# Internet and phones



## mindxb (Jul 10, 2011)

Hello again

My friend who lives somewhere around Mijas, is constantly moaning about her landline/internet not working.

Is getting a connection that much of a problem in CDS? I would need pretty much constant access to be able to work.

Also, what would one expect to spend roughly on a phone and internet at home.... and what are mobile phone contracts like?

Thanks


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## Seb* (Mar 22, 2009)

mindxb said:


> Hello again
> 
> My friend who lives somewhere around Mijas, is constantly moaning about her landline/internet not working.
> 
> ...



This depends heavily on your local exchange. Quality of landlines varies from nearly unusable to absolutely top with high speeds. It all depends on distance to exchange, line quality between you and the exchange, in house line quality etc. Closer to town centres and cities you have a better chance for a good connection. Prices depend on your provider. Telefonica/Movistar are the most expensive ones.

When starting a new contract you usually benefit from special offers for 6 to 12 months. When those run out they ramp up the costs. We've been paying 48€ a month for a 3Mbit ADSL incl. line rental with Movistar, when the special offer ran out they ramped it up to 66.50€. Last month they hat a special deal for new customers offering 10Mbit (up to!) for something like 30€ plus line rental, which would have gone up after 6 months as well.

We are living half way up the hill in a long established urbanisation on the coast. Our line quality allows roughly 3.5 Mbit (6Mbit if you ask Telefonica). We did not have any issues for the last year and a half with it, but for some weeks now we're suffering of regular signal loss, most likely caused by the summer time and all the tourists now in the area. Telephone line quality in our area is generally poor. With most lines above ground just going zick-zack along the streets they are prone to interferences.

We are now running with an additional 2Mbit wireless connection (providers for those are usually plentyful on most costas - quality differs widely) as back up, cause we rely on a good non-stop internet connection to earn our living - a 30 second interruption can literally cost us money. So if you are willing to spend some extra money you can more or less guarantee yourself a decent internet connection in most places. We are paying for a 4Mbit ADSL and a 2Mbit Wimax connection 76€ a month.

There are special multi WAN routers (prices between 100 and 300€) (google Draytek vigor 2830 as one example), that support load balancing, QoS and fail over for multiple broadband connections. This means you are constantly connected to two different ISPs (for example ADSL and a wireless provider via a dish on the roof). As soon as one line goes down you get routed automatically via the 2nd connection. Some routers like the 2830 even support a USB 3G dongle (on a PayGo basis they are not that expensive, if only used in emergencies), which means if one of your main connections goes down you can still have internet access via 3G. But as usual it comes down to the amount of money you are prepared to spend. Generally internet in Spain is expensive compared to northern european countries.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2011)

Generally speaking down here is that as soon as you move inland, away from the towns (even 3 minutes!) the quality of service goes down the drain. We had a 100% reliable 20MB connection (39€ a month - line rental, adsl, fixed line, free national calls) in central Marbella and a recent move up the hill away from the main road has given us a 2.5MB connection from Movistar (20€ a month all inc + some calls to mobiles too) that drops out at least once a day

Mobile phone contracts can be had from about 19€/month for voice&data but check that the service provider actually has coverage. The damn mountains that run along the CDS coast cause havoc with signals


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## stevelin (Apr 25, 2009)

Were in Alhaurin pay 36 euro month with jazztel 20 mb ( get on avarage 6mb)land line and free spanish calls. Never had a problem apart from the recent fire


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## mindxb (Jul 10, 2011)

ShinyAndy said:


> Generally speaking down here is that as soon as you move inland, away from the towns (even 3 minutes!) the quality of service goes down the drain. We had a 100% reliable 20MB connection (39€ a month - line rental, adsl, fixed line, free national calls) in central Marbella and a recent move up the hill away from the main road has given us a 2.5MB connection from Movistar (20€ a month all inc + some calls to mobiles too) that drops out at least once a day
> 
> Mobile phone contracts can be had from about 19€/month for voice&data but check that the service provider actually has coverage. The damn mountains that run along the CDS coast cause havoc with signals


I think my friend mentioned about moving inland - that could be the reason. At least you have a choice of providers - it's a monopoly here... actually 2 companies now, but at the top they both lead back to the same - the Royal Family. With choices and mountains comes some problems I guess

I really want to ask you about costs of housing in central Marbella... but guess that shd be another post!


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## mindxb (Jul 10, 2011)

stevelin said:


> Were in Alhaurin pay 36 euro month with jazztel 20 mb ( get on avarage 6mb)land line and free spanish calls. Never had a problem apart from the recent fire


I'm guessing the fire was in the surrounding area and not your home... 

Rates seem quite competitive to me

As above, I also want to ask what it's like where you live... Is it near Malaga?

Shd probably start new thread


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

mindxb said:


> I'm guessing the fire was in the surrounding area and not your home...
> 
> Rates seem quite competitive to me
> 
> ...


the fire was at the excahange a few weeks ago


good idea


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## stevelin (Apr 25, 2009)

Hi Alhaurin de la Torre is the other side of the mountain to Mijas ( airport side) we are about 20 mins from coast and about the same to the airport. We think the town/village is lovely very clean and friendly it is quite modern but very much still the spanish way of life. There are a few brits as well as other expats around but not to many!There seems to be big things planned for the village the local council seem to be forward thinking. They have started putting WIFI throught out the villageetc The Fire was in Malaga a telephone exchange went up so no phones for a large area of Malaga for 3-4 days!!!


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## mindxb (Jul 10, 2011)

stevelin said:


> Hi Alhaurin de la Torre is the other side of the mountain to Mijas ( airport side) we are about 20 mins from coast and about the same to the airport. We think the town/village is lovely very clean and friendly it is quite modern but very much still the spanish way of life. There are a few brits as well as other expats around but not to many!There seems to be big things planned for the village the local council seem to be forward thinking. They have started putting WIFI throught out the villageetc The Fire was in Malaga a telephone exchange went up so no phones for a large area of Malaga for 3-4 days!!!


That sounds like a lovely place - a bit like where we live here... but many more expats, as there are very clear western expat areas. Is Alhaurin the same side of the airport as Benalmadena etc, or other way?


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## mindxb (Jul 10, 2011)

Seb* said:


> This depends heavily on your local exchange. Quality of landlines varies from nearly unusable to absolutely top with high speeds. It all depends on distance to exchange, line quality between you and the exchange, in house line quality etc. Closer to town centres and cities you have a better chance for a good connection. Prices depend on your provider. Telefonica/Movistar are the most expensive ones.
> 
> When starting a new contract you usually benefit from special offers for 6 to 12 months. When those run out they ramp up the costs. We've been paying 48€ a month for a 3Mbit ADSL incl. line rental with Movistar, when the special offer ran out they ramped it up to 66.50€. Last month they hat a special deal for new customers offering 10Mbit (up to!) for something like 30€ plus line rental, which would have gone up after 6 months as well.
> 
> ...


Thanks Seb, for your detailed reply - that's really useful. All bills expensive here, so nice to see a choice - and the chance to pay for a decent connection if you really need it. I shall keep all this info


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

We are with a seriously cr&p provider who limits us to 6gb download a month and switches us off if we exceed this, or even when we haven't. However, we live in a valley and he was the only option we had. We are moving soon and will be switching to Broadband for Spain, worth checking out if they cover your area. We currently pay 29 euros a month and are offline about half the month without any support because he can't be bothered. Speeds vary from about 3mbps at best to around 12 kbps (yes kbps) at worse.


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## stevelin (Apr 25, 2009)

Alhaurin is the same side as Benalmadena although inland


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