deals s prices do vary (although ultimately I think it's fair to say that if quality of service, and reliability are your key factors then Telefonica is stillest to consider although they are more expensive as they have the option to have a guaranteed repair in 24 hours if theres ever a fault). There are even English companies now offering landline services and if your Spanish isn't great then they are a worth while option and also many offer bundle minutes to call the UK.

The traditional telephone network has been in place for many years and although its old, it functions pretty well. Some companies (ONO for example) are installing fast vibe optic networks across Spain but thesis currently limited to cities and newer developed areas.

Alta (connection) to fixed line services tends to be very easy and cheap. There is nothing to do apart form bring a bit of copper cable to your house if it hasn't got any, or in most cases press a button to connect you.

If you are lucky and get a good internet connection then you could also look at VoIP (Voice over IP). Services such as Skype allow you to use the bandwidth of your internet connection to make low cost telephone calls. They route the bulk of the call through the internet and convert the voice to computer data. As you only pay then for a tiny section of the call to go through the main telephone network the savings can be huge, especially if you are calling the UK or other countries.

I personally am not a huge fan of Skype... although their service is ideal for most home users, as a home worker I need reliability and I opt for 2 other companies who use slightly higher grade routes for their calls and therefore I get a very good service almost 24 hours. The companies I use are Voipfone and Voiptalk (others available). Voiptalk does packages for a few pounds a month with unlimited landline calls to the UK, Europe or even world! With Skype most people use their computer and a had set to make calls, but with the other services I have an IP phone (looks like a normal phone but connects to my internet router) and then I can make and receive calls even if the computer is turned off. Furthermore call quality if not lost if my computer is busy doing other things. I have both Spanish and UK incoming numbers form these providers and therefore its cheap for everyone to contact me.

An alternative to an IP phone is an IP adapter which you can buy online and this allows you to use any old phone.. simply plug it into the adapter and then pug the adapter into your router. Like many houses, mine is prewired for telecoms. What I did was connect a cable form my IP adapter into one of the telephone sockets... this cleverly connects my whole house to the network allows me to plug in a normal phone into any socket in the house and use it like a normal landline.

it's worth pointing out that by the very nature of VoIP call quality can sometimes be hit and miss. If you are watching a video on youtube or doing heavy web browsing or downloading, this takes up your bandwidth and can affect call quality. Likewise, if your internet connection is not A1, at busy times when the network in general is in high demand it can affect your call quality. This is why its always good to use a better grade of VoIP provider as they often use better routes for the calls which can compensate for other variations in the internet.

Remember with the internet for phone calls, if you have a power outage or the internet is off the phone won't work. This is why most VoIP providers do not allow emergency calls.. always have a backup of either a landline or mobile incase of emergencies!

If you want to check your internet to see if it is good enough quality for VoIP then I recommend using 

*Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test* to check your speed (although you only need about 100kbps up and down to carry a good quality phone call), also and more importantly use

*Pingtest.net - The Global Broadband Quality Test* This will check the connection thoroughly for quality rather than speed and give you an indicator as to how a VoIP service will perform. You need A always (check various times of day and night) for the best connection. B grade will work usually without too many problems, but anything less... forget it!

Unlike the UK, the main telecoms infrastructure is limited and tends to be restricted to Towns, Cities, Villages and main roads.  For those of use who live in the campo we are not lucky enough to be blessed with the luxuries of things like landlines so we have to look for other options.

*Much of rural Spain is services by WIMAX providers. * These internet providers place antennas which transmit their service. They put a small dish or other receiver on your house and you get internet through the air. There are many to choose from in some areas and the market tends to be full of local providers who cover certain regions. Speeds and reliability can be very good for browsing the internet. I currently use a service like this and get about 5mb download and 1.5mb upload which although slow compared to some EU countries standards, it is still perfectly adequate for most things.

As well as the local companies there is a national company called Iberbanda which I believe is part of the telefonica group. I have nlimited experience with them, but they are more expensive than some although I hear quite reliable.

The main problem with WIMAX is that the quality of service can be affected my many things... from the weather through to geological things (i had a terrible service once because the mountain behind my former house had metal inside it and it did something to the signal on a hot day!). In general my service is very good but even now after trying many companies and settling with the one I have, there are times when the internet is a little slow or the phone doesn't work properly.

If you have a WIMAX service then obviously its because you have no landline. Therefore you can use the VOIP service described above to give you a landline. Many WIMAX providers offer their own VoIP packages and sell their service as "Internet & Landline". Each provider is different but generally when they work they work but do be prepared for some problems sometimes.

Alta (connection) to WIMAX tends to be a little more expensive because they have to come to your house and connect an antenna which then has to be cabled in and some other pieces of hardware need to be suppled. Expect to pay anything from 50 euros to 200 for connection, although some companies now do free connection if you sign a contract for 12, 18 or 24 months... be careful of this though because you need the options to change supplier if your connection is not up to the standard you need!

