# Wifi/Dongle Internet Access in Portugal & Spain



## Surfin USA

As I have already said I intend to sail to Portugal early next year & plan to initially live on board with the longer-term view of buying/renting in Iberia close to the sea.

Additionally, as an interim plan, I may get a motorhome to permit me explore the hinterland.

Currently I use a mix of Dongle & free wifi for internet access.

I understand that it is Portuguese Government policy to provide free urban wifi access? Same thing happens in some States & UK cities (Swindon?).

Please advise if this is true & from experience, given that Dongle access can be very expensive, which provides the better service?


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## canoeman

Pay Dongle services depend very much on area and the mast, some are better than others, 3 major suppliers all have options to show coverage.
Vodafone Portugal ? telemóveis, internet, televisão
OPTIMUS
TMN / voz móvel, banda larga móvel e venda de telemóveis

Free wi-fi available all over Portugal, but not so much out of the main towns, think you'll need to revert to Dongle. Internet search will supply a few sites giving free locations.


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## Surfin USA

Thanks for this, free wifi country wide great bit of forward thinking by the Portuguese Government.


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## Glessed

Woul like to register


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## bisect

Surfin USA said:


> Thanks for this, free wifi country wide great bit of forward thinking by the Portuguese Government.


I've seen a handful of municipalities in Portugal offering free WiFi, but it's very limited. While they don't have the lobbyists in Portugal preventing free municipal WiFi (like they do in the US), I can't see it being a real high priority for the government any time soon. 

As a consumer of NOS (used to be ZON, used to be Optimus, used to be...) I get access to FON, which is a Europe-wide WiFi service. I know that you can buy into FON as well, check their site for offerings. I had read that either TWC or Comcast had started doing the same last year (for their own customers) in the US, but essentially with FON, you can access WiFi all over Spain and Portugal, in particular. They have a great app that uses your GPS to show local hotspots, and I find that just walking around our small city I have coverage about 70% of the time.


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## jmmferreira

Just to let you know. In Portugal, there is now a company that rents Wifi / mifi hotspots, and sells prepaid data SIM cards, specifically to these types of situations.
Traffic included ranges from 1GB to unlimited.
They are called Portugal Internet, and you can find them at portugalinternet.com


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