# Warning B4 moving to BT in Spain ADSL



## TheGent

Just posting this as a warning to others!

After just over 12 months of using Telphonica ADSL I was a bit annoyed that they kept charging me for "equipment" which I did not have. After several phone calls they stopped charging it, but a few months later they started charging it again.

Although in the campo, I was getting a regular 2.5Mbs download speeds night and day from Telephonica which I found just right for my purposes.

When I saw the ads for BT in Spain working out a fair bit less than telephonica and staffed by English spoken staff, I thought this might be a better option for me. I contacted them and they guaranteed that the download speed I would get from them would be as good if not better than Telephonica. I made a point of getting this verbal guarantee than agreed to change over.

One week on after the changeover and I wish I had never heard of them. I have lost count of the number of times I have phoned their engineers and sales staff to complain that I am only getting download speeds less than 20% of those I used to get from Telephonica - 300 - 500kbs on a good day.

I am fed up with being asked the same silly questions about my set up and fed up with being told somebody will phone me back and they dont, fed up with teling them that my setup has not changed since leaving Telphonica except for their router. I have even tried a spare router I had at their suggestion, no diference at all. They seem to be just dragging out my patience hoping I shall submit to a vastly inferior service, which I have no intension of doing.

Looks like I shall have to attempt to change back to Telephonica if the service hasnt improved by Easter, bet that will be fun as well!

If the service improves to the level I was promised, I shall be happy to report this here, but I am not holding my breath!


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## VFR

I was talking to one of their rep's who was trying to get me to change.
Yes we are much cheaper !
? Well I pay 19.90pm for 3 meg/fixed calls free, so according to your blurb you are much more expensive ?
No we are cheaper & I cannot see how you can get it for that price !
Would you like to see my bill, or go onto Telefonica's web page and see for yourself ?

Idiots.


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## dunmovin

from what I understand of BT in Spain, they only provide admin and tech helplines, the rest is telefrustration. Their lines, their installations, their technichians, their equipment. If you need a tech to come to your home, BT in Spain will arrange it, but oit will be a telefonica (or telefonica appointed) technichan that shows up. Again, just my understanding of this, Bt in Spain,will do you a deal and will do it cheaper than the hated telefonica, but they are only leasing the the lines from telefonica.so the end result is they can't provide you with a better service, internet speed or more reliable service from the engineers. This is simply because, in the end, you are back to dealing with telefonica.


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## TheGent

SteveHall said:


> Not sure who you are dealing with or where you are but it could be an authorised BT reseller from San Miguel de las Salinas, Alicante or one of a number of companies who over the years who have called themselves BT to trick (IMHO!) expats and pray on the "Goodie, we can speak English to somebody" brigade.
> 
> Are you using a landline service or one of Telefónica´s "famous" RadioTraks?


From what I can make out (maybe wrong) they use the name BT in Spain but are just middlemen (or ladies in this instance). The company which handles the lines and equipment (their claim) are Arrakis. They took over my Telephonica landline service at the same time.

Peter


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## dunmovin

Telefonica run and control All the landlines in Spain, as they do with the exchanges, Hence the reason if telefonica refuse you a landline(for whatever reason) or your address puts your house outside the distance(telefonica decide this) from the exchange where you can get broadband, then it doesn't matter a stuff who BT in Spain say handle their lines or equipment...you're not going to get it. It would therefore seem logical that other service providers might manage to reduce the cost a little, because they negociated a bulk deal with telefrustration, but in the end that is who ultimately controls the whole kit&kaboodle

Anyone saying differently..needs to revise their sales pitch


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## Cazzy

We had BT and Arakis, they were terrible we cancelled after 6 months. They charged 60 euros to cancell as we hadn't had it for a year!


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## 90199

I have Telfonica, T.V., phone and A.S.D.L.

I cannot fault them, when the T.V. box went wrong, they attended within hours, with a new box, The engineer was Venezuelan, but he spoke very good English.

H


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## dunmovin

SteveHall said:


> }}Not 100% accurate and after 30 years in telecom I do have some knowledge!
> There are other suppliers of hardlines but only in city areas who are 100% separate from Telefónica (/.K.A.The National Disgrace)
> 
> 
> BT in Spain are ONLY ONLY ONLY licensed resellers. British Telecom do NOT have a resell division in Spain. If anybody comes on the phone hustling "We are BT" Just say "No you are not. You are a licensed reseller. If you don't believe me please speak to Steve Day at BT Flame in Madrid who will explain your relationship with BT Wholesale Spain to you." Punto final.
> 
> It's a BAD start to any business relationship when the canvasser comes on the phone and lies, don't we all think?


Steve, I stand corrected I honestly thought [email protected]%&up still had a monopoly one hardliones and exchanges. This is certainly the case in the campo.:spit:


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## dg1321

Hi all, sorry to resurrect a dead thread here...

You guys are talking about internet4spain <dot> com right?

We have telefonica DSL and recently the speed is very slow (<1MB)
Checked as much as I can but I suspect the problem is a noisy line or something, have swapped out everything short of the router (Unknown Zyxel model).

I can get access to the router, but all the line info is in db and stuff, no SNR, so I dont really understand it enough to work out if that is the problem.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Clive / David


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## Guest

Tuppence worth of advice.

Google a site called DSLREPORTS - been going for more than a decade. It provides a bunch of online tools, securely, that allow investigation of your line, router and the like. It`s useful to have this info to use as a cosh for dealing with the numpties when your ring up to complain!

Also, try speedtest.net - very handy as it can keep a historical record of your speedtests! Again, handy for coshing tech support numpties.

Pip pip!

Y


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## dg1321

Yossa said:


> Tuppence worth of advice.
> 
> Google a site called DSLREPORTS - been going for more than a decade. It provides a bunch of online tools, securely, that allow investigation of your line, router and the like. It`s useful to have this info to use as a cosh for dealing with the numpties when your ring up to complain!
> 
> Also, try speedtest - very handy as it can keep a historical record of your speedtests! Again, handy for coshing tech support numpties.
> 
> Pip pip!
> 
> Y


Thanks for the speedy reply...

We are getting minor packet loss (<1%) but is more ADSL line info that I was seeking for ammunition purposes, which obviously is not going to be available via anything but a webmin or telnet session to my router.

Interestingly though, I am seeing a latency of >500ms to my web server in the UK, which is obviously very, very bad.

Yeah, been using speedtest and it is reporting a download speed of 0.85 and a ping of 70 to madrid. Unfortunately I do not know what it was before, but I am pretty sure we must have been getting at least 2meg before, as I was streaming HD content from youtube last time I was here.

Ta muchly

C


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## Guest

Latency is god-awful.

Are you unable to interrogate the router (bright lights, waterboarding etc)? Google the model and "admin password" and you should get the default access codes - dreadful, I know, but handy for us techies 

I had similar probs and managed to access the logs to cosh telefonica, although they are mighty resilient to anything other than a Hilti gun to the nads!

Most routers can give info on noise levels, line attenuation and other clart. Obviously, fiddling with filters is always a good thing. Soz if I`m suggesting what you`ve already looked into.


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