*Satellite* internet is taking off at the moment and there are several companies that offer connection to the internet through satellite. These services are pretty robust because your signal is literally being beamed from Space so you can get it pretty much anywhere. They provide quite fast connections with speeds of 10mb or faster becoming the norm. Bear in mind though that because of the distance (about 30 or 40,000 km) from your house to the satellite, there tends to be a latency (delay) in the signal. For normal browsing or downloading this does not cause too many problems but for real time applications like online gaming and of course telephone calls this can cause problems so ask your provider carefully about this, especially if you want to use VoIP.

Satellite is the most expensive way to connect and usually comes with monthly download limits. Whereas with a normal landline they use old infrastructure with many years of service and with WIMAX the antennas and transmitters can be easily and cheaply repaired or replaced, with Satellite the cost to launch a satellite runs into the millions and they only have a limited number of serviceable years before they need replacing, so these companies have to obviously cover these costs which makes their service more expensive.

Mobile providers offer 3G services (vodafone do a "en tu casa" service). Coverage depends on your area and the network but generally for browsing they are ok. They are not terribly fast and things like videos are going to be a bit painstaking but obviously if theres no other option or you can't afford a satellite then these are worth considering. Some providers and some tariffs do not allow VoIP data (or charge extra) because they want you to use their phone service. Furthermore if you are permitted it isn't always great using these services so be warned!

Well thats my summary.. hope its of use to anyone moving or still unsure about their options in Spain. Any questions I am happy to try to answer them!


----------



## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

Our internet speed on a telefonica ADSL is typically 2mb down and _40k up_ (yes, I do mean 40k! ). Evidently 'el centro' in our village is not only over subscribed, but then links up with an exchange hundreds of k away, rather than the nearest one.

It's a real thorn in my side right now as I can only get my internet work done through the night when uploads reach the 'marvelous' level of 100k.
Will ask you more questions about WIMAX and providers when hubby gets back from walking the dogs.
At the moment we are waiting on a response from one of them, but no reply after a week....


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Solwriter said:


> Our internet speed on a telefonica ADSL is typically 2mb down and _40k up_ (yes, I do mean 40k! ). Evidently 'el centro' in our village is not only over subscribed, but then links up with an exchange hundreds of k away, rather than the nearest one.
> 
> It's a real thorn in my side right now as I can only get my internet work done through the night when uploads reach the 'marvelous' level of 100k.
> Will ask you more questions about WIMAX and providers when hubby gets back from walking the dogs.
> At the moment we are waiting on a response from one of them, but no reply after a week....


Overcrowding of the exchanges is not uncommon here in my experience. Each exchange has a certain backbone capacity and therefore every new customer shares that same bandwidth, this coupled with the old technology that the more rural areas are running off make for slow speeds. Telefonica seem slow on upgrading exchange capacity to cope with customer demands... but 40k.  .. you'd be faster on a 3G with a dodgy signal! 

In the UK BT are doing loads of work and have announced a new fibre optic backbone system to bring super fast broadband to most of the country over the next year or two but I think Spain is sadly falling behind on this somewhat.


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

I spent ages researching the phone. Now we have a SIP account. Our phone is plugged in to the router and we have a perfect connection with no noise problems. Calls to other SIP phones are free. I have a UK number so people can call me from the UK at local rates, or if they have a mobile it simply comes of their minutes deal so costs them nothing.

Calls to the UK I make are at very low rates, and as an additional plus I can call SKY if I need to and they dont know I am calling from Spain.

General Internet ..... well the jury is still out as I dont have the cahones to change. My internet is slow, and I could improve by going to a mast system (4 - 6mb), but whenever I decide on a supplier I keep hearing bad stories about lost or slow connections


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

We are with Orange and for the most part it is fine.


----------



## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

steve_in_spain said:


> Overcrowding of the exchanges is not uncommon here in my experience. Each exchange has a certain backbone capacity and therefore every new customer shares that same bandwidth, this coupled with the old technology that the more rural areas are running off make for slow speeds. Telefonica seem slow on upgrading exchange capacity to cope with customer demands... but 40k.  .. you'd be faster on a 3G with a dodgy signal!


Oh I wish!
I do have a 3G dongle which I use when our internet grinds to a halt, but that entails either working on the roof terrace to get a dodgy signal, or driving to the top of the village to get a better signal.
We are in a dip. Our village is on the side of a mountain which obscures the 3G signal.
I'm wondering if the same would apply with WIMAX actually....

We have a new mast at the top of the village, but neither we, nor the local town hall, have any idea what it's for (or they aren't saying).


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Solwriter said:


> Oh I wish!
> I do have a 3G dongle which I use when our internet grinds to a halt, but that entails either working on the roof terrace to get a dodgy signal, or driving to the top of the village to get a better signal.
> We are in a dip. Our village is on the side of a mountain which obscures the 3G signal.
> I'm wondering if the same would apply with WIMAX actually....
> ...


With Wimax it tends to be line of sight service, so if you can see the antenna (with binoculars even) then you can (sorry... should) get the service...depending on their antenna up to 10 or 20 km from the mast. Wimax can be hit and miss.. as I said, I have the service now and I am on the 4th supplier, all of which I have had trouble with but this one is ok, the internet now as we speak is downloading at 5mb and working fine but sometimes the service goes off or the phone is dodgy (which is a pain when you work at home and need the phone!)


----------



## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

steve_in_spain said:


> With Wimax it tends to be line of sight service, so if you can see the antenna (with binoculars even) then you can (sorry... should) get the service...depending on their antenna up to 10 or 20 km from the mast. Wimax can be hit and miss.. as I said, I have the service now and I am on the 4th supplier, all of which I have had trouble with but this one is ok, the internet now as we speak is downloading at 5mb and working fine but sometimes the service goes off or the phone is dodgy (which is a pain when you work at home and need the phone!)


That doesn't sound good for us then. (and perhaps why the WIMAX supplier we contacted hasn't replied to numerous emails....).
Our line of site to the mountain where antennae are based is obscured by the mountain our village is on.
Every other village in the area is covered by the signal, but not us.

Looks like it might have to be satellite then.


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Solwriter said:


> That doesn't sound good for us then. (and perhaps why the WIMAX supplier we contacted hasn't replied to numerous emails....).
> Our line of site to the mountain where antennae are based is obscured by the mountain our village is on.
> Every other village in the area is covered by the signal, but not us.
> 
> Looks like it might have to be satellite then.


Try Iberbanda (and you can google an independent company called iberbanda in english) but the main site it best for initial looking's at because it has a coverage (coberatura) checker! They are the only real national company, so maybe worth a go. I know their quality varies from area to area but maybe worth a go!


----------



## Dave and Anne Galicia (Nov 15, 2008)

Solwriter said:


> Oh I wish!
> I do have a 3G dongle which I use when our internet grinds to a halt, but that entails either working on the roof terrace to get a dodgy signal, or driving to the top of the village to get a better signal.
> We are in a dip. Our village is on the side of a mountain which obscures the 3G signal.
> I'm wondering if the same would apply with WIMAX actually....
> ...


Thanks to Steve for an interesting and helpful summary.

The only options for us are a mobile phone dongle or satellite. We live in a stone house and have installed an external antenna which does seem to at least give us reception inside for the laptop and stabilise the signal we get - see this link Mobile Broadband Antenna range extended | Mobile Fun Blog. May be a help for you Solwriter.

We currently have a Movistar dongle but are limited to a GPRS signal. We discovered that a unlocked Smart phone, when selected to Movistar showed only GPRS, but when selected to Orange picked up a 3G signal. Great excitement!! We are currently awaiting delivery of a Masmovil sim for internet on an unlocked dongle to see what happens. Masmovil use the Orange network and do not tie you into a contract. If we still have problems and finally get fed up with a max of 50Kbits/sec we may look at satellite.

Re satellite anyone have experience of Quantis who I understand are offering free installation in our area at the moment?


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

Dave and Anne Galicia said:


> Thanks to Steve for an interesting and helpful summary.
> 
> The only options for us are a mobile phone dongle or satellite. We live in a stone house and have installed an external antenna which does seem to at least give us reception inside for the laptop and stabilise the signal we get - see this link Mobile Broadband Antenna range extended | Mobile Fun Blog. May be a help for you Solwriter.
> 
> ...


Quantis interest me. I have no experience of their service BUT they advertise it as beinng suitable for VoIP phone calls (which most sat companies are warey about promoting because of the latency). So, I am interested if anyone has used them too!


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Dave and Anne Galicia said:


> Thanks to Steve for an interesting and helpful summary.
> 
> The only options for us are a mobile phone dongle or satellite. We live in a stone house and have installed an external antenna which does seem to at least give us reception inside for the laptop and stabilise the signal we get - see this link Mobile Broadband Antenna range extended | Mobile Fun Blog. May be a help for you Solwriter.
> 
> ...


Masmovil btw have been excellent to deal with, I have my mobile with them. They are very attentive and answer you quickly which is unusually around here. The only slight problem we had was with the delivery of the sim card, as the courier couldnt find us and we had to go to their office in the end


----------



## ideas24horas (Aug 14, 2015)

*Mobile WiFi Spain*

Check in mobilewifispain DOT com


----------

